Mandy Harvey to sing national anthem Aug. 26 before stadium grand opening game

FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Mandy Harvey, a former Colorado State University student who is a contestant on the NBC program America's Got Talent, will sing the national anthem before Colorado State University's inaugural football game at the on-campus stadium on Saturday, Aug. 26, it was announced today.

The game, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m., MT, is CSU's Military Appreciation Day, and will feature a field-sized American flag during Harvey's singing of the national anthem, which will be followed by a flyover maneuver of F-16 fighter jets.

Harvey, a Colorado native, returns to her home state to add to the pageantry of the first Rams football game to be played on campus since 1967. Rams football games moved off campus in 1968 when Hughes Stadium opened, and will return Aug. 26 when the 36,500-seat (41,000 total capacity) on-campus stadium opens.

"We have been intensively working toward this moment for more than two years as we have planned every logistical and creative element to make our inaugural game in the new stadium special," said Joe Parker, Colorado State's Director of Athletics. "It has been a total team effort with many people on campus and throughout the community bringing us to this point where we welcome football back to the CSU campus with a wonderful array of experiences for our alumni, students and fans."

Colorado State will honor active military and veterans throughout the day in various ways:

Static military vehicle and aircraft staged in areas around the stadium
Procedural displays around campus
The second-largest American flag in the world will extend from one end zone to other, and will be unfurled by active military, veterans and CSU student veterans
Special in-game recognition of our military.

Fans also have been encouraged to participate in the first Stripe the Stadium promotion at Colorado State by wearing either green or white in designated sections to create green and white vertical stripes throughout the stadium seating bowl. The game, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m., is the first college football kickoff of the 2017 season, and will be televised to a national audience by CBS Sports Network.

Stripe the Stadium Information:

Fans sitting in odd-numbered sections, plus Section 126 and the entire student section located in the east and south lower level are encouraged to wear GREEN to the game.
Fans sitting in even-numbered sections—with the exception of Section 126, which will be green—are encouraged to wear WHITE to the game.
To see a Stripe the Stadium map, please click here.

Special Under Armour shirts in both green and white are available for sale at Ram Zone retail locations either at the stadium or in Old Town Fort Collins. The Ram Zone Stadium Store located on the northwest side of the stadium, off Pitkin Street, is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., with special hours for game days. The Old Town Ram Zone location (172 N. College Ave.) is open Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Online shopping is available 24/7 at http://shop.csurams.com.

Ram Town will open four hours prior to kickoff, at 8:30 a.m., on the CSU Football practice fields west of the stadium. Featured among the attractions are interactive inflatables, including a bounce house, obstacle course and slide; a Dress Like a Ram opportunity (wear Official CSU Football gear and share on social media), corn hole games, football toss, a face painter and balloon artist

For the first game at the new stadium gates will open two hours before kickoff, at 10:30 a.m., to encourage fans to be in their seats in time to take in all of the pregame pageantry and festivities, instead of the customary 90 minutes. The opening day pregame show will begin at 12 p.m., leading up to the 12:30 kickoff.

A gigapixel photo will be taken by Blakeway Panorama, which fans can access online to locate and tag themselves in the digital image. In addition, fans will be able to purchase a panoramic photo of the stadium in the days following the game.

The Aug. 26 game date will mark the second-earliest season-opening game in the modern era for Colorado State, and the earliest date the Rams have played a game in the state of Colorado. The Rams opened the 2002 season on Aug. 22 with a 35-29 win at No. 22 Virginia. This will be the Rams' 10^th August game.

Single-game tickets for the Aug. 26 game are sold out. Tickets for the Sept. 1 Rocky Mountain Showdown and the five remaining home games are available by calling the Rams Sales Team at 800-491-RAMS (7267) or visiting www.CSURams.com/tickets. Three-game mini-plan packages also are on sale.

A limited number of student tickets for the Aug. 26 game remain available to be claimed through the online student-ticket claim process that began Tuesday, Aug. 15. Student tickets to the Rocky Mountain Showdown may be purchased at the special student rate of $21 by visiting CSURams.com/studenttickets. The claim period for each of the remaining five 2017 home football games opens at 8 a.m. on the days listed in parentheses: Sept. 9 vs. Abilene Christian (Aug. 28), Oct. 14 Homecoming vs. Nevada (Sept. 11), Oct. 28 vs. Air Force (Oct. 16), Nov. 11 vs. Boise State and Nov. 18 vs. San Jose State (Oct. 30).

In preparation for the inaugural season at the on-campus stadium, the Colorado State athletics department has launched a special football game day website, which provides in-depth information on everything from tickets to parking, tailgating, game-day logistics, Stripe the Stadium information and much more. The website can be found at www.CSURams.com/footballgameday.

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