Drive in from Lakewood on a Broncos Sunday and you already know the moment it turns: West Colfax Avenue is moving fine past Sloan's Lake, and then it isn't. The pre-purchased parking permits sold out weeks ago, so every car ahead of you is stopped at a lot gate paying by credit card, one at a time, while the group in the back seat checks the clock. That's the exact scramble a bus to Empower Field at Mile High is built to skip.
The question that actually matters: where does the bus put your group down, and where does it sit while you're inside?
The short version: a charter bus or party bus drops your group at the taxi and rideshare curb on Mile High Stadium Circle near Gate 5, on the stadium's northeast side, then clears out to stage nearby until you're ready to leave. Below is everything that's actually published about getting a group in and out of this stadium — the drop zone, the lot letters, the tailgating rules, the light rail line that runs straight out of Lakewood, and what a 2026 Broncos game day or concert night actually costs to park for — pulled from Empower Field's own parking and policy pages, not a guess.
Why Rent a Charter Bus or Party Bus to Empower Field at Mile High?
A Broncos game day has three separate failure points before kickoff even happens: the parking permit you can't buy online anymore, the credit-card line at the lot gate, and the walk in from wherever you finally squeezed the car. Ten cars means ten of those problems, ten times. One bus means one.
A Lakewood party bus rental or charter bus turns the drive into part of the event instead of the obstacle before it. Your group boards together, the pregame energy builds on the ride in, and there's a built-in designated transportation provider for everyone who wants a full tailgate before the game. Comparing charter bus, party bus, and minibus quotes for Empower Field at Mile High through Lakewoodminibuscompany.com is the move that gets a group of ten, twenty, or fifty people to the same gate at the same time — instead of trickling in from six different parking lots over forty-five minutes.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at Empower Field at Mile High
Empower Field's own gameday parking page places taxi and rideshare drop-off at the northeast corner of the stadium, near Gate 5 on Mile High Stadium Circle — the loop road that rings the building. That's the curb a charter bus or party bus works from too: your group steps off steps from a gate instead of hiking in from a numbered lot two streets away.
Here's the walk that curb saves your group. Empower Field's own directions page sends rideshare pickup to a different spot entirely: the corner of 5th and Walnut Street at the Ball Arena Rideshare Lot, which the stadium itself lists as roughly a 15-minute walk from the gates. Anyone who orders a car after the final whistle makes that walk once to reach it, in a crowd of thousands doing the same thing.
The rideshare drop and the rideshare pickup are not the same spot at Empower Field. Drop-off is curbside near Gate 5. Pickup is a 15-minute walk away at 5th and Walnut.
A private group vehicle sets one meeting point in advance, so nobody's group scatters trying to find a car in the dark.
Bus Parking, Permits & the Oversized-Vehicle Rule at Empower Field
Empower Field publishes roughly 6,500 on-site parking spaces across its lettered lots, plus another 15,000 or so in independent lots nearby, according to the stadium's own fan guide. What it does not publish is a flat, advance-purchase price for the ordinary lots. Pre-purchased general permits are described on the stadium's parking page as already sold out, so every car buys in at the gate by credit card on a first-come basis — which means nobody in your group actually knows the price until they're sitting at the booth.
A few lots do have published rates. Lot C, the early-tailgating lot, opens six hours before kickoff at $55 a space and is typically gone within an hour. Lot A, the carpool section, requires four or more people per vehicle and runs $45 a space, opening 4.5 hours before kickoff along with the rest of the general lots.
Accessible parking runs $35 in Lot L or $40 in Lots D and G, first-come and credit card only. None of it can be reserved ahead of time for a private vehicle the way a garage spot in another city might be.
The stadium's own tailgating diagram is worth knowing before you book, too: it flags an oversized vehicle spread across multiple spaces with an oversized canopy as the explicit "not allowed" example, right next to the approved layout. One permit buys one space for one vehicle — a rule built around cars and pickups, not a 45-foot motorcoach. That's exactly why a bus reservation to Empower Field is arranged with a set drop, a staging plan nearby, and a fixed pickup window worked out in advance, instead of hoping a coach can wedge into a standard tailgate row.
Tailgating Rules for a Party Bus or Charter Bus Group at Empower Field
Straight from the stadium's own published tailgating rules, the details a first-time group needs before setting up:
- All tailgating ends 60 minutes before kickoff. Tents, tables, and chairs have to be broken down before anyone heads for the gates — build your pregame window around that cutoff, not around kickoff itself.
- Grills are allowed, but not in spots where they could damage a guest or someone else's property, and open flame fires of any kind are prohibited outright.
- Kegs, glass bottles, and weapons are not allowed anywhere in the lots.
- Spaces are first-come, first-served. Fans can't block or save adjoining spots for the rest of the group, so arriving together in one vehicle keeps everyone in one place instead of scattered across the lot.
- Tailgating is excluded in the B-Valet section and the Lot A carpool area, per the stadium's fan guide, and a ticketed VIP tailgate experience runs in Lot J, opening three hours before kickoff.
A charter bus works well here precisely because it isn't trying to squeeze into that layout. Coolers, folding tables, and grills ride in the bays underneath, the group tailgates from a curb or a nearby lot instead of a single 8-by-10 painted rectangle, and everything's packed up and rolling well before that 60-minute cutoff.
Empower Field at Mile High: Every Way to Get There, Compared
This is a bus-comparison site, so here's the honest version: a private bus isn't the right call for two people going to one game. It's built for the group that's currently splitting into four or five separate cars, four or five separate parking gambles, and four or five separate walks back to a rideshare pickup that isn't even where they got dropped off.
| Option | Cost shape | Arrive together? | Drop point | Best group size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private charter or party bus | One flat rate, split by the group | Yes — one vehicle, one arrival | Curbside near Gate 5, Mile High Stadium Circle | 15–56 |
| RTD W Line light rail | $2.75 per person (3-hour pass) | Only if riding the same train | Empower Field at Mile High Station, on-site | 1–6, no group control |
| Rideshare (Uber/Lyft) | Per car, each way, plus post-game surge | No — multiple cars, multiple ETAs | Drop near Gate 5; pickup a 15-minute walk away at 5th & Walnut | 1–4 per car |
| Drive & park | Credit card at the gate — price unknown until you arrive | No — caravans split up looking for spots | Varies by lot letter | 1–2 cars |
The RTD W Line from Lakewood to Empower Field at Mile High
This is the one alternative worth knowing if your group is small: RTD's W Line runs straight from stops across Lakewood — Federal Center, Oak, Garrison, and Lakewood-Wadsworth among them — into downtown Denver, with a stop the stadium itself names as the Empower Field at Mile High Station, right on-site. A three-hour local pass runs $2.75; an all-day pass is $5.50, per RTD's current fares page. For one or two people, that beats parking outright.
But it doesn't scale. There's no way to reserve seats for a group of twenty on a public train, no way to guarantee everyone boards the same car, and no ride home built in if the plan changes after the game. Past a handful of riders, a Lakewood charter bus rental keeps the whole group moving on one schedule instead of hoping fifteen people all catch the same train twice.
What Size Bus Fits Your Group for Empower Field at Mile High
The right vehicle comes down to headcount and how much tailgate gear is coming along. Lakewoodminibuscompany.com connects you to a large network of bus companies serving Lakewood, so you can compare vehicle types side by side instead of settling for whatever one local fleet happens to have free that Sunday.
| Vehicle | Typical seats | Gear space | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprinter van | Up to ~14 | Modest — a cooler or two | Suite groups, small groups |
| 18-passenger minibus | ~18 | Overhead plus underfloor | Small tailgate groups, downtown hotel pickups |
| Party bus | ~15–40 | Onboard, lighter | Fan groups wanting music and lighting on the ride in |
| 30-passenger minibus | ~30 | Overhead plus underfloor | Mid-size tailgate groups |
| Charter bus | Up to 56 | Deep undercarriage bays | Large fan groups, office suites, season-ticket blocks |
A 15- to 40-passenger party bus rental for Empower Field at Mile High typically comes with a built-in bar area, color-changing LED lighting, and a Bluetooth sound system — the rolling tailgate for groups who want the party to start the second the bus pulls away from the curb. A full-size charter bus trades some of that for deep undercarriage bays that hold grills, folding tables, and coolers whole, plus an onboard restroom for the ride home. Note in your request if anyone needs an ADA-accessible vehicle so the right one gets lined up ahead of time.
Empower Field at Mile High Bus Rental Prices
Lakewoodminibuscompany.com shows quotes online in under 30 seconds, and the number you see is shaped by a few clear factors: vehicle size, total hours booked (including tailgate time and the post-game wait), the date and opponent, and the mileage from your pickup point to the stadium. A Thursday-night game against a division rival prices differently than a preseason Friday in August.
Once the cost of one bus is split across 20, 30, or 50 people, it routinely beats what the same group would spend on separate parking permits at whatever price the gate happens to be charging that day — plus the gas, plus the coordination of getting everyone to the same lot letter at the same time. Check the Lakewood bus rental prices page for a fuller breakdown, or call 720-973-4360 any time for a free quote at no obligation.
A Broncos Game-Day Example
To give you an idea: a 34-person tailgate group splits a 40-passenger party bus for a Sunday afternoon game. Pickup is at noon from Belmar in Lakewood, with the group at the Mile High Stadium Circle curb near Gate 5 by 12:45 PM — well ahead of a 4:05 kickoff, with time to walk to a spot in the general lots and set up before the 60-minute tailgating cutoff. The bus stages nearby through the game, and the group is back aboard for a 7:30 PM pickup once the crowd starts to clear.
An 8-hour rental at that size might run around $2,400 — about $70 a person, with the parking-permit guesswork and the designated-transportation provider problem solved in one number instead of ten separate ones.
Rent a Bus to Empower Field at Mile High from Lakewood & the West Metro
Empower Field's own directions page routes traffic in three main ways: off I-25 Northbound at Exit 210C onto 17th Avenue, off I-25 Southbound at Exit 211C toward 20th Avenue before keeping right for Bryant Street and Mile High Stadium Circle, or east along Federal Boulevard onto 17th Avenue/Dick Connor Avenue toward the lots. For a group coming out of Lakewood, the more direct surface option is West Colfax Avenue, which runs straight from the Belmar area into downtown Denver and passes directly along the stadium's south side, where several lots front the street.
| From… | Approx. distance | Typical drive time (off-peak) |
|---|---|---|
| Belmar, Lakewood | ~7 miles | 15–25 minutes |
| Golden, CO | ~13 miles | 20–30 minutes |
| Downtown Denver (Union Station) | ~2 miles | 5–10 minutes |
| Denver International Airport (DEN) | ~25 miles | 30–40 minutes |
Those times stretch fast on a game day, since every one of those routes funnels toward the same handful of lot entrances along Federal Boulevard, Colfax Avenue, and Bryant Street at once. Building extra time in on both ends — especially for a night game, when the Colfax corridor is already carrying regular rush-hour traffic on top of stadium traffic — keeps a bus from getting caught behind the same wall of cars everyone else is stuck in.
Leaving Empower Field at Mile High After the Game
Empower Field runs a strict no re-entry policy — once a ticketed guest scans out and leaves the building, the stadium's own fan guide is clear that a previously scanned ticket does not get anyone back in. That matters for a group: if part of your group steps out to beat the crowd, they aren't walking back in for the fourth quarter.
The exit itself is the hardest part of the day. With large numbers of fans funneling out toward the same lot letters at once, and the confirmed 15-minute walk to the rideshare pickup at 5th and Walnut for anyone relying on a car, the smartest move is deciding the pickup spot and the pickup window before the group ever splits up inside the stadium. A private bus stages nearby and holds that window, so the group climbs aboard and starts the ride home while everyone else is still working out where their rideshare actually is.
Tips for Visiting Empower Field at Mile High
- Pack for the clear-bag policy. Per the stadium's official clear bag policy, each guest may bring one small bag no larger than 4.5″ x 6.5″ in any material, or one clear bag no larger than 12″ x 6″ x 12″ (or a one-gallon clear zip-lock). Backpacks, purses, tinted bags, and diaper bags are turned away at the gate, with no bag check available on-site.
- There's no re-entry. Once your ticket scans and you're out, you're out for the day — plan bathroom and concession runs accordingly.
- Gates run 1 through 10, and Guest Relations Centers sit at Level 100 near Gate 10, Level 300 near Section 322, and Level 500 near Sections 508 and 534, per the stadium's fan guide.
- Save the stadium's number. Empower Field at Mile High sits at 1701 Bryant Street, Denver, CO 80204; the main line is 720-258-3000 if anyone in your group needs guest services.
- ADA shuttle carts run home games only, from three hours before kickoff until an hour after, helping guests get from the parking areas to the gates, per the stadium's ADA guide.
- Arrive early for a full tailgate. Most lots open 4.5 hours before kickoff, and Lot C's early-tailgating window opens a full six hours out — but every tailgate has to be packed up 60 minutes before the game starts.
What's Happening at Empower Field at Mile High in 2026
Per the Denver Broncos' 2026 schedule, the home slate runs from preseason through the holidays:
- August 21, 2026 — preseason vs. the Green Bay Packers, 7:00 PM
- August 28, 2026 — preseason vs. the Minnesota Vikings, 7:00 PM
- September 20, 2026 — vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars, 2:05 PM
- September 27, 2026 — vs. the Los Angeles Rams, 6:20 PM
- October 15, 2026 — Thursday night vs. the Seattle Seahawks, 6:15 PM
- November 1, 2026 — vs. the Kansas City Chiefs, 2:25 PM
- November 22, 2026 — vs. the Las Vegas Raiders, 2:25 PM
- December 6, 2026 — vs. the Miami Dolphins, 2:05 PM
- December 25, 2026 — vs. the Buffalo Bills, 2:30 PM
Beyond football, Empower Field also hosts stadium-scale concerts — Zach Bryan is booked for August 13–14, 2026 — where the same drop-off and staging logic applies: the crowd, the lot scramble, and the walk to a rideshare pickup are the same whether it's a kickoff or a first song. For office suites and client outings tied to any of these dates, the Lakewood corporate transportation page covers pickup planning for that kind of group, and a Lakewood concert transportation rental works the same way for a show night as it does for kickoff.
Also planning a trip to Ball Arena for a Nuggets or Avalanche game, or a summer night at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre? Those guides cover their own drop-offs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does a charter bus or party bus drop off at Empower Field at Mile High?
At the taxi and rideshare curb on the northeast side of the stadium, near Gate 5 on Mile High Stadium Circle. That's the same zone the stadium designates for taxi and rideshare drop-off, and it puts your group steps from a gate instead of a lot letter away.
Is the pickup spot the same as the drop-off spot?
No. The stadium's own directions page sends rideshare pickup to 5th and Walnut Street at the Ball Arena Rideshare Lot, about a 15-minute walk from the gates. A private bus group avoids that mismatch by setting one pickup point and window in advance.
Where does a bus park during a Broncos game?
Empower Field doesn't publish a dedicated bus or motorcoach lot the way some stadiums do. General lots require a credit-card purchase at the gate since pre-purchased permits are sold out, and the stadium's own tailgating diagram specifically flags oversized vehicles spanning multiple spaces as not allowed — which is why staging and pickup for a bus group gets arranged as part of booking, rather than guessed at on arrival.
Can a bus group tailgate at Empower Field at Mile High?
Yes, within the stadium's rules: one permit covers one space for one vehicle, grills are allowed but open flames are not, kegs and glass are prohibited, and every tailgate has to be packed up 60 minutes before kickoff. A charter bus's undercarriage bays hold the gear without needing the multi-space setup the stadium's rules prohibit.
How much does it cost to rent a bus to Empower Field at Mile High?
Pricing depends on vehicle size, total hours booked, the date and opponent, and mileage from your pickup point. You can compare quotes online in under 30 seconds or call 720-973-4360 for a free quote.
What's the bag policy at Empower Field at Mile High?
One small bag no larger than 4.5″ x 6.5″ in any material, or one clear bag no larger than 12″ x 6″ x 12″ (or a one-gallon clear zip-lock). Backpacks, purses, and tinted or patterned bags aren't allowed in, and there's no bag check on-site.
Can we leave the stadium and come back in?
No. Empower Field enforces a no re-entry policy, so a ticketed guest who leaves cannot use the same scanned ticket to get back in. Plan bathroom, food, and quick-exit needs before your group is fully inside.
Is there a light rail option from Lakewood to Empower Field at Mile High?
Yes. RTD's W Line runs from stops across Lakewood into downtown Denver and stops directly at the Empower Field at Mile High Station. A three-hour local pass runs $2.75 and a day pass runs $5.50.
It works well for one or two riders, but it doesn't hold seats for a group or guarantee a ride home together.
How far is Empower Field at Mile High from Denver International Airport?
About 25 miles, typically a 30- to 40-minute drive off-peak. One bus can gather an arriving group at baggage claim instead of splitting everyone across separate rideshares on landing day.
How far in advance should we book a bus for a Broncos game?
As early as your date and group size are set. Marquee matchups and the Christmas Day game against Buffalo will draw the heaviest demand on Denver-area vehicles, so the earlier you call, the more vehicle options are still open. For most other dates, two to four weeks of lead time is workable.
Book Your Empower Field at Mile High Bus Today
Whether it's a Sunday tailgate, a Thursday night under the lights, or a summer concert on the same field, Lakewoodminibuscompany.com makes it easy to compare charter buses, party buses, and minibuses from a large network of bus companies serving Lakewood. Your group gets one flat quote, one drop near Gate 5, and one bus waiting when it's time to go instead of a scramble at the lot gate. Fill out the quick online form or call 720-973-4360 any time for a free price quote.
