For many residents north of Colorado Springs, the NFL season effectively starts before any game is played. As the league's schedule approaches each year, fantasy football groups hold their drafts, with some claiming tables at local restaurants, breweries, and other venues while others convene at a league member's house. The hobby has quietly grown into a meaningful community fixture across the Tri-Lakes region.
A YouGov survey from last August found that 9% of American adults intended to participate in fantasy football during the 2026 NFL season — a share that, applied to the country's roughly 270 million adults, works out to around 24 million people, or close to one in eleven. Among those players, 67% said competition drew them in, 58% reported that it made the NFL season more engaging, and 57% pointed to the social aspects.
Monument, Palmer Lake, and the unincorporated Woodmoor community together hold a population of roughly 26,000, of whom an estimated 19,700 are adults. Applying the 9% national figure to that adult population yields a rough estimate of around 1,800 fantasy football participants in the Tri-Lakes area. That calculation is a projection rather than a direct count, though the motivations local players describe closely echo what the national survey found.
One Monument resident entered the hobby roughly a decade ago after a friend asked her to take an empty roster spot in a league based out of Pikes Peak Brewing Co. She had little familiarity with fantasy football at the time and was only loosely acquainted with players outside her preferred NFL teams, so she dug into research, worked through a difficult first draft, and leaned on other league members for guidance. Ten years on, she remains active with several people from that original group, and those connections have grown into lasting friendships. "Fantasy football has given me another way to connect, strengthened friendships, family relationships and created new ones," she said. This season, she and a friend unexpectedly took on the role of co-commissioners, adding yet another layer to a hobby she has now practiced for more than a decade.
A Monument bartender and waiter said he got his start about seven years back, joining a league with former football teammates who wanted an outlet that let them act as their own general managers. "You get the camaraderie with your buddies that you're playing against, but you also get a much deeper knowledge on football," he said. "It turns just watching the game into feeling like you're a part of it." Another local participant said his entry into the hobby came when friends organized a league with a small wager attached, and he now relies on it to stay in regular contact with those league members while tracking player statistics league-wide.
Draft night itself has taken on the character of a standalone occasion for many groups, with participants gathering at bars, restaurants, or private homes to eat, drink, and spend hours making roster selections — some leagues conduct the whole process online, while others treat the annual event as equal parts competition, celebration, and reunion. After rosters are set, engagement carries on through message boards, group texts, trade negotiations, and head-to-head weekly matchups.
The blend of rivalry and social bonding has helped push fantasy football well beyond a niche pastime and into the mainstream of American sports life. Whether local participation rates actually track with national estimates remains an open question, as no formal count of Tri-Lakes fantasy football activity has been conducted.