What is the altitude of the Denver Broncos stadium? Does it give the home team an advantage?

When the Patriots and Broncos take the field Sunday with a Super Bowl trip on the line, the most influential force in the stadium could be the air rather than on the field.

Empower Field at Mile High sits roughly one mile above sea level, a detail that’s easy to gloss over until the game starts to stretch and lungs start to burn. For decades, Denver’s altitude has been one of the NFL’s most subtle and persistent advantages, especially in high-stakes postseason football. And with New England arriving from near sea level, it’s a factor that could shape the AFC Championship.

Why altitude changes the game

At roughly 5,000 feet above sea level, the air in Denver is thinner than what players experience in most NFL cities. That means less oxygen per breath, something visiting teams can’t fully simulate in practice.

The effects aren’t always immediate. Early in games, teams often look fine. But as the snaps pile up, the altitude can start to show itself in small ways:

• Defensive linemen needing an extra beat to recover
• Receivers feeling heavier legs late in routes
• Long drives becoming harder to sustain
• Conditioning gaps widening as the game wears on

It’s subtle, but it’s cumulative. And in a championship game, cumulative stress makes the difference.

And it’s not just the players the altitude will affect. It’s the football, too. With reduced air resistance, passes and kicks tend to travel farther in Denver. Quarterbacks often talk about the ball “jumping” out of their hand, while kickers are known to gain extra distance on field goals and kickoffs.

That can be a double-edged sword. Extra range is helpful, but touch becomes more difficult. Overthrows, altered trajectories, and timing adjustments all come into play, especially for visiting quarterbacks who don’t get to practice in those conditions year-round. For a young Drake Maye playing the biggest game of his career so far, that adjustment window is going to be key.

Why Denver’s defense benefits most

The altitude advantage historically favors the Broncos’ defense more than any other unit. Denver defenders are conditioned for the environment. They rotate relentlessly, play fast, and trust that visiting offenses will feel the strain as the game progresses. Crowd noise amplifies the effect, turning long drives into uphill climbs, literally and figuratively.

Late in games, when legs are tired and concentration slips, the thin air has a way of magnifying mistakes. It’s one of the reasons Denver’s home-field advantage has endured across eras, coaches, and quarterbacks.

Most visiting teams, including New England, opt to arrive late in the week rather than spend extra days acclimating. Sports science generally supports that approach. Short stays minimize prolonged exposure without full adaptation. But that strategy doesn’t eliminate the effects. It simply delays them. By the fourth quarter, when a Super Bowl berth is on the line, there’s no avoiding what Mile High does to its opponents.

In a matchup this tight, between two physical teams with championship stakes, Denver’s elevation becomes the defender on the field that never gets tired, never rotates out, and never shows up on the stat sheet. On Sunday, that invisible edge could be the difference between a long offseason and a trip to the Super Bowl.

The Broncos and Patriots kick off at 3 p.m. ET from Empower Field at Mile High. You can follow along with all our live coverage of the game right here on AS USA.

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