DENVER – As the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group moves forward with its plans to build a new Denver Broncos stadium at its preferred site at Burnham Yard, the ownership group still has work to do before breaking ground on the project, including gathering input from community members and acquiring additional land.
“Greg Penner, the Broncos owner and CEO, said… 'Now we start to roll up our sleeves and start years of planning, and that's before shovels go into the ground,'" Parker Gabriel, a reporter with our partners at The Denver Post, explained. "They'll do the community benefits agreement with the neighboring communities. The city has an area plan. There's zoning permitting, all sorts of layers of approval, probably several votes at the city council level. There's just a lot of moving pieces to get to a point where you're saying, ‘Yes, we're building a stadium, and construction starts on date X, along with the entertainment district.'"
Gabriel and Denver Post reporters were among the first to uncover the details surrounding the ownership group’s intention to build a new stadium at Burnham Yard. They requested land sale documents, which revealed the ownership group’s interest in the area.
“Certainly, when LLCs sort of tied to the Broncos ownership group started buying up property in that area, you start to think, ‘OK, this is either Plan A or at least it's a pretty expensive contingency plan if you're thinking about going somewhere else,'” Gabriel told Denver7.
According to Gabriel, the group began looking into Burnham Yard in 2023, but even today, not all the land needed for the project has been acquired.
“I think the biggest is the SRM Concrete plant that's right in the middle there. We don't know a lot about those negotiations. We just know that it's a plot that's sort of wholly surrounded by area that the Broncos have either bought or now that they've agreed to buy. And so, we'll see how that goes. It's about seven acres. It's right… sort of near the north end, so that's a key one. And we'll see. Obviously, especially once there was some reporting around the idea that there was some private property being bought there by the Broncos, certainly the price tag on everything goes up,” Gabriel said. “But obviously, seems like an interesting place to have a concrete yard if there's going to be a massive construction project.”
Gabriel said there’s still plenty of time for negotiations before construction starts. The owners will also need to have meetings with neighboring community members.
“Before and right after this announcement, Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner were both on the phone talking to community leaders in that area. They had sort of a call center set up, and so they're already doing that sort of stakeholder outreach," Gabriel said. "Jamie Torres is the councilwoman that actually has both the current Empower Field site and the La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood is all part of her district. And so, she obviously knows the Broncos well, but she's also an advocate for the community. And so, it's about talking to those people about what they want, what their concerns are, and having some influence on how design happens."
The design is one reason the Broncos' owners decided it was time for a new stadium. From a retractable roof to concession offerings, Gabriel said NFL team owners look at ways to provide premium visitor experiences and make more money.
“If you think about the newest generation of stadiums, modern stadiums, and the way that people flow through them, and if you own a stadium, just as importantly, the way money flows through them is a lot different than it was 25 years ago,” Gabriel said. “But consumer demand is really around premium experiences. People gripe about how expensive it is to go to games, and that's true; that's how I would feel. But there's a lot of data and a lot of consumer demand for these sort of premium experience. Being in an area where there's a bar, or there's an open-air lounge, or there's all of these different things. And to take a stadium that's been built, you know, the concourses are set a certain way, buildings that are 25 and 30 years old, generally speaking, aren't designed for those kinds of experiences.”
The Scripps News Group has extensive coverage of the Broncos' plans for a new stadium. Read our previous stories below:
- Broncos unveil plans for a privately funded, retractable-roof stadium in Denver. Here's what we know.
- Best sports city in America? Here’s what the Broncos’ new stadium plans mean for Denver sports fans
- Gov. Polis on how Broncos’ Burnham Yard stadium plan came to be: ‘A perfect match’
- Economics expert weighs in on what new Broncos stadium will mean for taxpayers
- Denver Water facilities will need to relocate if new Broncos stadium comes to Burnham Yard
- With the Broncos stadium shakeup, what will happen to Empower Field at Mile High?
- 5,280-foot move? The Broncos have a chance to do a perfectly Denver thing with their new stadium
- How rare is a privately funded NFL stadium? A familiar face in Denver is behind one of few others
Gabriel said most owners reach a flash point where they have to decide to spend millions renovating their current stadium or spend more money to build a new stadium with the exact features they want.
“We've seen other ownership groups land in that spot, and now we've seen the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group land in that spot,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel said the Broncos' lease at Empower Field at Mile High ending in 2030 and the opportunity to own the land where a new stadium would sit ultimately led to the ownership group’s decision.
