At a time when too many people are forced to live on our streets, the Broncos are exploring the idea of abandoning a perfectly good, 22-year-old football stadium to build a new multibillion-dollar sports palace in Denver.
We are loud and proud, wild and crazy, unapologetic Broncomaniacs.
But do you think perhaps our priorities are messed up?
Listen, I think it would be cool to hang out at a new stadium with a retractable roof and a plaza where anything an orange-and-blue beating heart desires, from spicy street tacos to a snazzy sportsbook, could provide fans with sweet sensory overload.
But with the Denver we love at a crossroads, when candidates for mayor seek solutions for the thorny issues of people living in tents, KIA sports utility vehicles being stolen in broad daylight and the ridiculous cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment, I wonder if all this talk about a new football stadium is more than a little tone deaf.
I appreciate that the crazy-rich Waltons who own the Broncos have convened focus groups and sent surveys to loyal customers, seeking fans’ thoughts on the possibility of a new stadium. Kudos to Greg Penner, the team’s new CEO, for sparing no expense in an effort to improve the game-day experience, spending heavily on everything from a giant video board at Empower Field to offensive linemen hired to prevent quarterback Russell Wilson from getting knocked on his keister.
But when a recent poll revealed the No. 1 issue in the Denver mayoral race is homelessness, there’s a let-them-eat-cake vibe to this debate over whether we should bribe the NFL to grant our dusty old cowtown a single Super Bowl by building a multibillion-dollar shrine to athletic excess.
OK, I get it. Penner and the Broncos ownership group aren’t putting a shovel in the ground anytime soon. Even if the 34-year-old Wilson plays football until his 40th birthday, it’s probably a long shot he would ever take a snap for the Broncos in a new stadium.
So we’ve got time to chat about the merits of refurbishing the current stadium against building a sparkling new sports palace to keep up with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. As much as we appreciate the weather in Colorado, it makes no sense to replace the current stadium with the same open-air design. So put a roof on it, preferably a retractable one. Maybe throw in some huge, sliding-glass doors.
I’d be happy to buy Penner lunch and offer him my two cents on what’s most important.
No. 1: The footprint of any new stadium must be in Denver.
This is a non-negotiable item in a city that bleeds orange and blue. At a time when Denver needs to be re-imagined to keep it as one of the best urban places to live in the United States, don’t even think about taking away our NFL team and fleeing to the burbs.
They are the Denver Broncos, not the DIA Donkeys.
So if you want to propose building a new stadium out on the windswept plains by Denver International Airport or anywhere else in the distant suburbs of our sprawling metroplex, I’m going to kindly ask you to stick that plan in one of the few places where the sun doesn’t shine in Colorado 300 days a year.
One of the most-common complaints I hear about Denver from visitors is our airport stinks. In the effort to lure a Final Four or Super Bowl to Colorado at the immense cost of a stadium with a roof, why would you punish visitors and downtown businesses alike by forcing everybody to play halfway to the Kansas state line?
Yes, even a knucklehead like me realizes a plot of real estate with room to fit a stadium, a parking plaza for the best tailgating experience on earth, a sportsbook, plus restaurants and high-rise condos might be real hard to find in town.
My impossible dream? The Twister roller coaster at Elitch Gardens is going the way of the dinosaur. If money talks, billions shout. If the Walmart heirs want to be good stewards of their football team and our city, they will find a way to include a new stadium in redevelopment along the South Platte River.
No. 2: Not one cent of taxpayer funding.
If you’re rich enough to own an NFL team, you don’t need taxpayer money from a city with crumbling sidewalks. I made this argument 25 years ago, begging Broncomaniacs not to play the fool for Pat Bowlen, and was told to hush my disrespectful mouth.
Well, who’s with me now?
The Darth Vader Dome, just off the Las Vegas strip, is a $1.9 billion playpen for the Raiders. So it’s probably folly to think a super-dooper Broncos stadium could be built for one penny under $3 billion.
It should be financed by the people who use it most, with the sale of PSLs (Permanent Seat Licenses) that give fans the right to buy season tickets. Will there be Broncomaniacs who have had tickets in the family forever that find the price of a PSL too steep? Yes. Bummer deal.
But the PSL also provides a small ownership stake in the stadium. Ticket buyers become investors in their local NFL team.
I’m not here to tell any fan how to spend their hard-earned money, but around here, there are probably worse ways to invest money than Broncomania.
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