Broncos have new owners with NFL approval

The league’s team owners voted in favor of the $4.65 billion sale

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A new era of Broncos football officially began Tuesday when NFL owners unanimously approved the transfer of ownership to a group led by billionaire Rob Walton.

Less than an hour after a special meeting convened on the third floor of the J.W. Marriott adjacent to the Mall of America, Walton, son-in-law Greg Penner and daughter Carrie Walton Penner received a warm ovation from their new colleagues and were joined by Commissioner Roger Goodell for a brief news conference.

The Walton Penner Ownership Group, which includes limited partners Mellody Hobson, Condoleezza Rice and Sir Lewis Hamilton, paid $4.65 billion for the Broncos.

“We are just so excited to become officially become a part of the Broncos,” said Rob Walton, who visited the team facility Monday with his daughter and his sonin-law. “It’s a big, big day for us and really, really exciting. It’s been a great process. It’s a wonderful group to become associated with.”

The Broncos were put on the market Feb. 1. The Walton Penner Ownership Group reached a sale agreement June 8 and its proposal was approved by the NFL’S Finance Committee July 27.

The purchase price laps the previous NFL record of $2.275 billion paid for the Carolina Panthers (David Tepper in 2018), exceeds the North American record of $2.4 billion for the New York Mets (Steven Cohen in ’20) and set a world record briefly established by Todd Boehly for the Chelsea Football Club in May ($3 billion).

Rob Walton, the oldest child of Walmart co-founder Sam Walton, instantly becomes the NFL’S richest owner with an estimated net worth of $59.4 billion according to Bloomberg, behind only the Los Angeles Clippers’ Steve Ballmer ($92.1 billion) among North American sports owners.

The ownership group set a new bar for franchise price and now has a high bar to achieve on the field, one set by Pat Bowlen, who bought the Broncos in 1984 and was atop the organization during all three of their Super Bowl titles.

“Pat’s leadership and commitment to build a successful team and business, we’ll continue to build on that,” Rob Walton said. “Putting a winning team on the field is our No. 1 priority.”

Members of the ownership group will be introduced at the Broncos’ facility Wednesday.

“Working together as a family is going to be great fun on this project,” Walton said. “It’s a good business, but it’s a fun business and we’re going to enjoy it.”

Only the Broncos

It was the Broncos and only the Broncos for Rob Walton and his family.

“The Broncos are the one sports franchise that we would have considered buying,” Walton said. “(Penner), actually, started conversations some 10 years ago and then the team actually announced it was for sale (in February) and we got in the middle first thing.”

The ownership group’s connections to Colorado are through Penner, 52, and Walton Penner, 51 (who live in the state), Rob, 77 (who owns a home in Colorado) and Rice, 67 (who attended high school in Denver).

Although the Broncos were officially on the market less than seven months, the unofficial process lasted nearly four years, when family disagreement and legal issues painted a reality in which the team would not stay in the Bowlen family.

In June 2018, Beth Bowlen Wallace announced her desire to succeed her father, but the trustees running the club — Broncos president/ceo Joe Ellis, team counsel Rich Slivka and local attorney Mary Kelly — debunked her candidacy within hours. Four months later, Brittany Bowlen went public with her goal of succeeding her father.

A major turning point came Dec. 30, 2019, when Ellis said unanimous Bowlen sibling approval “may not be a requirement, but it’s going to be necessary,” for Brittany Bowlen to become the next controlling owner. Bowlen Wallace and her sister, Amie Klemmer, were never going to vote in favor of their half-sister Brittany so a sale became inevitable, but not imminent because of various legal squabbles.

Once the decks were clear for the Broncos to be sold, the process moved quickly and met Ellis’ hope that the team would be in new hands by the Sept. 12 season opener at Seattle.

“Every step of this process has been fantastic and it’s made us more excited each step of the way to be a part of the NFL and especially part of the Denver Broncos and the Denver community,” Walton Penner said. “We’re excited to put a winning team on the field. We also know it’s important to excel off the field as well in our community and across the league.”

Penner called owning the Broncos “a responsibility and a privilege. The Broncos are an iconic franchise that means a lot to Colorado and the whole Rocky Mountain region.”

Diverse partners important

Walton’s wealth would have allowed him to buy 100% of the Broncos, but throughout the process, Goodell said publicly and privately he wanted to have a diverse ownership group emerge. Hobson (age 53), Rice and Hamilton (age 37) are Black.

“As we started thinking about partners, we wanted to get people with tremendous capacity and we think diversity is important; we think diverse organizations are more successful organizations,” Walton said. “We look forward to working with them.”

Hobson is president/co-ceo of Ariel Investments and chairwoman of Starbucks Corp., Rice is a former Secretary of State and Hamilton has won seven Formula One driving championships. It is unclear the percentage of equity each now owns with the Broncos and if they will be involved in dayto-day decisions.

In late March, Ellis said the biggest decision facing the new ownership group would be the future of Empower Field at Mile High, which opened in 2001 with the assistance of taxpayer funds.

The new owners toured the stadium earlier this year.

“(Tuesday) is really about the first step and premature to talk about a new stadium,” Penner said. “Empower Field at Mile High is a world-class facility. We’ve got a good partnership with the Metropolitan Football Stadium District and have almost 10 years left on our lease so we’ll evaluate all of our options and really dig in and understand the situation before making a decision.”

The big decision — stadium, executive staff, uniforms, etc. — will come in due time for the new owners. But already outfitted with Broncos pins and posing with a helmet before re-entering their first league meeting, the enthusiasm for the moment and the task was evident on the faces of Walton, Penner and Walton Penner.

“This is a group that’s going to be great,” Goodell said. “Their commitment to winning, but more importantly, their commitment to make sure the Broncos franchise is an important part of the Denver community — we’re thrilled about that.”