There hasn’t been too much detail so far about how Denver Broncos owner/Walmart board chair Greg Penner plans to pay for the new stadium he may or may not want to build, but now there’s at least a hint: The Denver Post has revealed that Broncos execs and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s office reached out to the Denver Urban Renewal Authority last year to ask about using tax increment financing:
Those conversations were “very limited,” [Denver Urban Renewal Authority executive director Tracy] Huggins said, but the parties specifically mentioned Burnham Yard, the industrial area near La Alma Lincoln Park that has drawn increasing buzz as a possible landing spot for a new Broncos stadium.
“There were, in total, maybe three conversations,” Huggins said. “Again, (it was) both the city and the Broncos just really wanting to understand what would it mean, and how we would do it.”
TIFs are all the rage in stadium financing right now, as they serve the dual purpose of providing tax money to pay for a team owner’s stadium bills while simultaneously insisting it isn’t real tax money, because the team touched it on its way to the public treasury, making it like an isosceles triangle. There’s no way of knowing how much city money Penner could be seeking via a TIF — it all depends on whether this would be a traditional TIF that just diverts property taxes, or an omni-TIF like in Ohio that siphons off every tax imaginable (or at least both property and sales taxes, which are explicitly allowed by Colorado TIF law), and the Post didn’t get into that level of detail with Huggins.
The Post did assert, though, that there’s no need for Denver residents to worry, because Penner is very, very rich:
It’s unlikely that any Broncos stadium redevelopment would rely on a large sum of public money, as the Walton-Penner group is widely regarded as the richest ownership group in the NFL.
Josh Harris, the 12th richest owner in the NFL, and his $7 billion subsidy demand have entered the chat. If there’s one truism in stadium media coverage, it’s that when someone says not to worry about what the public cost will be, it’s generally a good idea for taxpayers to hold on to their wallets.
Way back it was fun to go to games at Mile High Stadium. Zephyrs tickets were really cheap, even for great seats. Alan Berg, dressed in a white suit, showed up at a Zephyrs game. The atmosphere around Broncos games was electric, and whether it would snow, even in September, added to the game. The sliding East Stands allowed for a great view for both baseball and football. How old is the current Mile High Stadium? It can’t be too long before the roof at State Farm Stadium is so defective and dangerous that the Cardinals need a new multi billion dollar stadium.
The funding/extortion push began in ’98 or so… I believe the stadium opened for the 2001 season.
Broncos haven’t been the same since. But don’t worry… with Walmart in control soon we will be seeing roll back seat pricing and games that only last 11 minutes *but are cheaper to attend.
China is a yuuuuge untapped market for cheap NFL players I’m sure. Hey! Maybe Walmart can pay Broncos players less by having/helping them apply for food stamps during training camp, just like they do for their other employees.
Except for Greg, of course. Seems like he may be doing ok financially.
No more than one stadium a century. Come back in 2101.