After years of hints and speculation, Denver Broncos owners Greg and Carrie Penner, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Colorado Governor Jared Polis jointly announced yesterday that they had decided on a “preferred” site for a new domed stadium to open by 2031: Burnham Yard, a more than century-old freight rail yard that closed in 2016 and was bought by the state. And good news, everyone: “In the spirit of a true civic partnership, the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group will privately fund this investment and work with the community, city and state to reconnect historic neighborhoods — with no new taxes.”
If you’re noticing that that’s not quite the same as saying that this won’t cost taxpayers anything, good catch. There are a ton of questions remaining about the proposed Broncos stadium — aside from how many fireworks will appear above the eventual vaportecture once we actually get renderings of what the stadium will look like — and these include:
- Denver’s 9News reports that the Penners “are privately funding the stadium, the land, the surrounding development and all construction costs” but that the city “will pay for public improvements with connectivity to the neighborhood in the form of roads, exit ramps, RTD and accessibility.” This “infrastructure” loophole has been used for lots of other stadiums, perhaps most memorably when the New England Patriots used state money to build a private highway off-ramp for season ticket holders to use. Mayor Johnston has already placed a measure on the November ballot that would include $140 million in city spending to reconfigure roads that cross the proposed stadium site; yesterday’s announcement didn’t provide any details about how much the city’s entire infrastructure tab would be.
- The Penners say they have a “conceptual agreement” to buy the state land at the rail yard, but have not said what they will pay or whether it will be at a discount from market value.
- While the Penners are promising to pay for stadium construction, they haven’t promised not to seek any tax breaks to help underwrite their private costs. Will they still seek tax increment financing to allow them to siphon off future sales or property taxes and use them to pay off their stadium construction debt, as they hinted at in July? It’s not in the press release, so probably not even worth mentioning in the news articles! (UPDATE: The Denver Post says yes, probably.)
So, a lot still to be determined! And the Penners haven’t even formally committed to going through with the deal, either, just expressed an interest in going ahead with a stadium at Burnham Yard, maybe, if they feel like it. But by announcing a site and a “no new taxes” promise now, they can hope to anchor people’s expectations for a new stadium being in the works for 2031, leaving only the mere details about how to get it done. Good thing we have a vibrant free press that won’t fall for that kind of manipu — oh dear oh dear oh dear.
“They didn’t come in saying, ‘Hey, we need Denver taxpayers, or regional taxpayers, to do anything,’” Polis said.
As if “city money” is not “taxpayer money.”
IS it Greensboro? It’s Greensboro isn’t it? I knew it all along…
Good chance the owners will seek TIF financing. https://denverite.com/2025/09/09/broncos-stadium-burnham-yard/
Regarding the $140 million bond: I think it is a BS move, and safe streets advocates in Denver have been up in arms since it was announced about a month ago. The writing was already on the wall about the Broncos’ interest in this location, and then when the bond projects were announced, all of a sudden two viaducts that run through the railyard were included for complete replacement, despite those bridges not having been publicly identified before as urgently needing replacement relative to other bridges in the city. It’s really frustrating.
The potential for snow is the only reason I watch the Broncos. With all these domed stadiums, the NFLs going to look as stale as 1970s astroturf baseball.
That class does not tolerate precipitation unless it is in Vail or Aspen.
The site name wasn’t immediately familiar to this former Denverite, but it’s catty-corner to the Mile High parcel across the I-25/Colfax interchange, where the Buckhorn Exchange (restaurant in continuous operation since 1893) is.
So, comparable to the current siting / access, maybe shorter walk from lightrail, but this way they can acquire the new site (probably a bargain) and redevelop the old site, versus building in-place and then having to *bid* for the Burnham Yard parcel.
No surprise here. It’s been rumored for about a year that this site is where the Broncos owners want to build. And, no one will be surprised if they hint at possibly considering sites outside the city of Denver to pressure the city into paying for all the infrastructure the team wants at this site.
I wonder if they realize that an old railyard is basically a superfund site once you start digging.
They’ll pay other to do the digging. Or, preferably, have taxpayers pay others to do the digging.
Who ever would have known that Denver has the world’s craziest weather? 25 years ago when Empower Field was being designed, Denver had San Diego weather, 70⁰ and sunny 350 days a year. All of a sudden,now that the Broncos lease is getting near the end, Denver weather has taken a shocking turn. Temperatures dropping 50⁰ in an hour, massive blizzards, 100 mph windstorms, baseball size hail and daily thunderstorms, with endless lightning and nasty wind shear all summer long. Oops, Broncos ownership managed to forget the September 1936 blizzard that dumped 20 inches of snow. They also forgot the July 11, 1990 hailstorm that dropped billions of baseballs on Denver. Strange how an expiring stadium lease can cause the worst weather. By the way, wasn’t the proposed site under 10 feet of water in June 1965?