Are the Broncos secretly being shopped? An investigation
This week several tech companies including Spotify, YouTube and Facebook banned content from InfoWars founder and handsome hero, Alex Jones. So, since public access to his wild-eyed conspiracy theories is a little bit more difficult to come by today, I decided to fold up a little tin foil hat of my own and share a theory I have with my readers.
It may be the worst kept secret in Colorado.
I believe that he Denver Broncos are for sale – and in fact they are closer to being sold than anyone is willing to discuss publicly. And I’m willing to speculate on this because I don’t give a damn what the Broncos think of me.
The price: $2.6 Billion dollars.
I theorize a “handshake” deal might already be in place and it’s only a matter of time at this point when an announcement is made. The question is whether or not either the buyer or the sellers wish to reveal the transaction before the season begins, or wait until next spring, which would be a much “cleaner” time for a sale with Week 1 only a month away.
The league would obviously have to approve the new majority owner as well. Whatever the case I firmly believe the Bowlen family will no longer own the Broncos some point in the near future.
Frankly, it’s not up to the Bowlens whether or not they wind up operating the Broncos. It’s up to the trust that was put in place to manage the team’s affairs and determine a succession plan after Pat Bowlen developed Alzheimer’s disease and was no longer able to make that determination for himself. The trust includes Joe Ellis, attorney Mary Kelly and Broncos’ General Council, Rich Slivka. Any two of those three can together decide to go ahead with a sale. The Bowlen family would get the money, of course, but they must abide by the decision.
I’m sure that the lame-stream media in Denver, the Schefters and Rapoports are scratching around for enough credible sources and information to bring news of a probable sale to the national sports media marketplace – but if I am paying tribute to Alex Jones then credible information isn’t needed here, is it? Let’s call this a deep-state conspiracy theory. But with plenty of evidence and some guess work.
Joe Ellis, the President (and acting owner) of the Denver Broncos also happens to be the son of Nancy Walker Bush, the one and only sister of former US President and founder of the New World Order, George Herbert Walker Bush. Ellis lives in Denver but his heart could be out East with the Bush family. Old Joe faithfully sticks by Pat Bowlen’s side and has for many years but according to some folks around town he is growing tired of coping with the rest of the Bowlen family and their varying desires to own and operate the team. Joe’s had enough of this. He’s a rich man ready for retirement.
If Joe Ellis can oversee the sale of the Denver Broncos then he’s free to jet off to the Pine Tree State and leave Pat’s seven kids (two by a previous marriage, five by Annabelle) to sue the crap out of each other over the dough. How the proceeds of a potential sale might be distributed amongst the Bowlen heirs is not public knowledge at this time (very few people have read the legal document or “the trust”) but it’s certainly likely to become fodder for outlets like Denver Westword for months or years to come once a deal is made.
Others around town say Pat wasn’t wild about all of his children which isn’t hard to understand when you consider some of their antics (see “Blood of the City”) and the backbiting we’ve seen from various daughters lately jockeying for the opportunity to be the next controlling owner of the team.
The trust needs a 2-1 vote to sell. It gives Ellis a viable path to retirement and lifts what has to be a lot of stress of Kelly’s shoulders. She’s a prominent attorney for a reason, but this has to be her highest profile client. The Bowlen children must be exhausting to deal with. Only time will tell which (if any) of the children may be frozen out of the financial windfall a sale could bring.
Who may be in line to buy the Broncos? That’s hard to say but it’s likely to be one of Colorado’s eleven billionaires. These include Philip Anschutz, Gary Magness, James Leprino, James Packer and John Malone. Of those two make the most sense…
1) Philip Anschutz already owns a third of the LA Lakers and the LA Kings as well as Staples Center, the building those two teams play in. So sports management is already in his blood and, as we know, Stan Kroenke who owns the Avalanche and Nuggets has been welcomed with open arms to the NFL. He owns the LA Rams and is building a big, beautiful new LA area stadium and entertainment complex for both the Rams and the Chargers to play in.
2) Charlie Ergen is the co-founder and Chairman of both Dish Network and Echostar. He’s a spry 65 years old and, like Anschutz, has his paws deep into the entertainment industry already. Ergan is the type of guy who could make the most of the value associated with owning an NFL franchise.
Whoever buys the Broncos will have mighty big shoes to fill. Pat Bowlen has been a model of an NFL owner. Since he purchased the team from Edward Kaiser in 1984 he has provided the resources necessary for the team to win three Super Bowls. That’s basically an average of one championship every ten years which is incredible – especially for a club based in a secondary market like Denver.
Unlike owners of other major Denver teams Pat’s always been willing to open his pocket book to bring in talent the Broncos needed. He never settled for mediocrity. When things got bad for the Broncos, Bowlen always snapped into action, firing and hiring and cutting and signing until his squad was competitive again. He ran the team with the swagger of a Jerry Jones but, unlike Jones, also with class and decorum.
This blogger has a feeling there could already be a deal in place for the Broncos to change hands. Call it reading the tea leaves, but obviously a transaction this big takes a tremendous amount of time and many lawyers. When it does happen it’s going to absolutely rock Broncos Country and the entire NFL landscape. Jerry Richardson was recently pretty well forced to sell the Carolina Panthers. That team sold for $2.2 billion. According to experts the Broncos are worth significantly more. About $400 million more according to various estimates.
Get your popcorn ready – if (when?) this happens – Broncos Country will desperately want to get to know their new owner while the heirs to the trust become very rich people with a very messy legal battle likely in all their futures. The Broncos new owner and the NFL will happily not be involved.
