A public plan designed to keep Empower Field viable for decades to come is on indefinite hold.
The Stadium District Master Plan, adopted by the city of Denver in 2019 to transform the south side of the stadium grounds into a mixed-use neighborhood and entertainment district that would provide funding for Empower Field improvements, has stalled, with no plans to renew talks on the horizon.
Although the Broncos did cover a significant portion of $100 million of renovations to the stadium in 2023, the franchise has not engaged Metropolitan Football Stadium District officials about the master plan since the Walton-Penner ownership group bought the team in 2022. Instead, the Broncos repeatedly have said publicly that they continue to evaluate all options amid speculation the new owners may choose to build a new stadium elsewhere in the Denver area.
“Everything was on hold for quite a long time (amid the pandemic and sale of the team), and then when we came out of that. Now we’re talking about new ownership, and that took precedence over anything we might do or be doing,” said Matt Sugar, the director of stadium affairs for the stadium district.
“The lease agreement ties us at the hip. We have to do things together with the Broncos. That put everything on hold, and it continues to be on hold.”
Ryan Huff, the communications director for Denver’s Community Planning and Development, confirmed that the city doesn’t have “any updates on current development” for the plan.The Broncos declined to comment when contacted by The Denver Post.
The Stadium District Master Plan envisioned transforming the south end of the property where Empower Field sits from mostly surface parking lots into a mixed-use neighborhood.
One of the primary motivations was to create a consistent revenue stream to address renovations necessary to keep Empower Field, which opened in 2001, up on maintenance and in line with other stadiums around the NFL.
Sugar said that after a conditions assessment in 2017, the stadium needed about $700 million to remain viable for the next 25 to 30 years. The stadium district and the Stadium Management Company, the vehicle through which the Broncos oversee Empower Field, viewed the development of the stadium district as a way to cover those costs via long-term ground leases to private developers.
Currently the stadium district — a political subdivision of the state that is represented by seven counties in the Denver area — has two main sources of revenue.
One is the stadium’s naming rights, which nets the district $3 million annually,according to district documents. The other is the lease with the Broncos through the Stadium Management Company, which brought in $3,594,980 to the district’s Capital Replacement Reserve Fund in 2023.
Those two revenue sources are not near enough to keep Empower Field sustainable long term, hence the Walton-Penner ownership group’s investment in the stadium last year.
Stadium district documents reveal the owners contributed $82.4 million of the approximate $100 million in stadium capital improvements, with financing assistance from the NFL’s G-4 funding program. The stadium district covered the rest. Those improvements included upgrades to the videoboards, premium hospitality areas, technology, concessions, the team store and elevators.
“They’ve been really good at taking care of the facility, and the Stadium Management Company’s been great at monitoring necessary upgrades,” Sugar said. “They’ve put a lot of money into the facility, both the previous owner (Pat Bowlen and the Pat Bowlen Trust) and the current owners.”
As the stadium district waits to see what the Walton-Penner ownership group wants to do, the entities created to propel the Stadium District Master Plan forward have gone dark.
The Stadium Investment Corporation, a nonprofit started in 2019 to oversee the development of the stadium district, “exists and is still an entity, but it’s had no charge,” Sugar said. The website for the nonprofit, stadiuminvestmentcorp.com, is not active. And the Metropolitan Improvement District, approved by the City Council in 2019 to help finance the infrastructure of the project, is also tabled.
Although the Broncos’ lease with the stadium district for the use of Empower Field goes through 2031, the team could trigger one or two five-year extensions to remain there through 2036 or ’41.
In the meantime, the Broncos’ consistent message on the stadium front about evaluating all options remains unchanged. That includes the possibility of remodeling Empower Field and its surrounding property, tearing down the stadium and building a new one in the same spot or building a new stadium elsewhere in the metro area.
The Stadium District Master Plan called for the creation of new parks and open space, the improvement of existing streets and the addition of new ones. It also included a new entertainment plaza directly outside of the stadium, buildings of various heights and a parkway running through the middle of a development with parking garages but also substantial access for pedestrians and bikes.
“The Broncos have plenty of time, and I think they continue to research and decide what they want to do,” Sugar said. “Whether (the Stadium District Master Plan) is all moot or not, the future will tell, but I don’t know.”
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Originally Published: July 25, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
