For the primary time since 1984, the Denver Broncos are going to have a recent owner.
The Broncos announced on Tuesday night that they’ve entered into a purchase order and sale agreement with the Walton-Penner family to accumulate the team. The acquisition group is led by Walmart heir Rob Walton who can be taking up ownership of the team along together with his daughter (Carrie Welton Penner) and son-in-law (Greg Penner).
The sale calls for the Walton-Penner family to accumulate the team from the Pat Bowlen Trust in a move that can should be approved by the NFL’s finance committee and league ownership before it becomes finalized, but at this point, each of those things should just be formalities.
Broncos President and CEO Joe Ellis seems confident that the team can be in good hands moving forward.
“I even have enjoyed attending to know Rob Walton, Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner throughout this process,” Ellis said in a press release on Tuesday night. “Learning more about their background and vision for the Denver Broncos, I’m confident that their leadership and support will help this team achieve great things on and off the sphere.”
Certainly one of the explanations that Walton was focused on purchasing the Broncos is because he once lived in Colorado. “We’re thrilled to be chosen to maneuver forward with the acquisition of the Denver Broncos,” Walton said in a press release. “Carrie, Greg and I are inspired by the chance to steward this great organization in a vibrant community filled with opportunity and passionate fans. Having lived and worked in Colorado, we have all the time admired the Broncos. Our enthusiasm has only grown as we have learned more concerning the team, staff and Broncos Country over the previous couple of months.
After the Broncos announced in February that the team was going to be sold, Walton almost immediately emerged as one in all the front-runners to buy the franchise. Walton, who’s the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has an estimated net price of $65 billion. In keeping with Forbes, he’s the nineteenth richest person on this planet, and since of that, it was going to make it nearly inconceivable for anyone to outbid him.
In keeping with 9News in Denver, the ultimate purchase price for the Broncos is anticipated to be $4.65 billion, and if that does find yourself being the ultimate number, it would shatter the record for essentially the most money ever paid for a sports franchise in the US. The record is currently held by the Nets, which sold for $2.35 billion in August 2019. The $4.65 billion price tag may even greater than double the value of the costliest NFL team ever sold, which got here in 2018 when David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers for $2.275 billion.
Once the acquisition is finalized, not only will Walton immediately change into the NFL’s richest owner, but he’ll have a better net price than the NFL’s six richest owners combined. Of the league’s current owners, Tepper has the best net price at $16.7 billion.
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As recently as early April, the Broncos were expected to be sold for just north of $4 billion, but NFL teams are a hot commodity that do not come up on the market that always, which likely helped to drive up the value.
The sale ends 38 years of ownership by the Bowlen family. Pat Bowlen originally purchased the franchise back in 1984 for just $78 million. From 1984 until his death in 2019, Bowlen oversaw one of the successful teams within the NFL with the Broncos going to seven Super Bowls and winning three of them. Bowlen died in 2019 and his trust has been running the organization ever since. After his death three years ago, there was constant speculation that the team would eventually be put up on the market, but that did not officially occur until February of this 12 months.
As for Walton, although he’ll be the primary Walmart heir to own a team, he won’t be the primary with ties to NFL ownership. Walton’s cousin, Ann Walton Kroenke, is the husband of Rams owner Stan Kroenke. For those who’re wondering concerning the family tree there, Sam Walton is Ann’s uncle. Ann’s father, Bud, was Sam’s brother and a co-founder of Walmart.
