DENVER — Burnham Yard, a former Denver railyard that predates Colorado statehood, was named as the preferred site the Broncos hope will become their new home for decades to come.
Located in an industrial corridor near the South Platte River and I-25, Burnham Yard's acquisition by the Walton-Penner Family Ownership marked "an important step forward in a shared vision for the Denver Broncos, the city of Denver, and the state of Colorado," said Broncos owners Greg and Carrie Walton Penner, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, and Gov. Jared Polis in a joint statement Tuesday.
The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group, which will be privately funding the new stadium, said the new Broncos site would feature a "world-class retractable roof stadium anchoring a dynamic mixed-use district," aimed at reconnecting historic neighborhoods. The cherry on top of the cake? Zero taxpayer dollars will be used to build the stadium, according to the group.
"Today is not yet a celebration but rather a meaningful checkpoint reflecting years of research, collaboration and planning as well as necessary land agreements and feasibility studies," officials said. "While this is an exciting milestone, we recognize there is much more work to be done ahead of a targeted stadium completion for the 2031 NFL season."
Broncos ownership, the city's mayor and Gov. Polis said the announcement also marked "the beginning of a much deeper and transparent phase of broader engagement with our neighbors."
Officials from the football organization said they were fully committed to a strong and inclusive Community Benefits Agreement process that will involve the Denver City Council, nearby neighborhoods and community organizations to shape their vision with their needs and priorities in mind. That process would begin immediately, they wrote.
"You'll now see us heading in a direction where every one of our stadiums will have no longer a stadium with 80 acres of parking lots, they'll all be fully activated neighborhoods, like we have at McGregor Square, like we'll have at Ball Arena River Mile, like we'll have at Santa Fe Yards and women's sports, our soccer facility," Denver Mayor Mike Johnson told Denver7 sports director Lionel Bievenu Tuesday afternoon as he described how the acquisition will open up possibilities for year-round entertainment.
"It's a once-in-a-century day for Denver, I feel like, and agree with you — this does make Denver definitely the best sports city in America," Johnston said. "But I think for us, the great part is, it is a win-win for the city. "You get not just a new stadium, but a whole new developed neighborhood in Burnham Yard that's going to be restaurants, bars, shops, apartments."
But Johnston said the "wins" for the city didn't stop there, as once the Broncos move to the new site, the city will have ownership of about 80 acres of land in West Denver that could be redeveloped based on community feedback.
One of the options for redevelopment Johnston envisions for the area is having both the RTD light rail and the Front Range Passenger Rail, which would take people from Fort Collins to Pueblo.
"So it could be possible you could get on a train in Colorado Springs or Pueblo or Fort Collins and come to game day and go back," Johnston said, stressing that those plans are not set in stone and the community's input will be key to what they hope to see in the area in the coming years.
So will the new stadium with its retractable roof guarantee that Denver will host a Super Bowl in the future?
"I don't know that I could ever say that it guarantees it, but I feel like it guarantees it," Johnston said with a laugh, adding the money the Walton-Penner Family Ownership is putting into the new stadium will make it into one that "everyone in the country is going to want to come see."
- Gov. Polis also sat down with Denver7 anchor Jessica Porter in the hour after plans for a new Broncos stadium were announced. Watch what he had to say about what the acquisition means for the Broncos in the video player below:
A PROCESS THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING
Rumors about Burnham Yard being the site of a new Broncos stadium began to spread after the Walton-Penner group — the richest owners in the NFL — took control of the Denver Broncos in 2022.
Our news partners at The Denver Post reported back in June on a series of property acquisitions near Burnham Yard by groups purportedly linked to the NFL franchise that fueled speculation of a potential move to the area on the southwestern outskirts of downtown.
Adding fuel to those rumors was Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s no-holds-barred response to Denver7 chief investigator Tony Kovaleski about a potential move of the Broncos outside of Denver: “It'll be over my dead body that the Denver Broncos leave Denver."
“[The Broncos] are a critical cultural institution of this city and this state, and we think they belong in Denver,” he said at the time. “I've been working for years with the ownership group there at the Broncos. I think they are great people who are committed to the city long term, and I think they want the same things that we want. So I'm very optimistic we'll get to a good outcome.”
The City and County of Denver plans to spend $140 million on road infrastructure improvements near Burnham Yard if voters approve the Vibrant Denver bond package this fall. City officials said the infrastructure repairs are long overdue, but Patrick Riley, the Vibrant Denver bond program manager, acknowledged to city council members last week that the Broncos could be a factor.
“It is impossible to ignore the Broncos as a thing in Denver, so telling you that there’s no weight there, or that there’s no consideration there, would be insulting to everybody at this table,” Riley told Denver7 a few months back.
On their part, Denver Water officials said they also worked out an agreement with the Broncos football organization to pay for moving some of their facilities currently in the area that will be impacted by the new development.
COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONCERNED ABOUT REDEVELOPMENT SHARE NEW HOPES
Some community members demanded accountability after parts of Burnham Yard were torn down earlier this summer, telling Denver7 the move was a loss for Denver’s historic sites and came without warning.
Speaking to Denver7’s Brandon Richard, John Deffenbaugh, the president and CEO of Historic Denver, said buildings that were demolished were used by women and Black workers during the 1940s and 1950s.
“It's not just the buildings that have been lost here, but the stories being lost as well,” Deffenbaugh said at the time.
David Riggs, a board member with the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, shared those sentiments at the time, telling Denver7 that tearing down those buildings showed "enormous disrespect" for the neighborhood.
In a statement to Denver7 last summer, however, officials from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) — who bought the property for $50 million in 2021 with the hope that it could be used to help expand I-25 and meet other critical transportation needs (plans that didn’t pan out, in the end) — said none of the buildings found to be historically significant were torn down.
But after Tuesday's announcement, we wanted to see how the community in the area felt about those redevelopment plans, so Denver7's Colin Riley made a few calls and went out to the community to speak to residents and businesses to get their reaction.
- Watch what neighbors and business employees in the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood had to say about the acquisition and how it'll affect their neighborhood in the video player below:
"If things are done right and with respect, it's absolutely good news for the neighborhood," said Riggs, the board member with the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. "We're hoping to work with Broncos ownership so that they can help the neighborhood and do it with respect, understand the culture and appreciate its diversity."
Ultimately, Riggs told Denver7 he was excited for the neighborhood to be rediscovered and appreciated "as one of the, really, birthplaces of Denver."
Meanwhile, employees at the Buckhorn Exchange — Denver's oldest restaurant, which sits right across from the railyard — told Denver7 Tuesday they were already thinking of ways to capitalize on the opportunity the redevelopment will eventually bring.
"We've talked about trying to do some special events on game days, that kind of thing," said assistant manager Tiffany Emmons. Among the plans the team has cooked up would be to "utilize our lounge space, our bar, and try to get some of those game visitors to come over and visit us."
Plans for what the area will eventually become, however, are still years away, but Broncos leadership reassured those in the neighborhood that their voices will be heard throughout the process.
"Every step of the way, our approach will be guided by humility, respect and a shared commitment to the city of Denver, state of Colorado and all of Broncos Country," the officials said.
Denver7's Jessica Porter, Lionel Bienvenu and Colin Riley contributed to this report.
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