Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner said Tuesday he hopes the club can release renderings of a proposed Burnham Yard stadium soon, but reiterated that much work remains to be done to stay on track for a 2031 opening.
Penner, speaking with reporters during a Broncos training camp practice, said he agreed with an analogy made in a Denver Post story this summer that the myriad processes, tentacles and complexities of trying to build a stadium and surrounding mixed-use district at the now-defunct former rail yard are akin to building a Rube Goldberg machine.
“I think that’s a good analogy and I think everybody involved in the process has the intent to do the right thing and is trying to do the right thing,” Penner said. “But it’s a lot of moving pieces and it’s complex. Our focus is squarely on the 2031 opening and trying to get that done, but it’s not going to be easy.”
The Broncos have cleared one hurdle this week, closing a deal with SRM Concrete for nearly 10 acres worth of parcels on the northern portion of the proposed district. The club paid $55 million for the parcels, according to real estate records obtained by The Post, meaning it paid more for the wedge of land than it cost to buy the 57-acre rail yard itself ($45.8 million). Penner essentially echoed what team president Damani Leech said earlier this month: If the club has control over a process — such as stadium and district design — it is advancing efficiently. But in areas that require negotiation and collaboration with community groups and government entities, the going is much slower.
Penner, though, said the club expected this when it began zeroing in on Burnham Yard as its preferred site.
“I don’t know that it’s been more frustrating than I thought,” Penner said Tuesday. “We went into this knowing that, if you’re going to do a project of this scale — and we knew when we started focusing on this site specifically that it was going to be more challenging. But we also really want to stay in Denver if we can and deliver a stadium in this market that is a vital part of the downtown.
“But if you’re doing a project in an area like that, it’s just harder. So I think we went in with our eyes wide open about the challenges and we’ll keep working through it.”
The club has said in community meetings and planning documents that its target start date for construction is in the spring of 2027. That will require many steps and processes to be completed in the next approximately six to eight months. The team needs a completed community benefits agreement with the Burnham Yard Community Association, an approved small-area plan, a district master plan, environmental remediation at the yard itself, a determination from the Denver Urban Renewal Authority on whether the site qualifies for tax increment financing and more.
“It’s still a preferred site, but it’s not finalized we’re going to be in that location,” Penner said. “Obviously that’s where we really want to be.”
The Broncos have said that construction of a stadium and the first phase of the district are projected to take 3.5 to 4 years. Hence Penner’s continued use of the word “aggressive” when it comes to having shovels in the ground next year to put a stadium on track to comfortably open for the 2031 season.
So far, the Broncos say they don’t have a firm deadline for when they absolutely must have a go/no-go, though to open in 2031 they’d almost have to have a high degree of confidence by early 2027.
“Obviously at some point you hit a deadline, but we haven’t set a specific date that we have to have it all lined up,” Penner said. “At some point there will be a judgment call, I’m sure, where not everything is done. But we’re not at that point yet. You don’t want to start these massive projects without most, if not all, of your ducks lined up because you’re going to end up spending a lot more money.
“So we’re going to do it right, and when we start, we’re going to do it expeditiously.”
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