Getty NEW YORK, NY - MAY 01: Jay-Z attends the "The Great Gatsby" world premiere at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on May 1, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
When Denver Broncos CEO and Team President Joe Ellis said there would be a “timely transition of ownership [in 2022],” it’s probably a safe bet that he didn’t mean a hip-hop mogul or the world’s wealthiest human would have interest in purchasing the franchise.
“I can’t put an exact deadline on it, but believe me, we need to get it resolved,” said Ellis back on July 27, 2021, just hours before the Broncos would commence their training camp.
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Ellis has run the team and been part of the trust since 2014, when Pat Bowlen stepped away from team control due to a battle with Alzheimer’s. Bowlen passed away on June 13, 2019, just a couple months before he was inducted, posthumously, into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Jigga What? Jigga Who?
During that July press conference, Ellis reasoned that “the team is not for sale.” He noted there were still several options for the transition of ownership, including one of Bowlen’s daughters, Broncos VP of Strategic Initiatives Brittany Bowlen, to serve as the controlling owner.
“The sale of the team is always possible, obviously,” Ellis said then. “If it’s going to stay in the family, Brittany is really the other option. There are conditions that will go with that. They could come in various forms. There might be one or two other options within that option, if that makes sense.”
Ellis added that ultimately, the Pat Bowlen Trust’s “goal is a timely, responsible, and orderly determination of ownership.” Ellis’s goal was to “lay out for everybody a timeline to a transition of ownership that will take place next year prior to the start of the season.”
Enter hip-hop legend Jay-Z. The man who says he has 99 problems would be helping a franchise that’s had one huge one since the passing of the beloved “Mr. B.”
When Bowlen passed away, it was his wish, as stipulated in the Trust, that the Broncos remain in his family to be operated by his children — ultimately, with one singular voice being heard in day-to-day operations. Things soon went south among the Bowlen seeds, and now the Broncos’ ownership status is in disarray.
The children were never able to unanimously get behind one of the Bowlens being deemed as head of the table. The Ellis-led Trust tabbed Brittany as the successor. Mr. B’s two daughters from his first marriage — Beth Bowlen Wallace and Aimee Klemmer — publicly questioned the Trust’s control over the team’s ownership succession and fought that through litigation. They argued that the Trust was executed while their father suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, and thus, should be dissolved.
A September 13, 2021 report from A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, said Jay-Z was among the interested suitors to buy the Broncos. The reported value of the Broncos is $3.75 billion (10th-highest in the NFL), and Perez noted the new owner would pay roughly $4 billion. The average NFL franchise value grew 14% across the league, according to Forbes’ 2021 NFL franchise value rank. The Broncos’ value raised 17% over the past year.
Can’t Knock the Hustle
Jay-Z has a net worth of $1.4 billion — nothing to sneeze at — but he would likely need to find partnership, via a group of investors. It’s likely his stake would be similar to other former athletes and celebrities who join forces with an investment group, looking to buy a franchise. Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez ($400 million net worth) did just that when he teamed with e-commerce billionaire Marc Lore, to purchase controlling ownership of both the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in two years.
Jay-Z has a significantly higher net worth than Rodriguez, but he’d still need partnership.
Anything
There’s one guy, however, who won’t need to partner up with investors, and can buy practically anything he desires, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Should the Broncos come with a $4 billion price tag, it would dwarf the largest sale of a professional sports franchise in history. The Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center were acquired by Joe Tsai for $2.4 billion in September 2019.
Bezos, the world’s richest person, has a net worth of $200.9 billion. Buying the Broncos for $4 billion is a pittance for him. Perez pointed out that Bezos’s has once before dipped his toe into the NFL ownership pool, as he held talks back in February 2021 to purchase a 40% stake in the Washington Football Team.
Perez maintains that a source with knowledge of the situation told Front Office Sports that Bezos “remains interested in NFL ownership.”
Joe Pompliano of Huddle Up, a daily newsletter that reports on the business and money side of sports, tweeted that should Bezos get into the game, the $4 billion tag would “only be about 2% of his net worth — or equal to the median American family spending less than $2,500.”
Jeff Bezos is rumored to be interested in buying the Denver Broncos, per @byajperez.
The team is currently valued at ~$4 billion, which is only about 2% of his net worth — or equal to the median American family spending less than $2,500.
That’s wild 🤯
So, it’s safe to say that if either Jay-Z or Bezos becomes the next Broncos owner, the team will become super relevant again, and will never again suffer a hard knock life — at least not financially.
Follow Tony Williams on Twitter: @TBone8