PHOENIX — Inside a humid meeting room in Arizona, Greg Penner turned up the heat back in Denver on the Broncos’ plans for a new stadium.
On Monday, speaking to reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings, Penner repeatedly described the Broncos’ planned timeline for a new stadium at Burnham Yard — tentatively scheduled for a 2031 opening — as “ambitious.” It’s the first time the Walton-Penner ownership group has applied pressure to public and private constituents since announcing Burnham as its preferred stadium site in September.
“It’s an ambitious timeline that we have,” Penner said. “And we won’t be able to accomplish our goals in terms of timing and getting in there just by ourselves. So it’s not just something the Broncos are driving. We’ve got to have a lot of support from partners and others that are involved with the site.”
Asked about that level of support, Penner doubled down.
“The support has been good, and everybody, I think, wants to do the right thing,” Penner said. “But again, there’s a lot of different parties with different interests. As of now, we’re on track. But again, it’s ambitious to get to the 2031 goal that we have.”
A large crowd gathers in a gymnasium for a community meeting hosted by the Denver Broncos at the La Alma Recreation Center to share preliminary concepts for the proposed new stadium and mixed-use community at Burnham Yard in Denver on Feb. 12, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Sticking points in new stadium negotiations
Penner isn’t pulling the fire alarm on the Broncos’ entire timetable, but Monday’s remarks were a clear warning shot. The Broncos have a variety of processes to finalize — some of which have yet to even begin — before putting shovels in the ground in 2027 at the 58-acre Burnham railyard site.
The organization’s public messaging around Burnham Yard continues to state that the area is a “preferred site,” a clear hold on leverage, even as the Colorado Department of Transportation is set to finalize the $45.8 million sale of Burnham to the Broncos on May 15. And Penner confirmed to reporters Monday that the Broncos are “closer” to shedding the preferred-site label, but a lengthy road still remains ahead.
“Some important steps have been taken,” Penner said. “But when we change that from ‘preferred site’ to ‘this is the site’ — we’ll have all of our ducks lined up, and be prepared to say, ‘We’re formally moving forward with that site.’ ”
At the moment, there are three primary sticking points in the Broncos’ negotiations. The first — and arguably most important — is a community-benefits agreement with various constituents around the La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood. The community has yet to officially begin CBA negotiations with the Broncos, team president Damani Leech confirmed Monday. That could present a problematic timeline for the organization.
In October 2024, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment signed an official CBA to approve mixed-use development around Ball Arena after 18 months of negotiations, CBA member Carrie Makarewicz told The Post last year. That process required the community to raise around $70,000 for associated negotiating costs, Councilwoman Jamie Torres previously told The Post. For the Broncos to begin construction in 2027, a timeline they presented at a community meeting at the La Alma Recreation Center in mid-February, the organization would need to complete CBA negotiations with any La Alma Lincoln Park coalition considerably more quickly than KSE’s timeline for the Ball Arena redevelopment.
When presented with the Ball Arena CBA timeline, Leech said point-blank that the Broncos expect these negotiations to move more quickly.
“We’ve had conversations with city council representatives and neighborhood representatives, as well,” Leech said Monday. “And so, while we don’t have a specific timeline, we certainly expect it to be shorter than that.”
The Broncos also still have to finalize negotiations with Denver Water around the displacement of their facilities from the Burnham Yard area. After agreeing to supply the Broncos with the 25 acres near Burnham that currently house its operations campus, the public utility is still planning to build a new headquarters in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. Denver Water is also still working on a potential plan to relocate another facility to Lot M at the Broncos’ current Empower Field site, which could pose its own complications.
“Denver Water is going to be an important part of the process, obviously,” Penner said Monday. “It’s a utility that provides a tremendous asset to the community, and we need to make sure that, as we move forward, their service isn’t interrupted in any way. And we’re cognizant of that.
“But also,” Penner added, “coming up with a plan that allows us to get in there, on the timeline that we have in mind.”
Leech added that the Broncos have had a “great relationship” with Denver Water CEO Alan Salazar, and that “they want this to happen.”
“We continue to work with them,” Leech said, “and I feel like we’ll be able to solve it.”
A smaller piece of the puzzle is also an SRM Concrete plant that sits smack in the middle of the Broncos’ proposed stadium site, which city property records list at a total value of about $15.6 million. Penner said the organization is still working on a “number of private transactions,” including buying the concrete yard, and is going to “try and get that done.”
SRM Concrete CEO Jeff Hollingshead, however, told The Post in an email on Monday that the company hasn’t had any further conversations about a potential sale with the Broncos over the past month. Hollingshead, though, added that he’s sure the two parties “can come to an agreement that works for both of us.”
“We’re not going to be the reason why the stadium’s not getting built,” Hollingshead said.
Burnham Yard is the Broncos preferred site to build a new retractable roof stadium in Denver, Colorado on January 29, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Possibility of extending the current stadium lease
Penner reiterated that if the Broncos’ timeline is pushed back beyond 2031, team officials would simply extend their lease at the current stadium. Any such decision, however, wouldn’t need to come until the end of the Broncos’ current lease through the 2030-31 season, Metropolitan Football Stadium District representative Matt Sugar previously told The Post.
That’d be a long-shot development, and Penner said there’s currently “nothing in place” to extend the Broncos’ current lease beyond 2031. But the owner’s stance in Arizona was clear: the organization needs a little help from the community and city alike to grease the wheels.
“Not sure when exactly that’s going to be,” Penner said Monday, on when the Broncos will announce Burnham Yard as the formal site of a new stadium. “But hopefully sometime in the coming months.”
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