{"id":963715,"date":"2026-08-04T04:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/963715\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T04:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:48:24","slug":"broncos-country-want-broncos-owners-to-ditch-psl-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/963715\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos Country want Broncos owners to ditch PSL plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t spell \u201cblasphemy\u201d without \u201cPSL.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDo they necessarily need the money? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Marilyn Venard of Littleton, a Broncos season-ticket holder for seven decades, told me Monday when I brought up the concept of personal seat licenses, or PSLs<\/a>. \u201cIf they want to keep happy fans, they wouldn\u2019t charge it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marilyn is one of those orange-and-blue lifers, the spine and soul of Broncos Country. She\u2019s had seats in the north end zone at old Mile High, and now Empower Field at Mile High, since 1965. She\u2019s watched a chain of quarterbacks that runs from Jacky Lee and Mickey Slaughter to Bo Nix.<\/p>\n

Venard didn\u2019t hesitate to renew her season tickets for 2026 for $3,000, including parking. But when she reads that Forbes.com\u2019s latest \u201cRichest People In The World\u201d chart has Broncos owners Rob Walton and family at No. 11,<\/a> boasting an estimated net worth of $146 billion, it does raise eyebrows. And blood pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s put it this way: I think paying for the privilege of paying them money is something I find a little offensive,\u201d Steve Altman told me by phone Monday. He\u2019s held season tickets at Mile High and Empower since 1987.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd frankly, I think with this particular ownership group, with the money they have, doesn\u2019t really need it. To me, it just seems a gouge on the fans\u2019 side of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In basic terms, PSLs are a one-time fee to pay for the right to then purchase season tickets. In Buffalo, for example, buying a PSL to the new Highmark Stadium grants you those \u201crights\u201d for a 30-year span. Those licenses can be eventually be sold if the buyer surrenders their season tickets.<\/p>\n

Prices vary by stadium and seat location, but the average minimum price point among 18 NFL teams that offered them last September was $2.744, according to PSLSource.com, a third-party marketplace for buying and selling PSLs. Per-seat PSL charges last fall on the site ranged from $50 to $50,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, gracious,\u201d \u00a0Venard said. \u201cWell, it\u2019s a lot of money. I don\u2019t think I would pay it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that football organizations are charging that now, but my goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould that stop you renewing?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would certainly take some thought,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

PSLs are a way for owners to defray big costs, such as stadium construction. They\u2019re as much a part of the NFL lexicon now as Bill Belichick, and twice as soulless.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sort of scheme Mr. Burns<\/a> would set upon the denizens of Springfield, a gratuity to billionaires from the working class, a mandatory tip collected by corporate overlords. In entertainment terms, it\u2019s a 100-drink minimum to watch the latest slice of low comedy served up by the Las Vegas Raiduhs.<\/p>\n

With the Walton-Penner Group planning to build a new stadium privately at Burnham Yard, it\u2019s been presumed for years that PSLs were coming to Broncos Country, just as standard NFL practice. This past Saturday at training camp, team president Damani Leech said the quiet part out loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like it\u2019s a pretty likely thing to happen,\u201d Leech told reporters when about PSLs, \u201cbut we haven\u2019t made any formal decisions on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

All we\u2019d humbly ask of Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner as they crunch the numbers is to keep Marilyn in mind. To keep Steve in mind. And the hundreds of thousands of Broncomaniacs who sat through Paxton Lynch, Kendall Hinton and Lord knows how many snowstorms. The faithful who pack hills and metal bleachers on a scorching August day, because by God, they\u2019d walk through Hell in a gasoline suit to see this franchise back in the Super Bowl again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would (ask), \u2018What do they really need the money for?’\u201d Altman said. \u201cI mean, are they interested in the Broncos purely as a business matter, or are they doing this because they want the pleasure of owning an NFL team? You\u2019re talking about some of the richest people in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that the Broncos boast a ticket wait-list of more than 100,000, the market\u2019s betting that if you won\u2019t pay a cover charge, someone else will. While the introduction of PSLs isn\u2019t designed to purge the voter rolls, so to speak, it can have that effect \u2014 especially with older and less well-heeled Broncos faithful.<\/p>\n

Altman understands why his season tickets in the 300 level cost $2,800 to renew. But he worries about losing Broncos Country\u2019s most loyal and replacing the folks who celebrate a touchdown with a beer and shot with, shall we say, more of your wine-and-cheese crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Would they really need (the PSL money)?’\u201d Altman wondered. \u201cThe revenue they\u2019ll get from the seats themselves, that\u2019s pretty much all theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair question. The Walton-Penner Group are the richest owners in the NFL, and it\u2019s not close. Forbes data this past February pegged Rob Walton\u2019s estimated then-net worth of $121.3 billion \u2014 roughly five times that of the league\u2019s second-richest ownership group, the Hunt family ($24.8 billion), Texas oil heirs and longtime stewards of the rival Chiefs.<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, you\u2019d have to add up the NFL\u2019s second-ranked through seventh-ranked owners\u2019 net worths as of February ($126.6 million) to match or exceed the Walton-Penner Group\u2019s clout. To put that number in more context, Rams owner Stan Kroenke, whose portfolio includes the Nuggets, Avalanche, Rapids and Mammoth, checked in at No. 4 on the NFL\u2019s owners list tis past winter, with a reported net worth of $21.3 billion.<\/p>\n

To them, the Broncos are a line item on a budget. To Marilyn, they\u2019re family.<\/p>\n

Losing her seats would meaning losing contact with old friends, losing a sense of of community. Venard went to Super Bowls with her neighbors in Section 323. To conference title games. Tailgates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you do become a family,\u201d Venard said. \u201cAt the beginning of the season, everybody hugs everybody, welcoming them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time and tide wait for no man, but she\u2019d miss those hugs dearly. You can\u2019t spell \u201cunscrupulous\u201d without \u201cPSL.\u201d You can\u2019t spell \u201cpowerless,\u201d either.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t spell \u201cblasphemy\u201d without \u201cPSL.\u201d \u201cDo they necessarily need the money? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Marilyn Venard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":963716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[22004,5712,3851,925,232,7244,5748,9889,564,12562,231,258,2426,19602,7,18493,1331,10576,102563,1744,929,9547,926,6,5753,13457,49909,5295,9,2833,21625,505,51],"class_list":["post-963715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-avalanche","tag-beer","tag-bill-belichick","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos","tag-broncos-country","tag-broncos-takes","tag-carrie-walton-penner","tag-colorado","tag-damani-leech","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-empower-field-at-mile-high","tag-football","tag-forbes","tag-front-range","tag-greg-penner","tag-kendall-hinton","tag-las-vegas","tag-latest-headlines","tag-money","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-nfl","tag-nuggets","tag-paxton-lynch","tag-rob-walton","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-stan-kroenke","tag-super-bowl","tag-texas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117035434235074925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}