How area governments are spending Broncos sale funds

$41M distributed

BY TATIANA FLOWERS THE COLORADO SUN

e Denver metro governments that received checks — for hundreds of dollars or millions — after paying into a tax fund to help build Mile High Stadium are formalizing plans to spend the money on youth activities within their communities.

e city of Aurora’s housing and community services department announced last week the “Dream Big for Aurora Youth Campaign,” which encourages youths, people who work with kids and caregivers, including parents or guardians, to suggest how the city should spend its one-time $3.8 million award on youth-related activities and programs. e campaign webpage, which includes an idea board and short survey, will be open until March 31.

“We are looking to generate ideas around meaningful youth activities in Aurora,” said Jessica Prosser, director of the city’s housing and community services department. “We really want to make sure the youth voice is heard through this process.” e money comes from a provision of a 1998 lease and management agreement between the district, PDB Sports and Stadium Management Company that required 2% of the net proceeds of the sale of the team to be paid to the district to be used for youth activity programs.

Funding for the e ort comes from the $4.65 billion sale of the Denver Broncos to the Walton-Penner Group in 2022, which resulted in a $41 million refund to the seven counties and 40 municipalities in the Metro Stadium District that helped fund the stadium for more than a decade. e checks range from $12.5 million for Denver to $112 for Castle Pines.

Communities can interpret how they want to use the money for young people. Matt Sugar, director of Stadium A airs for the Metropolitan Football Stadium District, has said he hopes community leaders will invest in after-school programs, mentoring, music and art programs, sports, and mental health resources. ough Sugar said there is not a timeline for when the money should be spent, when community leaders received their checks, they also got a letter advising them that he would ask for an accounting of how the funds were spent. He plans to ask community leaders for those accounting statements in September, a year after checks were cut. e rebate checks were a pleasant surprise for community leaders, especially those that received the largest sums of money. e district cut checks proportional to the amount each county and municipality collected in the one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax that helped fund the stadium, which is owned by the district and now called Empower Field at Mile High. Taxpayers funded 75% of stadium construction through the tax, in e ect from 2001 to 2011. e purchase of the Broncos team by the investor group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, his daughter, Carrie Walton Penner, and her husband, Greg Penner, was approved by the NFL team owners group in August. With the new funds in hand, the city of Aurora’s community engagement division will be conducting outreach by partnering with school districts and youth-serving organizations, hosting focus groups and offering tabling events on local streets to encourage community members to give their opinions on how the funds should be spent. e online survey will be the main way Aurora people can engage.