The Denver Broncos ownership sale is expected to set the NFL record for the highest purchasing price of a team. While legendary Broncos’ quarterbacks Peyton Manning and John Elway will be among the groups bidding, they could now face significant competition.
Elway and Manning are expected to be part of competing bids to purchase the Broncos, now officially up for sale. Current projections have the franchise at a purchase price of $4-plus billion, blowing past the $2.275 billion sum David Tepper paid for the Carolina Panthers in 2018.
However, the identities funding the groups expected to be competing for the Broncos haven’t been widely known. Now, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, one of the first billionaires who will be bidding on the Broncos is known.
According to the LA Times, Los Angeles billionaire Alec Gores is a part of an investment group interested in buying the team. The combined net worth of the group, which includes Dean Metropoulos, is $10 billion.
It’s currently unknown whether or not the three-person group is looking for additional financial investors to back them financially. While their planned bid amount is also unknown, they do possess the funds to make one of the highest bids for the Broncos.
Denver’s NFL franchise is the first NFL team to be put up for sale since 2018. After months of speculation, the team officially became available for bids shortly after Denver District Court Judge Shelley Gilman cleared the way for a sale.
Former owner Pat Bowlen established in 1984 that an outside group would have the right of first refusal to purchase the Broncos. Following his death, he left control of the franchise to a trust. After a long prolonged legal battle among Bowlan’s children, the path is now clear for an outright sale.
Importantly, any sale of an NFL team requires a majority support vote from the owners. For a league that just signed television contracts worth $100-plus billion over the next 10 years, a piece of the pie is worth billions to interested parties.
Needless to say, Manning and Elway will need to find massive financial backers with ample money to spend if they want to become the next part-owners of the Denver Broncos.