Broncos ‘privately funded’ stadium comes amid ballooning public subsidies

The NFL stadium game has kicked into high gear recently with team owners hoping to

keep up with the Joneses as franchise valuations and profits soar. That hasn't stopped teams from passing much of the costs onto taxpayers and local governments

There are two new NFL stadiums currently under construction. The Bills and Titans should be moving into their new digs in 2026 and 2027

Five other teams are in various stages of negotiations and planning for their new homes

The Browns, Bears, Commanders, and Broncos have all chosen new sites. Only the Kansas City Chiefs are still in search of a location

and are actively fielding offers for public assistance from prospective hosts. Journalist Neil DeMoss has been studying and writing about stadium finances for three decades

He, along with author Joanna Kagan, wrote the book Field of Schemes

and DeMoss continues to run a website by the same name. The playbook by sports owners also continues to be relevant Very little has changed you know we keep updating the book Field of Schemes and there you know it yep same story

same thing going on, just the numbers go up. You know, 30 years ago, we were talking about

200, 300 million dollars in public money, and now we're talking about 1 billion, 2 billion

The Broncos and the city of Denver are touting a completely privately funded new stadium

in the Burnham Yards area of the city, paid for by the team's ownership group

The mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, is on board. We will have a brand new NFL stadium with a retractable roof where we can host the Super Bowl

and taxpayers don't pay a dollar for it. So for us, the ability to have an ownership group who says we're going to privately pay for the stadium

privately pay to acquire the land, that is a huge win-win for the city

We get a 50-year extension of the Broncos franchise. The taxpayers don't pay a dollar for it is such a selling point for Denver NFL yst Troy Aikman

recently mentioned it on Monday Night Football. While that statement may be accurate in regards

to the stadium and the land it on the public will be on the hook for hundreds of millions in infrastructure improvements and a development project surrounding the stadium A fact that is not publicized and something DeMoss says is often overlooked

So the one thing I think that has changed over the years is that the costs have become more hidden, right

I think the team owners and the officials who are working with them have realized that it sounds worse to give a check

a taxpayer check to the team for the stadium than to say, OK, we're not going to give you that

but we will give you money for infrastructure. We will give you tax breaks. We will give you a break

on land costs. A domed or retractable roof will be included in six of the seven new stadiums being

built or planned. The reason? To be able to host events like concerts and other sporting events

year round. The big draw, as Mayor Johnston and others like the Kansas City Chiefs have alluded to

is the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl. But that may not be as lucrative as it's often portrayed

The fact that Arlington Heights in Illinois is talking about well we gonna build a roof on a Chicago Bears stadium and then we gonna get the Super Bowl You will undoubtedly get a Super Bowl right Are you going to get more than one Super Bowl in anybody lifetime

Probably not, because there are just way too many cities out there that want one

The Bears also claim their stadium will be privately funded, but they're seeking hundreds of millions in tax breaks from Arlington Heights and the state of Illinois

as well as infrastructure improvements. However teams and cities spin their need or desire for public help when planning a new stadium

DeMoss says they always have a fallback. We'll move if we don't get what we want

As Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the White Sox, said famously, right

after getting a new stadium in Chicago years ago by flying down to Tampa Bay and flying back

and when he was asked later, were you really going to move there, he said, well, a savvy negotiator creates leverage

The owner's playbook is still working, and as recent new deals suggest, the cost for cities and fans to keep their favorite teams from leaving keep going up, whether they know it or not

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis