Broncos quick-as-a-flash home upgrades

Article posted by Coliseum, September 4^th, 2023

Image: Denver Broncos

When the National Football League (NFL) team Denver Broncos first spoke to architects and contractors about the proposed upgrades to their residence – the Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado (US) – they were told the desired changes would take longer than the course of an offseason.

‘Denver Broncos’ stated that the Broncos President Damani Leech remembered them as saying, “‘This is really a two-year process.’”

And yet, the Broncos and the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group were determined to complete a record $100 million in upgrades before the start of the 2023 season – and recently, Leech helped display the enhancements that were indeed completed in just a few short months.

Said Leech, “It has been a sprint.”

The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver (US). The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s American Football Conference West division. The team is headquartered in Dove Valley, Colorado.

The 76,125-capacity Empower Field at Mile High is an American football stadium in Denver, Colorado, United States. Its primary tenant is the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). It opened in 2001 to replace the Broncos’ original home, the old Mile High Stadium.

‘Denver Broncos’ further stated that ahead of the Broncos’ preseason home opener against the Los Angeles Rams (played on August 26^th and the Broncos defeated the Rams 41-0) at the Empower Field at Mile High, Leech joined Stadium General Manager Jay Roberts, Senior Director of Facilities, Construction and Planning Zach Myhra and several others to display the far-reaching upgrades to the Denver’s home stadium. And the fans were pretty impressed with the upgrades.

Leech called the upgrades a “testament to the commitment” of Owners Rob Walton and Carrie Walton Penner, Owner and head honcho Greg Penner and the rest of the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group.

Added Leech, “As Greg shared, really from Day 1, his priority and the priority of our ownership group has been to upgrade our stadium here and do it in a way that’s going to provide a meaningful fan and gameday experience for all of Broncos Country.”

Leech said it was important to enhance the gameday experience in a number of ways, and the Broncos displayed drastic improvements to the videoboard, suites, the team store, and other spaces during a recent media tour. The Broncos also showed off the brand-new Breckenridge Bourbon Club, the in-progress murals that are being painted by the local artists in the concourse of the stadium and the new elevators that were added to improve accessibility – “Obviously, we had an overall vision of wanting to enhance the gameday experience, and there’s different ways you can do that. Some are ways that operational, and that’s with things like the elevators. Some are very much visual, from an entertainment standpoint. Obviously, that’s the videoboard, but that’s [also] LED screens. Some are about hospitality, so you see that on the suite level, you see that in the Breckenridge Bourbon Club. So we created a framework and really wanted to check as many boxes [as possible]. What was really important is we wanted every fan that comes to the stadium on gameday to be able to experience something. They may not be able to experience everything, but they can experience something that’s new and different.”

He concluded, “You really understand the responsibility we have to provide a great experience to our fans. We understand the competitive marketplace we’re in. We’re competing against couches and flatscreen TVs in people’s basements. We knew we had to make a meaningful impact, and I think we did.”

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