No one’s expecting the new Broncos stadium to be a free ride for the populace. But we are pleading to the Walton-Penner group to at save Broncomaniacs a place to park their rides on gameday.
The more eagle-eyed members of the Grading The Week team said the same thing many of you did when we saw some of the plans revealed by the Broncos at a community meeting Thursday night. Something along the lines of, ‘Surely that’s not it for parking, right? Right?”
Parking at Burnham Yard — Incomplete
The Broncos aren’t just the state’s NFL team. They’re the region’s. The time zone’s. Folks drive in from Nebraska and Wyoming and New Mexico and Montana to watch Bo Nix do his magic tricks.
The GTW crew loves RTD as much as the next guy or gal, but let’s keep some common sense in mind here. It would be great to keep the tailgating scene in mind, too. VegasInsider.com a few months ago ranked Denver as being home to the third-best tailgating experience in the NFL — behind only the college-like scenes in Dallas (No. 1) and Buffalo (No. 2). And ahead of the more famous lots in Kansas City (No. 4).
All well and good on the regional front, you say, but Cubs fans don’t generally park around Wrigley Field, right? That’s true. But the football community, the football game-day experience, isn’t quite the same as a baseball one, is it? Over the course of the season, the Cubs might host four or five games in a given week. The Broncos probably won’t have more than three home games in any given month from August-January.
Every moment with the Orange and Blue feels like a rock concert — a communal, tribal thing that binds a city of different creeds, colors, and political persuasions. In one of the most polarizing eras in American history, the Broncos are one of the few things almost everybody along the Front Range can agree on. And they’ll almost all agree that it wouldn’t be the same without tailgating. Or the parking lots that make such a vibrant tailgating scene possible.
The Walton-Penner Group hasn’t really put a foot wrong since acquiring the team late in the summer of 2022. The new owners have pushed for facility and stadium upgrades on their dime, while continuing to respect the traditions fans have held dear for more than 65 years. They’ve recognized that the Broncos aren’t just their toy, or some property on a Monopoly board. That the franchise is a beloved civic heirloom, a pillar of Colorado pride and a bedrock of Denver culture.
Broncos president Damani Leech told reporters Thursday that the team controls about 7,000 parking spaces presently at Empower Field — and that he expects a similar amount of spaces at the new stadium site “eventually.” Won’t lie: The “eventually” part doesn’t exactly boost our tailgating hopes.
The common man and common fan are already going to be squeezed hard enough if Personal Seat Licenses, or PSLs, do indeed become a reality for Broncos Country. Broncomaniacs make memories for life inside Empower Field. But they’ve made friends for life through portable grills, giant coolers, generators and truck beds that double as buffet tables. And Broncos game days aren’t truly Broncos game days without them.
DU men’s hoops surge — A-minus
Is there something in the water along Asbury Avenue? The DU Pioneers’ gymnastics team continues to set the pace for the region. The hockey team’s making a late-season charge up the NCHC standings. And the men’s hoops team heads into Sunday’s visit to Omaha having won three straight conference games for the first time since February 2018. In a year where, among local squads, only CU women’s basketball has real hope for an at-large March Madness berth, the GTW bracketologists are looking forward to seeing the Pios and UNC make some noise at the Summit and Big Sky league tournaments, respectively.
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