If Sunday’s blizzard happened on a gameday in 2032, Greg Penner would close the roof.
At his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, the Broncos’ owner confirmed that the organization was “evaluating retractable roof options” for Denver’s planned new stadium at Burnham Yard. And as Empower Field was hit with a snowstorm this weekend that left players largely unable to cut on the turf in the Broncos’ 10-7 loss to the Patriots in the AFC championship, Penner offered an interesting glimpse into the future of gamedays in Denver.
“In this case, we would’ve likely closed it ahead of time, given both the temperature and the potential precipitation,” Penner said, noting the organization would comply with NFL rules on home-team roof decisions.
“That being said, who knows if that would’ve had any outcome on that either way?” Penner continued. “This would’ve been more around — just, what was good for the fans. Because that was pretty rough.”
Roughly five months after officially announcing Burnham Yard as the preferred site for a new stadium, Penner said Wednesday that the franchise is “working through preliminary designs” with a series of architects. In November, the Broncos submitted a large-area development plan around Burnham Yard that announced international firm Sasaki — which has worked on several projects in Denver — will design the stadium’s master plan.
“We think we’re going to create something that’s going to be special for the city of Denver, state of Colorado,” Penner said.
Penner said ownership has had “a lot of conversations” with the Denver City Council, and pointed again to a community benefits agreement with La Alma Lincoln Park as the next step in the planning process. That’ll be a slow development, as Councilwoman Jamie Torres told The Denver Post that it’ll be some time before an official CBA coalition is formed.
Torres said preliminary coordinators for the community benefits agreement are holding focus groups with different demographics in the community in the meantime, however.
“We also understand when you take on a project of this scale, there’s going to be a lot of different opinions, and we’ve gotta take those in and then come up with the right solution,” Penner said Wednesday.
The city of Denver is also putting together a small area plan with input from the Lincoln Park La Alma community, with another public open house scheduled for Feb. 12 at the La Alma Recreation Center.
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