Emerson Phillips
Reports are circling that Walmart heir Rob Walton is expected to purchase the Denver Broncos for a price of roughly $4.5 billion.
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Details of the purchase have not been finalized, but the deal is expected to be announced as “early as this month,” according to Forbes.
Prospective buyers visited the Broncos’ team facilities in May. And while there were four other parties interested in buying the team, none come close to matching Walton’s wealth. Rob is the son of Sam Walton and has an estimated net worth of $59.6 billion, according to Forbes.
$4.5 billion would nearly double the American record for most money ever paid for a sports team, with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets currently holding the record when they were sold for $2.35 billion in August 2019.
The record purchase price for an NFL team is $2.275 billion paid by David Tepper for the Carolina Panthers in 2018.
All purchases of NFL teams are subject to approval from the league’s other team owners. If approved, Walton will buy the Broncos from Pat Bowlen, who bought the Denver NFL franchise for $78 million in 1984.
Under Bowlen’s ownership, the Broncos appeared in seven Super Bowls, winning three. They were also levied the largest fine in NFL history for twice circumventing the league’s mandated salary cap between 1996 and 1998 – the fines totaled $1.918 million. (The New England Patriots subsequently matched the largest fine in NFL history for “deflategate.”)
Bowlen died in 2019, and his trust has been running the organization ever since.
