I just want to keep working hard so one day I can help my family. I am going to get a big house one day, and we all can stay in it and eat.

– Ben McLemore

The Denver Broncos have a big new house. And boy, does it look like they are going to get to stay in it and EAT. Nearly two years ago, the team broke ground on Broncos Park (Powered by CommonSpirit), and it is newly completed in time for their 2026 training camp. The numbers and facts behind some of the particulars boggle the mind…

• The campus is 58 acres. That’s about 2/3 the size of Disneyland, or roughly half the size of Vatican City. HUGE, in other words. It’s about the size of 44 football fields. (no, they do not have 44 football fields there)
• The facility itself comprises about 210,000 square feet. That’s about three times the size of Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and about 25% larger than your average WalMart SuperCenter. It’s also 30% larger than the digs they have just moved on from.
• For the first time in their history, the Broncos will house football operations, player development, and administrative business all under the same roof.
• The players locker room stalls are markedly larger, and the locker room is set up in a way to have a central hub/conversation “pit”.
• Being so much larger, the setup still makes life easier for the players. Weight rooms, nutrition and dining, practice fields, and the above-mentioned locker rooms are all located in close range to one another, saving time and travel during camp.
• Parking is underground, beneath the facility. No more getting into car-saunas at the end of summer practices. No more scraping windshields when finishing up a day during Colorado winters.

And there’s more. So much more. Zac Stevens had a great report on player feedback on Day 1 of Training Camp earlier this week, and the guys are effusive in their feedback. They also believe that this state-of-the-art facility is like “nothing in the NFL right now”, and that the impressive aspects of the facility will be a real boon in free agency recruitment in the years to come. That all sounds a very wise investment.

And that may be one of the most impressive parts of how this has all come together. As one of the richest ownership groups in sports, Greg Penner and Carrie Walton-Penner came out of the gates to some mixed reviews with the learning curve they were facing and a couple of albatrosses thrown in like the massive contract they initially three at Russell Wilson. But from those early foibles has come a focus and seriousness about the team and its betterment that is undeniable at this point. Just the facility described above cost 175 million dollars to give the team this advantage. How much of that did the owners ask the city to provide? Zero. The project is fully self-funded by the team.

Add to that a fully self-funded new stadium slated for construction start in the next year or so (and slated to be open for the 2031 season), the expenses laid out for a world-class head coach and coaching staff, the 100 million plus the have pumped into the current stadium in upgrades, and a thoughtful approach to player health and safety in their approach, and it becomes very clear… it’s not simply the dollars in the practice facilities, the stadium, the coaching staff, or the outcomes that have made the Broncos a top-notch organization in their four scant years at the helm. It’s that they themselves are an ownership group that has very few peers. And that bodes exceptionally well for the long-term prospects of the team and the enjoyment of the fans. The house that Penner built is just coming into view. And that ought to have the Denver Broncos at the head of the table for a very, very long time.