DMX blared suddenly over the speakers and Broncos president Damani Leech had a joke at the ready.
“We told them to turn the music up when the stadium questions started,” he said with a smile.
Just a humorous coincidence, really, as Leech spoke with reporters Saturday morning ahead of the Broncos’ second open training camp practice.
Stadium questions, decisions, sites and timelines, however, are at the forefront for the club as it pushes toward the 2025 season.
Leech again said the Broncos don’t have a set timeline for deciding if or where a new stadium might get built. He held to that even as recent reporting around Burnham Yard, a former railyard south of Empower Field, shows the team has bought land in the area and done extensive work — from conversations with neighboring Denver Water to inquiring about urban renewal tax incentives — vetting the site.
“We have not made any decisions about a preferred site,” Leech said when asked directly about Burnham Yard. “What you’ve heard from us is really at a city level. City conversations, city viewing. Denver, Aurora, Lone Tree. Beyond that, the level of the detail there, no decisions have been made.”
In early April, Leech told reporters at the NFL spring meeting in Florida that the club had “a healthy amount of pressure” from a timeline perspective, given the amount of work that has to happen before shovels even go in the ground for a build.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has been adamant about keeping the team in the city and told The Denver Post recently, “I feel like we have a chance to do something special and we’re going to work hard at it to get it done. And I feel like we’re close, but I think that’s all I can say now.”
Leech said Saturday the team has no timeline for announcing its decision or even a preferred stadium site.
“Certainly respect the excitement and enthusiasm of the mayor. He’s a big fan of the Broncos,” Leech said. “… Both the mayor and (Colorado Gov. Jared Polis) have been sincere in wanting to do what’s right for the Broncos and they understand the role the Broncos play in this community, and so we’ve had very good conversations with them. That being said, we’re not going to put a timetable on it. This is a 30-, 40-, 50-year decision that we don’t want to rush by a matter of weeks here or there.
“So we’re going to continue to do our due diligence until we feel like we’re in a position to make the right decision.”
Leech also said the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group believes Empower Field is in good shape right now, but added, “That being said, five more years and it’ll be a 30-year-old stadium. When you look around and what’s happening to stadiums built in that era, some younger, and they’re either being built new or going through significant renovations like Carolina and Jacksonville.
“That’s certainly something we’re thinking about.”
HQ progress
The Broncos’ new training facility and headquarters is impossible to miss at training camp as it gets constructed just away from the practice fields.
Leech said they recently finished the first hard-hat tour, and the project remains on schedule.
The Broncos plan to have a topping-out ceremony in August when the highest beam gets put in place. Then the structure will be enclosed by November.
“So from a weather standpoint, they’ll be able to do all the interiors and get us to a situation where we’re able to move in by May of next year,” Leech said.
He added it was too early to tell exactly what the training camp operation will look like next year.
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