Broncos sold to Rob Walton

[madducks]

NFL owners have unanimously approved the sale of the Broncos to Rob Walton for $4.65 billion.

Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Rob served as Walmart's chairman from 1992-2015 and immediately becomes the NFL's richest owner, with an estimated net worth at close to $70 billion. His group has acquired the Broncos from the Bowlen family after Pat Bowlen bought the team in 1984. Bowlen passed away in 2019. The $4.65 billion sale of the Broncos is the highest price ever paid for a U.S. sports team.

[madducks]

According to Wikipedia, this deal has been in the works for over two months now.

On June 7, 2022, an ownership group led by Walton entered into an agreement to purchase the Denver Broncos from the estate of Pat Bowlen for $4.65 billion, which set the record for the most expensive sale of a sports franchise in history, subject to approval from the NFL's finance committee and a 3/4 majority of the full NFL ownership group. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was announced as added to the ownership group on July 11, 2022. The family then announced on August 2, 2022 that British racing driver Sir Lewis Hamilton will be added to the ownership group.

[madducks]

Rob Walton's son-in-law and current Walmart chairman of the board of directors, Greg Penner, is expected to lead the day-to-day operations of the team.

[madducks]

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports the Broncos have signed head coach Sean Payton to a five-year contract.

The Broncos agreed to send their first-round pick, acquired from the Dolphins in a previous trade, and a future second-round selection to New Orleans in exchange for Payton's services. Denver got back a third-round pick in the trade as well.

[madducks]

New Broncos head coach Sean Payton has ripped into the Broncos previous coaching staff and how they handled QB Russell Wilson.

Sean Payton told USA Today that his predecessors had done “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.”

“There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms,” Payton told USA Today Thursday.

“I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/sport/sean-payton-denver-broncos-nfl-spt-intl/index.html