Mark Kiszla: No. 1 reason to build new Broncos stadium? More touchdowns, not mo’ money

Let’s not get it bassackwards, Broncos Country.

The primary reason to build a new football stadium isn’t to get a Super Bowl to Denver for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

The No. 1 goal should be to get the Broncos to the Super Bowl on a regular basis.

The Denver Broncos cheerleaders wave to the crowd before the season opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. (The Denver Gazette, Christian Murdock)

A new football stadium in the Mile High City will be a boon to real estate investors and community spirit alike.

But the No. 1 job of a new playing facility should be to win the Broncos football games.

Period.

End of story.

While everything from a retractable dome to robotic bartenders would be 21st-century cool, if team owners Greg and Carrie Penner spend billions of the Walmart fortune on a new stadium that fails to give the Broncos the best home-field advantage in the league, they’re doing it wrong.

Yes, stadium construction will spur heated, legitimate debates between now and September 2031, when we can expect a beloved, balding and 31-year-old quarterback named Bo Nix to lead the Broncos onto the field for the NFL season opener in their new digs at an old railroad yard.

Longtime loyal fans who have proudly worn orange to home games for generations will gripe about paying a hefty surcharge for private seat licenses merely to keep season tickets in the family.

As his first term of the mayor comes to an end, Mike Johnston will claim getting a commitment from the Broncos to keep the team within the city limits without burdening taxpayers is proof Denver is not rotting from the inside during a slow, steady decline.

The residents of the historic, funky La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood will moan about the real estate vultures circling overhead.

But I don’t really give a hoot about all that.

The Penner-Walton ownership group intentionally avoided the fanfare of putting shovels in the ground Tuesday at the Burnham Yard site east of Interstate 25 to demonstrate an understanding that being stewards of a Denver civic treasure carries great responsibility.

But it also has been their thinly veiled secret since buying the team for $4.65 billion from the Bowlen family in 2022 that it was only a matter of when, not if, the Broncos would build a new home.

Here’s guessing the Penner-Walton group might spend even more money than the hefty purchase price on constructing a year-round entertainment district anchored by a stadium big enough to host everything from the Final Four to WrestleMania and Taylor Swift or the Super Bowl.

Football stadiums are no longer merely sports venues. They’re cash machines meant to crank dollars 365 days a year from condos and political conventions alike.

On scouting missions from Los Angeles to London, here’s hoping the construction research team kept a separate folder for ideas on how a stadium can not only provide more revenue for the Broncos, but more touchdowns on the scoreboard.

While covering football, I’ve been everywhere, man.

In my not-so-humble opinion, too many new stadiums miss the real point.

The Raiders’ home feels like an extension of The Strip, as if what Las Vegas needs is another gaudy venue to hear an over-the-hill rock band while sipping on overpriced cocktails. Don’t we already have the Sphere for that purpose?

The wide-open concourses of SoFi are California cool, but that stadium feels more like a monument to Stan Kroenke’s ego than a place visiting teams hate to play.

So here’s a big opportunity for Greg and Carrie Penner to build smarter.

Let Broncomaniacs in the stands be so close to the action a visiting coach can smell the Coors beer on their breath.

The best bells or whistles the new stadium could have are acoustics designed to capture noise so ear-rattling an opposing quarterback can’t hear himself think.

In the spirit of 1977, the new South Stands should be designed as a no-sit zone for die-hards, by enlarging and improving on the idea of “The Wall” found in the L.A. Clippers’ new basketball arena.

Although there will be a financial temptation to leverage the 100,000 folks on the ticket waiting list by building the Broncos the largest facility in the league, I say the best way to get the joint really rocking would be to reduce capacity to no more than 55,000 lucky patrons.

For too long, copy-cat stadiums have been designed for something that kind-of-a-big-deal architects like to call the total entertainment experience.

Well, you know what the best fan experience for paying customers always has been and always will be?

Winning.

In Denver, the mission statement for a new Broncos stadium should be abundantly clear to visiting NFL teams:

Welcome to 5,280 feet.

Enjoy your stay.

And take that “L” with you on the way out.