Broncos’ $100 million in Empower Field upgrades “a heavy lift”

You’d typically think the busiest time of year at a football stadium is football season.

Not so for Empower Field at Mile High over the past several months.

For all the commotion between a Nathaniel Hackett-led September win against Houston and a Jerry Rosburg-led early January win against the Los Angeles Chargers, that was all just a warmup for the frenetic offseason.

When the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group took over the franchise in August, one of the primary questions surrounding its purchase was the future of Empower Field.

The owners are still determining whether they want to build a new stadium to serve as the franchise’s home, one thing they knew for certain was that they wanted to update the current one. In late 2022, the club decided on $100-plus million in upgrades to serve as Empower Field’s second act after a 22-year opening run.

The challenge: Get it done in eight months.

“My challenge to them was that we haven’t touched the stadium in any meaningful way since it’s been built,” CEO Greg Penner said at the beginning of training camp. “When that last game ends, what can we get done before the next season starts? To get the renovations done — we’re not quite there yet, but we will be — to get $100 million worth of renovations done in that period of time is a really big deal.

“I’m very proud of the team and I think the fans will appreciate it.”

For an idea of the pressure and complexities associated with the project, president Damani Leech spoke right after Penner and maybe half-joked: “I was most excited, and I think you all heard it – I was in the back of the room – (that) Greg said things were going well.

“I think we can all quote him there on that.”

Almost immediately in January, the north end zone scoreboard started coming down. It’s been replaced by a video board that is 70% larger, including 30 feet taller.

“You’ve seen some of the images. If you’ve been to a concert, you’ve seen how big it is,” Leech said. “It’s impressive how massive it is.”

It’s the kind of thing that takes weeks to figure out how to program and deploy during games. The Broncos have new video boards in other parts of the stadium, too, which were a rush to get up and running before the biggest act on the planet in 2023, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, came through for two dates in July.

Yeah, another wrinkle to the project: Empower Field still hosted a full set of concerts. That meant putting proverbial lipstick on the construction site and hiding the jackhammers so people could enjoy Swift, George Strait, Ed Sheeran and others from a suite or from the furthest-out rows in the upper deck.

“It’s been quite a heavy lift,” Leech said. “Not just for myself, but (stadium manager) Jay Roberts,  Zach Myhra (the Broncos senior director of facilities, construction and planning) and the folks at the stadium who are working incredibly hard. It’s been a sprint. … Two Taylor Swift concerts back-to-back was not easy to do. I think it is just a great credit to their work.”

Other structural changes include a bigger team store and the Breckenridge Bourbon Club, a premium field-level space that can be added on to a season-ticket package.

Owner Carrie Walton Penner told The Post this summer that the club is going to feature local artists, “to really highlight local art in the community.” she said.

Just like the decision to replace the Empower Field turf for one game only – the regular-season finale – the $100 million in upgrades are in some ways a placeholder. It’s improvement, but it’s not an endpoint.

“We’ve got the best fans and it goes far beyond Denver and Colorado,” Walton Penner said. “How do we continue to think about making sure the gameday experience is amazing? That’s been fun to see the plans that are in place for the coming season and how to really make that the best experience whether you’re in the stadium or watching from home.”

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