(Bloomington) The record $4.65 billion sale of the Denver Broncos to Walmart heir Rob Walton, along with his daughter and son-in-law, was unanimously approved by NFL owners on Tuesday.
Posted at 3:57 p.m.
This is expected to be the last step before the family transfer of the late Pat Bowlen.
The vote took place at a league meeting at a Minnesota hotel where Walton, his daughter, Carrie Walton Penner, and her husband, Greg Penner, were introduced to the media by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Worth an estimated $60 billion, Walton — the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton — becomes the league’s richest landlord.
Walton’s group paid the highest price in history for a sports club anywhere in the world. Its three limited partners are Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, Starbucks board chairwoman Mellody Hobson and former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
All three investors are black, which aligns with the NFL’s goal of having more diversity in ownership groups, team executives and coaches.
The Pat Bowlen Trust has led the Broncos since Bowlen retired from day-to-day duties in 2014 due to Alzheimer’s disease. He died in 2019, a month before his Football Hall of Fame induction.
Bowlen wanted one of his children to take over the team and Brittany Bowlen, now 32, was the directors’ choice. Not all of his siblings supported this choice, however, and so the club was put up for sale.
Brittany Bowlen resigned as vice president of team strategy after The Walton-Penner Group was chosen to take over the organization.
Only one other NFL club has been sold in the past 10 years: the Carolina Panthers, from Jerry Richardson to David Tepper, for what was then a record $2.2 billion.