A Lot Is Riding on Broncos’ Backs

The shock that accompanied the Broncos’ upsetting playoff loss to Jacksonville here a year ago has hung heavy in the thin air, bringing a Mile High madness to today’s rematch, and this end-of-the-world prediction from Denver radio personality Sandy Clough: “The future of this franchise might very well rest on the outcome of this game.”

You mean, there may be no tomorrow?

In Denver, there may not be.

Bronco quarterback John Elway has yet to declare his intentions, and that could make today’s game in Mile High Stadium his last if he decides this off-season to retire, leaving Bubby Brister standing in his shoes.

Team owner Pat Bowlen, however, has been far more horrifying in redefining life as Denver football fans have known it for the last 14 years: If the voters of Denver do not pass a referendum next year to provide $180 million in sales tax to help build a new stadium, “I will not be the owner of the Broncos for much longer.

“Somebody else will buy this team, they will pay me the appropriate sum and I will maximize whatever I can get--not on the basis of what they’re going to do in Denver but what they’re gonna do somewhere else, and it will end up in Houston, or Toronto or somewhere else. That’s the nature of the business.

“And if I want to stay in the business, I will have another team. . . . All the people in Los Angeles want a team. If I said I wanted to go to L.A., I think I’d get the green light [from the league] like that.”

No, today’s contest is not just another football game in Denver, but rather the beginning of a campaign that might decide if there are to be any more big games here.

If the Broncos win, avenging a 30-27 playoff loss to Jacksonville in front of 70,000 pumped-up fans, and can keep on winning, the prevailing opinion here is that the local electorate will swarm to the polls to give the Broncos whatever they want.

Lose, and this town strikes back with an apathetic vengeance, its loyalties shifting to the Rockies and Avalanche.

“What would winning the Super Bowl really be worth to the Broncos now?” Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla wrote this week. “Nothing less than the miracle Bowlen desperately needs to get himself a new stadium he regards as crucial to the team’s survival in Denver.”

Yeah, right, as if the Broncos are going to move.

“Rightfully or wrongfully, Cleveland has set something that every city is looking at: ‘God, what would happen to us if that happened?’ ” Bowlen said. “Art Modell took the heat, and we [NFL owners] got the benefit of it. He will live with that decision until they put him in a pine box.

“It would be too heart-wrenching for me to move this team and I can’t imagine that, but if we do not get a new stadium, I cannot continue to own the team. What saves us for a couple of years is the new TV contract, but it will benefit everybody, so there’s still going to be competitive unbalance.”

The Broncos do not receive revenue from the penthouse suites, parking or concessions, and there are no club seats for which to charge premium prices, or personal seat licenses. Without that revenue, Bowlen says he will not have the money needed to lure players here with huge signing bonuses.

“The reason I’m in the business is because I want to be competitive,” said Bowlen, who has competed in the Ironman triathlon. “This is the worst thing to invest in, unless you want to sell it. If I didn’t want to be competitive, I could take my $250 million and go live on the beach.

“Jerry Jones, much like myself in getting involved in the whole operation of the team, gets $45 million in stadium revenue and I get zero. The way things are going, we won’t be able to play a playoff game like we’re going to be playing [today] in a few years. We’re going to be the Cincinnati of the National Football League.”

The citizens here agreed in 1990 to a sales tax of one cent on every $10 spent for the next 20 years or as soon as a new stadium for baseball’s Colorado Rockies was paid off. A booming economy will result in Coors Field being paid off in roughly 10 years, and the Broncos are asking in their referendum to maintain that tax in order to provide $180 million toward a $260-million stadium near Mile High Stadium.

The referendum is scheduled for next November, but Bowlen is pressing the state Legislature to move the referendum up to May--that’s how critical the issue has become. If unsuccessful in getting the referendum on the ballot earlier, he said, he might have to ask for more money on top of the $180 million, because, he said, the team will not be able to pitch in any more than $80 million.

“Let’s be clear: You’ve got even the new owners coming in the league, like Paul Allen in Seattle, saying they won’t get in this business without a new stadium, and that guy’s worth $18 billion,” Bowlen said. “No matter who owns the team in Denver, even if it’s another Paul Allen, it’s going to be a problem. What we’re saying is, how important is it to you, the fans of Denver, to maintain this football franchise?

“There are no threats here; this has nothing to do with Pat Bowlen. It would be happening no matter who owned the team.”

The Broncos have sold out their stadium for 28 consecutive years, but no longer dominate the landscape here as they did before the arrival of the Rockies and the Avalanche. Bowlen bought the team for $70 million in 1984, and under his direction the Broncos have made eight playoff appearances, including three Super Bowls, but all with Elway, who, at the most, will play one more season.

“John factors into everything we do here,” Bowlen said. “He factors into the stadium--how long is he going to play?”

With that in mind, Bowlen spent big free-agent bucks this year, trying to surround Elway with better talent for a final fling at success, and in the process just maybe getting a winning stadium message across as well.

But the Broncos have to win today, keep winning, and then win again at the polls.

“I could make that deal to go to Los Angeles in two seconds, but I’m emotionally attached here,” Bowlen said. “Now if we don’t win the referendum, two, three four years down the road, clearly we need to do something in Los Angeles.

“With all respect to the people working on it now, we don’t have the answer yet. We need a solution, and it can’t be a recycled Raiders team. Al [Davis] claims he has the rights and might move back, but that’s the time we got to line the guns up at the city gates. We need to have a first-class stadium to play a Super Bowl in every four years, and a first-class organization.

“I’d love to be given that challenge if it didn’t work here.”

But that’s for another day--tomorrow maybe.