Mile High Stadium is "drawing close scrutiny these days,"
while a six-county football board is "examining the upkeep and
maintenance costs" of the 76,123-seat home of the Broncos,
according to Alan Snel in the DENVER POST. The board will decide
whether to upkeep Mile High "or reject the stadium and let
taxpayers decide on committing" $150M in sales-tax revenue for a
new venue. Denver-based engineering firm LONCO Inc. toured the
facility with the Denver Post and afterward LONCO engineer
Randall DeLancey said Mile High "needs more drains to draw
standing water and annual paint jobs to protect its steel frame,
but overall it's in good structural shape." LONCO estimated it
would cost $264M to keep the stadium in operating shape until
2024, but $150M of that would be for "daily maintenance
operations -- the kind of work that would be necessary even if a
new stadium were built." Denver spent "nearly" $4.3M to operate
and maintain Mile High last year, with costs "expected to hit"
$4.5M this year and run "as high as" $5M in '97 (DENVER POST,
9/22).
