Bowlen has degrees from Notre Dame and Duke, and has worked for both the NFL and the BroncosGETTY IMAGES
Broncos President & CEO Joe Ellis for the first time said Brittany Bowlen has "expressed an interest" in serving as the next controlling owner of the franchise, according to Ryan O'Halloran of the DENVER POST. It is a "significant development in the path toward choosing" Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen's successor. The 28-year-old Brittany Bowlen is one of Pat Bowlen's seven children. Ellis is a "part of a three-person trust established by Pat to run the team after he stepped down four years ago." He said of Brittany Bowlen, "She's taken some steps, some good steps, along the way in terms of her education." O'Halloran wrote revealing Brittany Bowlen's intention "moves along the narrative that she is on her way to fulfilling the qualifications -- both tangible and intangible -- to allow her to replace her father." A "likely scenario is her re-joining the Broncos as an executive to receive on-the-job training from Ellis before taking over the team." Ellis has "run the Broncos' daily operations" since July '14, when Pat Bowlen stepped away because of Alzheimer's disease. Ellis said that Brittany Bowlen "will soon start working at McKinsey & Co., a world-wide management firm after interning with the company last year." Her path "includes a finance degree from Notre Dame, a year apiece working for the NFL and the Broncos, an MBA from Duke and now McKinsey." She "will be based in Denver." The news about Brittany Bowlen comes almost two months after Beth Bowlen Wallace expressed her desire to be appointed controlling owner of the team (DENVER POST, 7/28). Ellis "doesn't have a set timetable" for a succession plan, but it "appears he has a leading contender and a plan B." His comments on Friday "insinuated he and the other non-family trustees ... intend to wait until Brittany is qualified to assume the top job." Jhabvala: "The other option? Sell" (THEATHLETIC.com, 7/27).
MADE WITH LOVE: In Denver, Mark Kiszla wrote the Broncos are a "family business" that Pat Bowlen "built with love." Everywhere fans looked Saturday as the team opened training camp, there was a "reminder why it would be criminal if the Broncos ever lost that loving feeling in a family argument over future ownership of a team" Bowlen turned into a $2.6B empire. Kiszla: "Everybody misses Mr. B." Ellis "goes to see" him occasionally, when Bowlen is "fit for entertaining visitors, to deliver a simple message." Ellis said, "I tell him that I love him, and I tell him everything is going to be OK with the Broncos.” While Ellis was "careful not to declare Brittany the heir apparent, she long has been the obvious leading candidate for the job" (DENVER POST, 7/29).
EXTREME MAKEOVER: Broncos Senior VP/Operations Chip Conway said that the Broncos have invested more than $45M to "renovate and expand" their HQ at UCHealth Training Center since '14, including the "construction of the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, with their latest endeavor making up" about $9.5M of that total. In Denver, Fredrickson & O'Halloran noted other major upgrades include "5,400 total square-feet of additional team meeting and positional meeting space with updated wall graphics" and the "installation of 260 extra-large and stadium-style seats." There is also audio and visual technology that "allows one master computer the ability to control every screen in the facility." Additionally, there is a training room expansion totaling 2,500-square-feet that includes a "player recovery room with five zero-gravity chairs, two cryotherapy machines, a float pod, and a tripled expansion of its previous hydrotherapy tubs" (DENVER POST, 7/27).
