The NFL’s Denver Broncos are expected to be sold to Rob Walton, Walmart heir and son of co-founder Sam Walton, according to a report published in Forbes on Monday.
No deal has been finalized. CBS Sports NFL reporter Josina Anderson says a source told her that a second round of bids are expected Monday afternoon, and because of that, “any notion that a favorite has emerged, or a that a figure has been finalized is categorically false.”
However, it is unlikely that any of the other finalists will be able to match Walton’s offer. The expected $4.5 billion bid is roughly $500 million more than the team was expected to sell for, according to reports from April. If the deal is finalized, Walton will not only be the league’s richest owner, he will have more wealth than the next six richest NFL franchise owners combined.
NFL teams rarely go up for sale, which is the suspected reason for the bid coming in much higher than expected. Ownership serves as both a legitimate investment and a status symbol for the uber-rich.
The deal will also be the largest sports franchise acquisition in American history, far exceeding the 2019 sale of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, which came in at $2.35 billion. The record for an NFL team is the 2018 purchase of the Carolina Panthers for $2.275 billion.
The Broncos were last purchased by the late Pat Bowlen for $78 million in 1984. Bowlen died in 2019 and the team has been run by his trust since. During his tenure as team owner, the Broncos appeared in seven Super Bowls, winning three of them.
This will be the first time a member of the Walton family has owned an NFL team. However, Rob Walton’s cousin, Ann Walton Kroenke, who is the daughter of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton and niece of Sam Walton, is married to Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams.
If the sale is finalized, someone connected to the Waltons will own every major sports franchise in Colorado except for the Rockies of MLB. The Colorado Avalanche of the NHL and the NBA’s Denver Nuggers are owned by Ann Walton Kroenke. Her husband, the aforementioned Stan Kroenke, owns MLS’s Colorado Rapids and the NLL’s (National Lacrosse League) Colorado Mammoth, as well as Arsenal F.C. in the English Premier League.