Imagine, for a moment, that you have somehow become lucky enough to own a house in an incredibly valuable, isolated neighborhood of 31 other homes. Imagine, now, that your longtime neighbors see shifting life circumstances and decide to move out of their home. And imagine, finally, that a new family gets giddy over that “For Sale” sign and decides to repeatedly outbid competitors to pay top dollar for that house.

Naturally, the value of your neighboring home would rise. This, according to sports-business expert Patrick Rishe, is analogous to the current economic case of the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks — separated by slightly over 1,000 miles across the American West but approximate neighbors in sheer franchise value.

“When a franchise sells, it really kind of resets the market almost instantly for all the other markets,” said Rishe, a former Forbes contributor and the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.

How Seahawks’ sale boosts Broncos

Last weekend, as first reported by ESPN, the Seahawks were bought by a group led by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for a league-record-setting $9.6 billion, a number longtime sports-valuation expert Drew Dormeiler told The Post was likely inflated due to “competitive bidding.” Just four years ago, the Walton-Penner ownership group bought the Broncos at less than half that price, for a then-record $4.65 billion. Valuation of an NFL franchise isn’t merely as simple as projecting off established price points — but several economic experts The Post spoke with agreed the Walton-Penner’s investment in the Broncos has seen massive appreciation since their 2022 purchase.

And Denver’s franchise valuation could rise comfortably into the top third of the NFL, too, if ownership’s plans for a new mixed-use stadium district at Burnham Yard come to fruition in the coming decade.

“The math on that is, what something is worth is what someone’s willing to pay,” Rishe said. “And the Broncos aren’t going to go on the market anytime soon, obviously. But I would say that it’s safe to say that the team’s new franchise value at this particular moment, is going to be pretty close to 9.6 billion, because they were viewed in the marketplace as being comparable in terms of market size and brand strength relative to the Seahawks.”

In 2025, Forbes ranked the Broncos No. 13 and Seahawks No. 14 in NFL team valuations, at a respective estimated $6.8 and $6.7 billion. Neighbors. And it takes just a basic understanding of real-estate principles, as Rishe pointed, to understand what that means for Denver’s franchise.

“For the Seahawks to sell for 9.6 billion,” Rishe said, “this immediately skyrockets the Broncos’ franchise value compared to the estimate Forbes produced last year.”

In the last 15 years — since Stan Kroenke became the controlling owner of the Rams in 2010 and Shad Khan took over the Jaguars in 2011 for similar, sub-$1 billion prices — NFL franchises have compounded exponentially in sale value. According to decorated economist Andrew Zimbalist, there are three general points contributing to this inflation: the country’s ever-widening wealth disparity, the popularity of the NFL, and the league’s monopoly on the sport of American football.

Troy Lowrie, the Denver entrepreneur who built and then sold a portfolio of strip clubs across six states, is selling his Castle Pines mansion because he says the house deserves an owner who will be there full time.

Lowrie and his wife, Tenicia, are asking $7.8 million for the 11,147-square-foot home, which overlooks the 12th hole of Castle Pines Golf Club. The couple bought the property in 2022 for $6.3 million after selling their longtime Golden mansion for $6.4 million.

Jerome and Mary Kern built the home in 2008. Jerome Kern, who died in 2024, was a telecommunications attorney and philanthropist widely credited with rescuing the Colorado Symphony from bankruptcy in 2011.

The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home was designed by BOSS Architecture and Semple Brown Design and named Home of the Year by Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazine in 2012. It has a Castle Rock address because it’s in an incorporated part of Douglas County, just outside Castle Pines limits.

The Lowries weren’t in the market when they stumbled on it.

“We had already bought land in Sedalia and were planning to build,” Troy Lowrie said.

But then they walked through Albion Place. “It’s impossible to build something like this now. The concrete alone would cost at least $3 million,” he said.

Lowrie said the grounds hooked him, especially the year-round heated pools, the glass-walled garden studio and tea house, the koi pond with cascading waterfalls, fire features, and mature 250-foot pine trees on the 1.11-acre lot.

“You feel like you’re in the mountains,” he said.

The home blends centuries-old materials with a modern aesthetic. A 16th-century granite fireplace mantel anchors one room; a 17th-century marble mantel anchors another. Walls of glass throughout dissolve the boundary between inside and out, and a dramatic gallery-style entry opens to soaring ceilings.

After moving in, the Lowries put their own stamp on the home.

For the last four seasons, Mitch Fraboni has been the Bronco long snapper (he was the LS for part of 2022). Long snappers are critical, but forgotten parts of every football team. Like offensive linemen, they only get noticed if they screw up.

Mitch is not only a competent long snapper, but he is also a decent tackler, getting anywhere from four to six tackles on punt coverage every season. Mitch had four tackles (3.5) last season on 75 punts – only 29 of which were returned. The leader on punt tackles for the Denver Broncos last season was JL Skinner with 5.5.

Position: LS | 6-2, 223lb (188cm, 101kg)

Admittedly only the gunners and the long snapper can be downfield before the punt is away, but Mitch is still an asset as a tackler on punt coverage.