In Denver sports, Broncos are back of the pack

Over the weekend, the University of Denver sealed the deal on their 10th NCAA hockey championship, the most in college hockey history. The Denver Nuggets are the reigning NBA champions. The Avalanche are poised to make a serious run in the playoffs this year after winning it all in 2022. Then there are the Broncos and the Rockies.

For as long as I have been alive, the Denver Broncos have sat atop the mile high mountain as the cream of the crop franchise in Denver. Now, they are right there with one of the biggest jokes in professional sports, the Colorado Rockies. How did the Broncos come to find themselves keeping company with a team that has no desire to win or field a team that has any hope to compete?

While the billionaire owners raise ticket prices on season ticket holders after their 9th consecutive season without appearing in the playoffs, it’s a play right out of the Monfort playbook to shake as much cash out of the fans for a beyond sub-standard product. In lieu of improving the team, both the Walton-Penners and the Monforts choose to invest in material upgrades like party decks and ridiculous exclusive bars like Club 1977. While the new scoreboard at Mile High is nice, when everybody leaves in the third quarter because of another blowout, what does it matter?

Stadium upgrades and new uniforms are nice, but what ownership needs to get intimately involved with is the product on the field. It’s entirely possible that Broncos Country will endure a decade of losing since Super Bowl 50. Let’s focus on winning and less on all the outside stuff, like porking the fans for more money for a sub-standard product.

With so much sports success in Colorado these days, the attention span and patience for ineptitude isn’t what it was during the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the last time they were consistently this bad. Basketball, hockey, and college hockey have all grown up around the decaying mess that is the Broncos. Competition for eyeballs is hotter than it’s ever been before. If the Broncos don’t become more team and fan focused, they are right there in the running to join the Rockies as a laughingstock of professional sports. Heck, we may already be there.

HEADLINES

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