The Denver Broncos announced Tuesday that they have chosen Burnham Yard, a historic railyard district outside the city’s downtown area, as the preferred site for a new stadium.
The Broncos are planning to build a “world-class retractable roof stadium” on the site with a targeted completion date of 2031, according to a joint statement released by owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner, Denver mayor Mike Johnston and Colorado governor Jared Polis.
The decision to choose the 58-acre Burnham Yard site as the future home of a stadium and mixed-use district followed the Broncos’ exploration of potential stadium sites in the Denver suburbs of Lone Tree and Aurora.
“Denver has been the proud home of the Broncos since Day 1,” Walton and Walton Penner, who have run the team since 2022, said in the statement. “This community-inspired vision will allow our city and team to continue to grow and thrive together at Burnham Yard.”
“This is a really important milestone. But we have a long way to go. We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get to work.” – Broncos Owner & CEO Greg Penner
Broncos Owners Greg Penner & Carrie Walton Penner join civic leaders in embracing “win-win-win” with Denver’s Burnham Yard… pic.twitter.com/XBOSK0MUHP
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 9, 2025
The Walton-Penner Family Ownership group will privately fund the investment, the group stated, “and work with the community, city and state to reconnect historic neighborhoods — with no new taxes.”
The Broncos have been at their current stadium, located outside downtown Denver, Empower Field at Mile High, since 2001. When the Broncos ultimately move into a new stadium, the land the Broncos lease at the current venue, about 80 acres, would revert back to the city.
“I think this is a once-in-a-century moment for the city of Denver,” Johnston said by phone Tuesday afternoon, “because for us, it’s not just (that) you take the most beloved franchise and extend them for 50 years. That’s great. It’s not just that you get to have a retractable roof, which means you can host the city’s first-ever Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four … It’s the ability to do that without spending a single taxpayer dollar to build that stadium or acquire the land for it. It’s also getting two totally revitalized new neighborhoods.”
The first is the future Burnham Yard development, which aims to be a year-round destination that includes restaurants, retail spaces and housing. It will be a project, which seeks to revitalize a 150-year-old railyard, “of a complexity and scale that only a partner like the Broncos can figure out,” said Johnston, who has been working with the franchise on plans since he first took office two years ago.
The move to Burnham Yard will also open back up 80 premium acres of land at the current Mile High site for new development.
“That’s an incredibly important and attractive neighborhood in the center of Downtown,” Johnston said. “We can now work with the neighborhood there and build housing, apartments, parks. It’s riverfront (land) that connects right into Downtown. It’s going to be an amazing new gem on the west side of Denver. There will never be another day where you get 180 acres of central Denver to develop. … That’s quite a remarkable deal for us.”
The Walton-Penner group bought the franchise just before the start of the 2022 season at a then-record price of $4.65 billion. Questions about a future stadium project were among the first the group fielded after taking over the team. The first step was determining whether the Broncos would actually need a new venue. A decision that was made “after careful evaluation and extensive research over several years,” the team said. The Broncos have been at their current stadium outside of downtown Denver, Empower Field at Mile High, since 2001.
“When the Broncos’ lease at Empower Field at Mile High expires with the Metropolitan Football Stadium District after the 2030 season, the facility will be 30 years old, which is a common inflection point for professional sports venues to undergo a complete replacement or extensive renovation,” the team said. “With the evolution of fan expectations and the year-round opportunity created by a stadium-anchored mixed-use district, Burnham Yard was identified as the preferred site to drive lasting economic impact, growth and connection for the community.”
“Denver has been the proud home of the Broncos since Day 1. This community-inspired vision will allow our city and team to continue to grow and thrive together at Burnham Yard.”
In a joint letter, Broncos Owners Greg Penner & Carrie Walton Penner join @denversmayor & @GovofCO in… pic.twitter.com/ULGftc9v6G
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 9, 2025
Burnham Yard ceased operations as a railyard in 2016, and its land was sold to the state five years later. The Colorado Department of Transportation initially planned to use the land to expand the city’s main thoroughfare, Interstate 25, or enhance light rail options in the city. Denver officials ultimately determined the site was not feasible for those expansion projects and began the process of putting it up for sale. In addition to buying the 58-acre site from the state, the Broncos also have “an agreement in concept” to purchase another 25 acres from Denver Water, which has a headquarters near Burnham Yard.
The Broncos do not yet have a timeline established for breaking ground on a new stadium project, though they said on Tuesday that a retractable roof and a natural grass field are two of the visions for the future project. The former could give a new stadium the chance to create three times more annual economic impact for the city than Empower Field, Johnston said.
“While this is an exciting milestone, we recognize there is much more work to be done ahead of a targeted stadium completion for the 2031 NFL season,” the joint statement between the Broncos and government officials said. “Today is not yet a celebration but rather a meaningful checkpoint reflecting years of research, collaboration and planning as well as necessary land agreements and feasibility studies.”
The Walton-Penner group has enacted massive changes since buying the team from the Pat D. Bowlen Trust in August of 2022. They made $100 million in upgrades to Empower Field at Mile High ahead of the 2023 season. A new $170 million training facility at the site of the team’s current headquarters is expected to be open in time for training camp in 2026. The group hired Sean Payton as head coach and, in 2024, oversaw the team’s first playoff season since 2015.
Johnston said he sensed a “monumental opportunity” when talking with the Broncos’ ownership about a stadium and development project in the city, in large part “because they want to be a part of a community; they wanted to be at the (Burnham Yard) site because they saw it as a real community asset.”
“There were a lot of times where this deal was hard and they could have walked away and they didn’t,” Johnston said. “I’m really grateful for that.”
(Photo of Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner: AAron Ontiveroz / Getty Images)
