Board Waits To Hear If Any Companies Want Naming Rights Of Mile High Stadium
DENVER (CBS4) - The Metropolitan Football Stadium District board is still waiting on word whether anyone wants to take over the naming rights from Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The matter is now in the hands of a federal bankruptcy judge.
Monday was the deadline for accepting bids, but it came and went without the stadium board learning if there were any.
It's all but certain the Sports Authority name is coming down. The question is what name will be going up. But for now the stadium authority board finds itself at the mercy of the bankruptcy court and is facing a sentimental fan base that wants just the name Mile High.
Steve Stecher is a Broncos fan who doesn't want the rights sold.
"Why should Denver, the Mile High City, Colorado, be for sale to some little company?" Stecher told the board at its meeting on Monday.
First it was Invesco, then Sports Authority based in Englewood, but it has now gone bankrupt. So now the naming rights are up for grabs -- along with all of Sports Authority's assets.
"All the golf clubs and tennis shoes and basketballs -- the retail inventory, yes," the board's attorney told them.
Websites are gathering support to pressure the powers that be. But the $20 million remaining on the naming contract is big money.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked board chairman Ray Baker, "What's wrong with just keeping it Mile High?"
"Well you heard today about the capital options," Baker replied, but did not rule out the possibility of no naming rights depending on circumstances.
A legal marijuana business has suggested it might bid for the name on Mile High Stadium. But don't bet on that, according to Baker.
"The NFL to my knowledge hasn't condoned marijuana, and my guess is that wouldn't, so to speak, play on words, pass the smell test," he said.
For many fans any name but Mile High doesn't pass the test.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
