ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Owner & CEO Greg Penner stood on the hillside where the new Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit will stand, he spoke highly of the facility behind him.
When the Broncos first opened the existing facility in 1990, the team had yet to win a Super Bowl, let alone three world championships.
Looking toward the future, Penner said he's hopeful Denver's new state-of-the-art facility will set the stage for a similar run of success.
"The facility behind me ushered in one of the most successful eras of any NFL franchise, highlighted by three Super Bowl wins," Penner said Thursday at the team's groundbreaking ceremony. "Today we break ground on a new headquarters here at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit. I believe this new facility — like the one we opened 34 years ago — will mark the beginning of the next great chapter in Broncos history."
The privately funded project is set to be completed ahead of the 2026 season and will focus on enhancing player health and performance while bringing together football and business operations. At 205,000 square feet, the three-story headquarters is expected to be 30 percent larger than the existing facility.
"[Owner] Carrie [Walton Penner] coined the phrase when we first bought the team: we want to be the best team to play for, work for and cheer for," Penner said. "This really gets at the first two of those. For the players, right now they have three different buildings they walk to. This is going to bring that all together, create a much larger locker room [and] upgrade the sports performance areas. I think, for the players, it's going to be terrific. For the folks that work for us, we're going to bring a lot of people down from the stadium that are working there. Getting everybody together in one building, we think, will create a more collaborative environment that helps us reach our goals."
Penner said the project began after conversations with Senior Vice President of Operations Chip Conway about the continuing costs of improving the current facility and player survey results about aspects of the Broncos' existing facility. The Broncos toured a number of different training facilities across various sports league, and Penner said the Broncos took pieces from the Dolphins, Vikings and Raiders as they crafted their new facility.
"It was both taking things we liked and things we didn't like and creating what was right for our team and this space," Penner said.
President Damani Leech, who said it was "pretty special" to see the new facility "coming to life," said the Broncos' new facility is another example of the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group's commitment to the players and staff.
"We want to win on and off the field," Leech said, "and off the field includes the facilities and things that we have — not just for our players but our staff and staff culture and morale."
Leech said the Broncos' "transformational project" is currently slated to be completed by June of 2026, and he said the team is exploring options to host fans for 2025 training camp.
The Broncos officially began their march toward that completion date on Thursday, as Penner, Walton Penner and Leech joined Head Coach Sean Payton, General Manager George Paton, Conway and Senior Vice President of Construction Amy Dee joined CommonSpirit Mountain Region President Andrew Gaasch and representatives from Arapahoe County for the groundbreaking ceremony. With the shovels in the dirt, the football-first organization took the next step in investing in a new facility that lives up to the standard the organization aims to meet.
"At the end of the day, we want to make Broncos Country proud," Penner said. "This facility is going to raise the standard for our team and the entire organization."
