Joe Ellis is closing in on 20 seasons in the Broncos’ front office, but each season-opener makes his as nervous and giddy as the last.
“Especially home games,” Ellis, the team’s president and CEO, said in an interview with The Denver Post on Saturday. “You want to win so bad for your fans and season-ticket holders.”
It’s those fans Ellis says he has in mind as he continues to search for a new naming-rights partner for the team’s stadium.
Last August the Broncos severed their sponsorship agreement with Sports Authority that was valued at $55.3 million, and they assumed the rest of Metropolitan Football Stadium District’s naming rights contract with the company. The now-bankrupt Sports Authority owed nearly $20 million over the last five years of its naming rights deal.
The Broncos assumed the remainder of the contract to gain control over the process of finding a new sponsor, and last year employed marketing agency WME-IMG to secure a new naming rights partner.
“There’s a sense of urgency and we as a staff and our agency are working hard to get the right company in at the right deal,” Ellis said. “We’ve got big obligations to try to sustain and maintain and improve the stadium, and the naming rights component is a key component in terms of funding.