Yep, actual state officials are making this a priority …
Sports Authority is screwed. Not long ago, the company announced that it would be filing for bankruptcy to get its affairs in order. Yesterday, however, it admitted that its $1.1 billion worth of debt was just too much. The end is neigh.
So what of the naming rights of the Mile High Stadium it owns? Gone. Donezo. That contact — which would have taken the "Sports Authority Field @ Mile High" name until at least 2035 — is worth diddly squat right now. No money, no name.
The $6 million to $7 million a year naming rights will be up for grabs soon. Luckily for the fine residents of Colorado, the hard-working folks over in that fancy building downtown have introduced a bill that guarantees the stadium will retain its "Mile High" moniker when another corporate deity swoops in and brands the shit out of it.
"Broncos fans throughout Denver and Colorado have been uniformly supportive of the Denver Broncos," says Rep. Dan Pabon to the Denver Post. "They've supported the building of their stadium. They've been supportive of the team. They've celebrated victory and we have a taxpayer-funded parade to support them."
The bipartisan bill simply states that any company coming into possession of the rights, "Must provide that the name of the stadium contains the phrase 'Mile High'."
Seeing as how the residents of Denver paid for 75 percent of the stadium back at the turn of the century with taxes, it doesn't seem like a terrible idea, though we're curious why it would actually take a bill to go through the government to secure something like this. Our representatives don't have better shit to do?
This is 2016, and if, say, Spanx fat-holders came in to claim the rights and didn't use the Mile High nickname, we're sure there'd be an online rampage of unforseen proportions about it and they'd cave. That's how things get done now. Online outrage.
Bills are so 1900s.
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