Rob Walton, son of Helen and Sam Walton and heir to their Walmart fortune, is expected to submit a four billion dollar offer to buy the Denver Broncos.
the Pat Bowling Trust announced in February that the Broncos were on sale after 38 years in the Bowlen family.
The New York Post reports that Walton, with a net worth of nearly $70 billion, would presumably be able to buy the team without any other partners, but would also go through the standard vetting process that future owners of the NFL suffer.
If accepted, the $4 billion prize would easily be a record amount for an American professional sports franchise. David Tepper paid $2.2 billion for the Carolina Panthers in 2018, then Joe Tsai paid $2.3 billion for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.
The Post also reported that the Broncos were only accepting offers of four billion dollars or more, noting that insiders were projecting a final sale price between $4.5 billion and $5.5 billion. Apollo Global Management founder Josh Harris, who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers, is also expected to submit an offer.
CBS reported in late February that the NFL had a strong interest in wooing Robert F. Smith, the CEO of Vista Equity Partners and America’s richest black man, as a potential buyer, but that Smith would not. seemed uninterested in submitting an offer.
Walton’s offer would likely also be considered, given his wealth and the fact that his cousin, Ann, is married to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
