PALM BEACH, Fla. — There are so many issues within the Broncos’ ownership sale. The price tag that’s expected to be in the $4 billion neighborhood. Minority representation. And then there’s the timing of it all. Remember for the longest time, it appeared Joe Ellis and the trustees were going down the path of having one of Pat Bowlen’s children take control, specifically Brittany Bowlen.
What happened there and why put the Broncos up for sale now and not, say, a few years earlier?
"The timing of selling the team, first of all from an estate tax standpoint it was never going to happen," Broncos chief executive officer Joe Ellis, who is also one of three trustees responsible for managing the Patrick D. Bowlen Trust, said in a sit-down interview Monday with 9NEWS. "Certainly while Pat was alive. That didn’t make any sense."
Estate taxes are stiff, but apparently spike considerably while the estate’s person is still alive – even if the person is declared incapacitated as Bowlen was from Alzheimer’s in December 2013.
"And then once he died there was litigation ongoing with (Pat’s brother) Bill Bowlen and a couple of the beneficiaries (oldest daughters Amie Klemmer and Beth Wallace) thereafter," Ellis said. "Yes, Pat asked us to give a child every opportunity and it just didn’t work out and I don’t want to get into that. It’s been hard for the family but they need to speak to that, not me."
There was also the right-of-first-refusal claim by the heirs of former Broncos’ owner Edgar Kaiser Jr. that the trustees wanted settled before they proceeded with the sale. The court decidedly ruled in the Broncos’ favor and although the Kaiser estate has appealed, Bowlen’s trustees – Ellis, Broncos’ general counsel Rich Slivka and attorney Mary Ellis – are going through with putting the Broncos up for sale. If it sells for $4 billion, the seven Bowlen children, who combine for 78 percent of the team’s proceeds (John Bowlen, Pat’s brother, holds 22 percent of the team in non-voting rights share) stand to each make $445 million. Before taxes.
"Once litigation was out of the way … we from that point forward started the process," Ellis said.
>>Video below: Klis & Tell: 1-on-1 with Denver Broncos CEO Joe Ellis
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