As the Denver Broncos go on the auction block to be scooped up by whichever ownership group has the deepest pockets, the fans have to wonder what life will be like with a new owner of the most treasured brand in Colorado.

Will our new owners strive to win championships or will they focus on making money?

Most of us probably believe that winning and profitability go hand-in-hand. The more you win, the further you advance in the playoffs, the more highlights you produce on all the recap and analysis shows, the more fans you recruit, the more stadiums you fill, the more merchandise, concessions and sponsorships you sell, etc.

So of course the new owners will want to win, right?

Not necessarily.

Revenue sharing in the NFL, particularly the television money, ensures that even losing teams stay flush with cash. According to Forbes, the latest television contracts with NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN and Amazon will deliver $321 million per year to each franchise.

The Denver Broncos franchise is valued at approximately $4 Billion. It’s so much money that we’re unlikely to find an individual person who can afford to buy the whole team. Instead, we’ll see investor groups pull together.

Some members of the winning investor group will be putting up a small piece of a larger fortune to purchase, say 5% of the team, while other members of the investor group may be cobbling together every dime they can spare to buy 1% of the team.

The pressure to make money will be intense. Our new owners may desperately need dividends every year to ensure that they don’t go broke with so much of their capital tied up in this investment.

Why does this all matter? Because winning is what the fans care about, and winning requires owners who will commit their cash into the business.

Former Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen was driven to win. You could see it in the decisions he made with the team.

He spent big dollars to hire and retain the best coaches he could find. He rewarded his star players with big contracts to keep them in Denver. He spent money on high-priced free agents to make the team more competitive. He invested money in improving the practice fields, the weight room, the cafeteria, the meeting rooms, the technology, etc.

When the Broncos won their first Super Bowl at the end of the 1997 season, Pat Bowlen bought Super Bowl rings (or pendants) for every full-time employee. That’s not normal. Typically, the people who get rings are the owner, certain key executives, the coaches and the players. But Bowlen included everyone. When the Broncos won their second Super Bowl after the 1998 season, he did it again.

Will the new owners do that?

Spending money to win in the NFL is necessary, but risky. That high-priced free agent you signed could get injured, and the money you spent on him disappears into a hole never to return. Those extra Super Bowl rings and improvements to the facility are great for morale, but do they really deliver value to the bottom line?

The Denver Broncos have a long tradition of winning football games, and in a league in which every other team has all the same resources as your team, it’s telling that certain franchises generally win year after year (e.g. the Pittsburgh Steelers) while other franchises languish at the bottom of the league, generally losing year after year (e.g. the Houston Texans).

I hope the Pat Bowlen Trust won’t just look for the largest offer. I hope that the Trust will look at the composition of the ownership group, and avoid any offer that includes too many small investors who own tiny fractions of the team and are likely to be desperate to get their capital back.

The Denver Broncos fans appreciate all that Pat Bowlen and the Bowlen family have done for the franchise, and the fans will happily welcome a new ownership group – but only if the new owners want to win.

Reggie Rivers is a former NFL running back who played six seasons with the Denver Broncos. He is the president of theThe Gala Team, a company helping nonprofits reach their fundraising goals. He is the author of six books and a former opinion columnist for The Denver Post.

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