On Monday, Forbes reported that Walmart heir Rob Walton had won the Denver Broncos bid and would be paying $4.5 billion for the team.
While the news is premature on Walton, the $4.5 billion, which would be an American team sale record, does not seem to be far off.
And that has to make John Elway sick.
Elway’s passing on buying a piece of the Broncos 23 years ago goes down as one of the worst mistakes in business history.
In September 1998, then Broncos owner Pat Bowlen offered Elway, who had just led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl title, a 10 percent piece of the team for the money that they had owed him ($21 million). Bowlen sweetened the deal by offering another 10 percent of the team for $15 million.
He also made it seemingly impossible to refuse saying he would buy the piece back for $5 million more, plus eight percent interest a year up to five years later.
Elway would have 10 months to decide before the option expired.