The lawsuit filed by two of late Broncos owner Pat Bowlen‘s daughters has been dismissed, per Mike Klis of 9News.com. The trial was intended to clarify and finalize Bowlen’s estate, including the future ownership status of the Broncos organization.
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Following Pat Bowlen’s death, it was widely assumed that Brittany Bowlen would be the one of Bowlen’s seven children to take over ownership of the franchise. Brittany Bowlen seemingly had the support of the Pat Bowlen Trust, a group that includes Broncos CEO Joe Ellis. However, two of Pat’s daughters from an earlier marriage, Amie Klemmer and Beth Bowlen Wallace, filed a lawsuit challenging their father’s mental capacity to approve the Trust. The lawsuit specifically names Ellis, Broncos executive Rich Slivka, and attorney Mary Kelly as members of the Trust who influenced Pat Bowlen’s decision.
We learned recently that the trial had been vacated after both sides filed a joint motion. Today’s development was the natural next step, although we haven’t heard any word about a potential settlement. Klemmer and Wallace previously stated that selling the organization could be the only resolution; while there’s a chance that the dismissed trial means they’re effectively conceding that Brittany Bowler will take over ownership, it could also hint that a sale is imminent.
In a statement to 9News, Ellis didn’t seem to hint at one particular route, but he did seem to imply that the two sides are still working towards a resolution:
“Regarding the future of the Denver Broncos’ organization, our No. 1 priority remains a timely, responsible and orderly determination of ownership,” Klis said. “There are no changes with the operation of the team, which is completely focused on a successful 2021 season.”
Riveting owner gossip.
So keep the millions you already received from pops,but let’s challenge his mental capacity about the Broncos.
TWO GREEDY WOMEN.
Meanwhile Elway still collects a large paycheck!
Didn’t anyone learn anything after Joe Robbie died? I know it’s like 30 years ago, but it serves example on what not to do
This is crap!!!
I think the primary problem is that actual knowledge of sports is no longer a prerequisite to becoming an owner. If a person has enough wealth and influential contacts they can join the club.
That is of course a “problem” but in no way is it a problem highlighted by anything here. We see that bee in your bonnet.
When was “actual knowledge of sports” ever a prerequisite for becoming an owner? The founder of the NY Football Giants, Tim Mara, was a bookie who had the money to buy the NFL’s New York franchise, but apparently knew little about the game itself. And George Halas didn’t start out as the owner of the then Decatur Staleys, now the Chicago Bears, he started as an employee hired by the team’s owner, the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company, whose business was corn processing and corn starch.
What Broncos fans have to worry about is a sky high bid on the team coming from out of town. Remember what happened to the Rams once St Louis native Georgia Frontiere died?
Sounds like one big happy Broncos family. Not. I also don’t think Aaron Rodgers wants to be a part of this mess. Or maybe he’ll fit right in.
Beth Bowlen Wallace has been trying to take control over the team for some time now, and as I’ve stated before, I couldn’t respect her any less for her attempts to wrangle as many family members in as possible to help her.
Granted, I do not know intimate details of how her relationship is with her family, but the fact of the matter is that her father left specific instructions on what he wanted done with the team and she has put herself before them. It’s one thing to be mad about someone else managing what you think should be your’s. It’s another to try and FORCE a sale of the team just because you weren’t picked. Some kind of settlement may be in order, sure, but holding up the transition process for years and then saying “either I get it or no one does” is extremely self-centered and childish. People like that make my skin crawl.
“the fact of the matter is that her father left specific instructions on what he wanted done with the team”
That’s really been the sticking point in this whole messy affair. Pat Bowlen suffered from dementia so even if he could issue specific instructions, his ability to reason properly while doing so, comes into question.
According to Beth Bowlen Wallace, sure. According to others, including his wife, other children, and friends, not so much. Wallace has been fired by the organization itself when she worked there to evaluate his suitability as a candidate, and passed over from the position. The only dissenters to Bowlen’s will have come out as accessories to her suit.
Dementia or not, it’s not her place to definitively set her interpretation of her father’s instructions (which do not mention her) as the rule. She is not asking for a review. She is demanding the team. She proved that this is about her, and not right or wrong or her father, when she then demanded that it be sold if she didn’t get it. The one thing nobody argues is that Bowlen did NOT want the team sold. That was the entire point of the trust in its conception. Bowlen Wallace is willing to disregard her father’s wishes to get what she wants, no matter who she drags down with it, and it’s pretty disgusting to see.