When the Denver Broncos win the AFC championship tomorrow at Defunct Company Field at Mile High, they’ll provide a dramatic example of metropolitan cooperation in action.
In an era when the breakdown of community ties has been decried in such essays as “Bowling Alone,” our sports teams and stadia provide much of the glue that keeps our region together. As I type these words wearing my No. 93 jersey (Trevor Pryce), I’m part of a tribe of millions who have submerged our personal and political differences into a common cause.
I’ve followed the Broncos from their inaugural “vertical striped socks” season in 1960 when I was a defensive lineman for the Holyoke Dragons through their Super Bowl triumphs and the seven-year itch for a new John Elway that followed No. 7’s retirement. As a sportswriter for United Press International, I covered the Broncos in the Lou Saban era when they rose from laughingstocks all the way to mediocrity. After joining The Post in 1972, I stopped covering sports and began writing about politics.
In short, then and now, I mostly covered juvenile games.
After joining The Post, I started covering Mayor Bill McNichols, who was beginning a long and ultimately fruitful crusade to save Denver from the urban decay that had beset so many central cities in the east and midwest.
A later mayor, Federico Peña, would “Imagine a great city.” McNichols saw his job as saving one. The mayor and his wise and tireless right-hand man Ed Sullivan educated me and anyone else who would listen about the fiscal realities of a core city.
In the 1970s, Denver’s chief problem was that it was still the sole support of a host of regional services that were enjoyed by all citizens of this area – but paid for by the taxpayers of Denver alone. In the days when Denver dominated the state, it could afford that tab. By the ’70s, when most of the population and money had shifted to the suburbs, it needed help.
By far the most expensive item was Denver General Hospital, which shouldered the disproportionate burden of caring for medically indigent persons in the core city. Poor residents of what were then Colorado’s 62 other counties received free care at Colorado General Hospital. The result was that Denver taxpayers paid twice – once as Colorado taxpayers to care for residents of other counties and a second, much higher, charge for their own needs.
Other examples of services paid for by Denver residents that served the entire region or state included the Denver Zoo, Denver Symphony, and Denver Museum of Natural History.
Then, the Denver Broncos were added to that list. Initially the team played in the old, privately owned Denver Bears baseball stadium, which was expanded a couple of times after being taken over by the city. The final upgrade was financed by a seat tax on all city-owned facilities.
Eventually, civic leaders and the legislature responded to McNichols campaign by lightening some of the burden on Denver.
Today’s soaring health care costs are far greater than those of McNichols’ day, but changes in state and federal law at least distribute that burden more equally than when it fell so disproportionately on Denver.
Another huge step toward regionalism came when the old Denver Tramway and other municipal bus systems were merged into the Regional Transportation District.
Creation of the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District shifted the cost of supporting cultural facilities once underwritten by Denver to regional taxpayers. And the same regional financing principle was used when voters approved first Coors Field and then what is now Defunct Company Field at Mile High to replace the beloved but battered Mile High Stadium.
So when Champ Bailey returns Ben Roethlisberger’s pass for the winning touchdown tomorrow, he won’t be just advancing the Broncos to their seventh Super Bowl. He’ll be demonstrating how the citizens of the seven-county metropolitan area have learned to pull together for the common good.
Bob Ewegen (bewegen@ denverpost.com) is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post. He has covered state and local government since 1963.
