Today’s question comes from Jeff Petersen in Tempe, Ariz.:
Q: It is my understanding that the company Invesco no longer exists. Is that correct? If so, why are we still saddled with that horrible name? Even if contractually obligated to keep the name, why do so? Who is going to sue Broncos owner Pat Bowlen if the company doesn’t exist?
A: Jeff, it will be quite some time before the stadium is known as anything different, at least if the company holds on to its public stance that it’s “fully committed” to being up in lights on the site of the Broncos home games.
Denver-based Invesco Funds originally paid $120 million for the naming rights, which expire in 2021, at the height of the stock-market boom in the 1990s. At the time, the company employed more than 900 people locally.
However, Invesco Funds does no longer exists, having been eliminated by its parent company — Amvescap — amid allegations of improper trading that eventually resulted in a settlement. Folks’ portfolios that remained were moved to another part of Amvescap’s collection of holdings — AIM Investments in Houston.
At the time, Amvescap continued to offer a line of investment products carrying the Invesco name, in part to help pay the naming-rights bill.
Since then, Amvescap formally changed its name to “Invesco” in 2007 and moved its corporate headquarters to Atlanta.
So the bottom line is, that’s why the name is still on the stadium.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
