The Los Angeles Angels, mind you, cost Uncle Stan quite a bit more than three bucks during BP.

It took a few decades, but a man named for two Major League Baseball players is about to join the ranks of MLB ownership. Enos (as in Enos Slaughter) Stanley (as in Stan Musial) Kroenke, according to reports, has reached an agreement to buy the Halos from previous owner Arte Moreno, effective in early 2027.

Assuming the deal goes through, that puts Stan a leg up at the next family BBQ on the baseball front, at least. The Penner Sports Group — which is overseen by Walton-Penner and her husband Greg and, like Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, is part of the Walmart financial empire — has owned the Broncos since August 2022 and purchased a 40% stake in the Rockies this past April. Penner said last month that they had no plans to extend that investment, and that control of the flailing baseball franchise will remain with the club’s majority owners, the Monfort family.

Yeah, that last one didn’t sit well with the baseball sickos on the Grading The Week staff, either. Especially after longtime season-ticket holders we know texted us to grouse about receiving notice from the club of a 14% price hike for next season, all while a potentially nuclear work stoppage looms in early 2027.

The Monforts are the Dodgers of leveraging real estate and selling alcohol. Unfortunately, the Rox also play in the same division as the real Dodgers and are therefore trying to avoid becoming the first MLB club since the Mets in 1965 to string together four straight seasons with 100 or more losses.

Kroenke buys Angels, Rox still stink — D

In a perfect world, KSE would’ve bought the Rockies from the Monforts ages ago. The games would fill up those dry summer months of programming on Altitude TV and spice up the evening hours on Altitude Sports Radio. Nikola Jokic would be rocking the owner’s box at Coors Field, a world-class player at a world-class venue,

While KSE’s stewardship of the Nuggets and Avs has at times been mercurial, it’s also been fairly successful from a standings perspective. And given the concurrent sagas of Peyton Watson, whom the Nuggets just traded to Cleveland rather than extend; and Cale Makar, who just landed the largest contract in NHL history, it’ll be fascinating to see how KSE handles payroll in a non-salary-capped sport. (Well, non-capped for now, boys and girls.)

Uncle Stan had reportedly bid for the Dodgers before, and like 99.99% of big-time North American sports franchise purchases, this one feels more like a land grab on Kroenke’s part than some burning desire to become the next Gene Autry. KSE’s SoFi Stadium, home to the Rams and landlords to the Chargers, is the centerpiece of the Hollywood Park entertainment district in Inglewood, Calif.

Magic Johnson, a minority owner of the Dodgers, welcomed Stan into the MLB ownership club via X.com, then thanked him for letting the NBA icon “rent their beautiful yacht named Aquila for 7 years!”

Those Walmart braggin’ rights are in Stan’s court, given that KSE’s got a tentacle in every major North American sports circuit, with the MLB arm (Angels) joining the NFL (Rams), NBA (Nuggets), NHL (Avalanche), and MLS (Rapids).

And given the global reach of the Arsenal brand, only the oceans cover more of planet Earth than the Kroenkes do at the moment.

On the baseball side, wish Stan luck. The Angels are — were? — one of the few MLB ownership situations that might have a more contentious vibe with its fan base than the Rockies do with Denverites. The Halos are on their sixth manager in eight years. The Angels even had their very own Kris Bryant situation in third baseman Anthony Rendon. The former All-Star landed a seven-year, $246-million contract with the Halos after helping Washington win a World Series in 2019 — then promptly fell apart. The infielder, now 36 years old, has spent this season away from the club, yet hasn’t formally retired.

Rendon’s agent? Scott Boras. Yep — the same guy who represents KB23. Small world, isn’t it? If nothing else, the GTW sickos are looking forward to watching Mike Trout run around in a Jokic jersey or a Nathan MacKinnon sweater soon.

We said so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, and good-bye to a one-year Nuggets legend this past week, and a future Hall-of-Famer.

Russell Westbrook officially announced his retirement on Wednesday, putting the bow on an 18-year NBA career that featured 209 triple-doubles, nine All-Star berths and seven franchises.

The Beastbrook’s penultimate stop was in Denver for the Nuggets’ 2024-25 season. Which got the kids on the Grading The Week (GTW) team thinking — always a dangerous prospect.

And thinking this, a question floated during one of our infamous 2-hour deli lunches: If the Nuggets could do it all over again, would they have been better off last summer bringing Russ back for one more ride — or reuniting with Bruce Brown?

Westbrook or Brucey B? — C

Hindsight is 20/20, of course. And it’s easy now to accuse the Nuggets of wearing 2023-colored glasses. After all, Brown was one of the straws that stirred the franchise’s first — and, to date, only — NBA title-winners. Brucey B in ’23 was a do-everything-anytime pest who could bring the ball up the floor, finish with a flourish on the break, needle opponents and play defense as if his very paycheck depended on it. Or at least, that was the Cowboy we remembered.

Alas, Brown at age 29 wasn’t the Brucey of 26. Or 27. The spirit was willing, more often than not, but the body didn’t always cooperate. There were little mistakes, tiny miscues, that the vet couldn’t always recover from. Not to put too fine a point on an already-sensitive (and painful) subject, but in the first round of the ’23 postseason, Brown averaged 27 minutes, 11.4 points, four rebounds and 2.4 assists in a five-game series win over the up-and-coming Timberwolves, a matchup the eventual champs would almost unanimously say was the more challenging than dispatching the Suns in six, the Lakers in four or the Heat in five.

Fast forward three years, same matchup, and it gets hazy. Brucey B in the first round against Minnesota in 2026: 19.4 minutes per game, 6.3 points, 2.7 boards, 1.7 dimes. The big three counting stats were all down by half off of his ’23 numbers, in most cases.

That’s not to lay the Massacre in Minneapolis at Brown’s feet — not at all. 2026’s postseason failure was a team effort, a collective dumpster fire from Nikola Jokic on down the line.

Would the Nuggets have folded like a cheap umbrella if Westbrook were coming off the bench instead of Brown?

It’s tough to say. Although it’s also not hard to imagine what Russ might have said — or done — to Jayden McDaniels after that “Nuggets defense” comment following Game 2, a barb Jokic & Co. were forced to eat with a steaming plate of crow.

Although Westbrook’s Defensive Rating of 121 — as in, points surrendered over 100 possessions — during the ’25-26 regular season, according to Basketball-Reference.com, was even worse than Brown’s 117 score.

And the Beastbrook’s jumper, at least as we left it, was very much an acquired taste. And, lest we forget, it was Westbrook’s missed layup on April Fool’s Night 2025 that ultimately ruined the Joker’s legendary 62-point triple-double at Ball Arena against … Minnesota.

Like most of Westbrook’s post-2022 career, you tend to remember Russ’ Denver season as you want to — good, bad, or ugly, it all applies.

The alley-oops to and from Jokic were breathtaking. The turnovers were maddening. Love him or loathe him, there may never be another like him.

Kroenkes cash in on Lucas Herrington transfer — B

While the Broncos released Burnham Yard plans and kinda-sorta hinted the project was inching forward again, the other branch of Denver’s Walmart sports ownership family tree — the Kroenkes — might’ve had the more profitable week. And not from the property you’d expect.

KSE’s Rapids on Wednesday reportedly pocketed $17 million from the transfer of Colorado and Australia defender Lucas Herrington to Hull City of the English Premier League. And that’s just the base number — the deal includes a reported extra $6 million in add-ons, with the Rapids holding a 15% sell-on clause on any profit from Herrington’s next potential moves. What the GTW crew wants to know is: will Stan and Josh pour some of that cash back into a new scoreboard at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park? Please?

Victor Hugo Branes-Romero was initially reported missing in the 2600 block of Kendal Street in Edgewater. He was last seen wearing dark pants, a green shirt, a white baseball cap, dark shoes and carrying a black backpack, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Branes-Romero is described as Hispanic, 5 feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Police said Branes-Romero left the area on a bicycle to go to the Walmart near Colfax Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard but has not returned home. Authorities said he is not familiar with the area.

Agency officials announced Branes-Romero had been found safe shortly after 7:53 p.m. on Friday.

The Parker Town Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance Monday that places a nine-month moratorium on the town accepting applications from retailers to establish drone dispatch and delivery facilities.

About 24 hours later, the Castle Rock Town Council passed a similar ban. Castle Rock’s timeout will last six months.

Both towns recently received inquiries from Walmart and Wing about launching a drone operation to make deliveries for the retail behemoth, be it printer cartridges, a banana or a bottle of cold medicine. Wing, which is owned by the Google parent company Alphabet, , including Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.

Drone delivery has yet to take off in Colorado, though it is .

“The town council thinks this is going to happen in the future and we don’t want to be the test case for it,” Castle Rock Mayor Jason Gray said Tuesday. “A lot of people are asking how loud they are, how often they will fly and at what distance around town.”

A glimpse at answers to some of those questions came during Parker’s Town Council meeting Monday night. Town planner Elizabeth Steward told the council that the drones proposed for the town would fly at heights between 150 feet and 400 feet, though they could drop down and hover around 40 feet above the ground when delivering or retrieving items.

The loudest a drone would get when delivering merchandise, she said, would be 62.6 decibels, which sound experts say is .

Councilwoman Brandi Wilks said she worries about how delivery drones might impact wildlife and whether they will conflict with drones the Parker Police Department regularly flies.

Councilman Todd Hendreks said a pause was needed as the town tried to wrap its head around the technology and devise the most appropriate ways to deploy it. The move by both Douglas County towns this week echoed the go-slow approach some Colorado communities have taken recently with other emerging technologies, such as the development of artificial intelligence-driven data centers.

“With emerging technology, since we have really nothing to address this, I think it’s important to give (town) staff time to review and come back to us with whatever they find,” Hendreks said.

Parker plans to hire a consultant to come up with rules for managing delivery drones in town.

Ultimately, though, cities and towns in Colorado are limited in what they can control when it comes to drones.��That’s because the Federal Aviation Administration has jurisdiction over airspace, aircraft operations, flight paths, altitude and in-flight noise, according to .

A municipality’s regulatory authority is “generally limited to the land use and site-related aspects of the operation, including where launch and landing infrastructure may be located,” and how the site is designed, the memo says.

Delivery drones in Castle Rock would have to compete with the town’s drones-as-first-responder program, which it launched through its police department last summer.

“The FAA will have ultimate control — we’re hoping we have enough control that we can guide the process as well,” said Gray, Castle Rock’s mayor.

According to , the drone delivery business is poised for robust growth as consumers who shop by smartphone — and from their couches — become hungrier for faster delivery times. The forecasting firm projects that the global industry will grow from just over $5 billion this year to nearly $21 billion in 2034.

The firm said North America “dominated the drone package delivery market with a market share of 35.47% in 2025.”

Gray said it’s one thing when it’s just Walmart flying merchandise to people’s front steps in Castle Rock. But if drones prove popular with consumers, others are sure to get in on the action.

“If we have 18 different retailers doing delivery by drone, I don’t know what that’s going to look like,” he said. “If drones were flying by your house 15 to 25 times a day, my citizens might not like it.”

In May, Walmart , boasting that it is operating the service across 66 stores in four states. Its fastest delivery time so far is 4 minutes and 44 seconds, though the average delivery time for an order is 23 minutes.

Parker Councilwoman Anne Barrington conceded that while the latest wave in shopping convenience is fraught with uncertainty, she has no doubt that it’s coming — and Parker better be ready.

“We’re not saying no — we’re just saying no today,” she said.

In December 2023, Herman’s Osage Studios LLC bought a parcel of land at 1305 North Osage St. for $2.1 million. Herman, a designer, saw an opportunity to rehabilitate a couple of junk-car-storing warehouses into an interactive attraction at the northern tip of the abandoned Burnham Yard railyard. The dream for the site — bringing an immersive tiki lounge to Denver — was strong enough to shrug off a couple of purchase inquiries by legal representatives connected to the Denver Broncos, in the midst of a massive land grab just down the street. But actually designing such physical plans in a dilapidated area, Herman said, has been “an absolute horrorfest” of legal issues and property damage.

“There were days where I was like, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake,'” Herman said.

The Broncos have now become the most visible entrepreneur to identify Burnham Yard as a ripe pocket for redevelopment, continuing to march forward with the railyard as their preferred site for a new stadium district in Denver. Beyond a finalized agreement to buy the railyard itself, property records compiled by The Denver Post show the Broncos have been tied to at least $186 million in land purchases in the surrounding area, with the expressed goal to build out a mixed-use district around a new stadium. For now, unlike Herman and its neighbors, the organization does not need to concern itself with potential break-ins.

The Broncos’ path to a successful stadium-anchored development at Burnham, though, is fraught with larger-scale hurdles surrounding their planned stadium opening in 2031 — stemming directly from the same reasons they keyed in on the site in the first place.

“I’m so skeptical,” Herman said, “that they’re going to pull it off in time.”

A simple building remodel took Herman a year and a half due to city processes. People have broken into his warehouses on multiple occasions, and stripped the copper wire from his air-conditioning units. He has bled money on damage control. And on one occasion, he walked into his primary building at North Osage to find his window shattered and a man without any clothes standing in the middle of the room.

Herman has stuck it out, one of several owners who have poured money into new development around the railyard in recent years. Directly east of Burnham, The Refractory — — has seen interest from potential businesses ranging from a jiu jitsu gym to an indoor golf facility, broker Russell Gruber said. Directly adjacent to Herman’s property, Memphis Orion and Adam Lerner are leading a $27 million development of a wellness center dubbed Coba Bathhouse; they saw a “giant wave” in the area, Orion said , and felt they could surf it. And the Broncos are the latest to hop on, because of such tantalizing development potential.

The modern era of stadium construction has popularized the “stadium district,” a mini-neighborhood that relies on mixed-use offerings around the stadium itself to generate revenue outside of gamedays. The Broncos are buying up over 150 acres around Burnham to build out that concept in Denver, similar to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s plans at Ball Arena. But such a large-scale development in an area primarily zoned for industrial use has inevitably entangled the Broncos in a web of lengthy city processes, community-benefits-agreement negotiations with the recently established Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, and soon-to-be-costly negotiations with private landowners and the public utility, Denver Water, that have yet to be resolved.

And that’s just the first wave, as both the organization and the city will need an immaculately phased development at Burnham to justify the investment there.

“While our current focus is on the community-benefits-agreement process, the long-term goal is for Burnham Yard to contribute to a connected, mixed-use community to the La Alma Lincoln Park and Baker neighborhoods,” Broncos president Damani Leech told The Post. “In terms of selecting the Burnham Yard site, we think it’s important for the Broncos to remain in Denver.

“Though a project of this scope on a former railyard presents some challenges, it aligns with our overall vision to create Denver’s next great neighborhood, the future home of the Denver Broncos and a year-round destination that delivers meaningful impact for the city.”

Why the Broncos ‘have to make the mixed-use district work’

Twenty miles south, a 440-acre expanse of open dirt spills out below the intersection of East Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 25 in Lone Tree, the site that was — and could still be — the Broncos’ Plan B.

Over the last two years, the organization has done its due diligence on the Lone Tree City Center, a massive planned mixed-use sprawl that Douglas County has openly campaigned for as a possible home for the Broncos.

Lone Tree has already approved a sub-area plan for the Lone Tree City Center, and the area is zoned for large mixed-use development. The city “prides itself on being business-friendly,” Mayor Melissa Harmon told The Post, and aims to provide “clear expectations, timely feedback and response, and always a predictable permitting process.” And the alignment with the Broncos — or any other catalyst developer — is obvious: the city would make sure the integration was as smooth as possible, Harmon pointed.

“They have our phone number, and we know — I joked with Damani (Leech), I said, ‘You still say preferred, you know,'” Harmon said, referring to the Broncos’ current positioning at Burnham.

“But in all honesty, of course, we always knew that Denver and Burnham Yards was their preferred and No. 1 site for many reasons,” she continued, “and it was really such an honor to be able to have the conversations, but also really get national attention for this piece of property.”

To Harmon’s point, the Walton-Penner ownership group selected Burnham over Lone Tree or Aurora specifically to keep the franchise in Denver. And the specific location makes sense, as several real estate and development experts told The Post, because of the immediate proximity to higher-population-density neighborhoods around Denver that can therefore attract tenants and foot traffic alike.

“Obviously, like, the Broncos chose to be here instead of going to some suburban location,” said Ryan Meeks, founder of Denver-based Bosk Urban Design. “And so … they have to make the mixed-use district work, right?”

The appeal of building a stadium district at the ��lies in built-in historical and industrial aesthetics that the Broncos have highlighted since their very first Large Development Review pre-submission in November 2025. The organization has repeatedly cited the��refurbishment of the site’s locomotive shop as a key component of its initial design plans. In that vein, the Broncos are the largest piece of a greater transformation around Burnham; a slew of developers have bought warehouses to repurpose for non-industrial uses in recent years, commercial broker Gruber told The Post.

“It����ap a more challenging site, in some ways,” Broncos owner Greg Penner told The Post in September. “But we think it creates an opportunity to create something special.”

Those challenges, though, are substantial in the short term. Penner said in late March that the Broncos want to have “all of (their) ducks lined up” before officially shedding the preferred-site label for a Burnham development.

That calls for progress on a legally binding community-benefits agreement with the recently finalized Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, for one. That calls for progress on negotiations with Denver Water around the utility’s relocation, which has been further complicated by community pushback against the utility’s plans for a potential facility on Lot M of the existing Empower Field stadium site.

And that calls for progress toward a resolution with SRM Concrete, which owns a large concrete plant smack-dab in the middle of the Broncos’ stadium district plans.

Most important of all are the dominoes that’ll fall once the city’s Department of Community Planning and Development completes a small-area plan for the site, which a source with knowledge of the process said should be finalized late in 2026 or early in 2027.

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority will only begin work on an urban-renewal plan at Burnham once that small-area plan is finished, DURA Interim Executive Director Bill Pruter told The Post. That urban-renewal plan will determine��whether��tax-increment financing is approved for the Burnham development, which Pruter said he expects the Broncos will seek.

Penner and Denver’s brass have made clear the stadium itself won’t introduce any new taxes. But if the larger 150-acre site is approved for a TIF district by Denver’s City Council, the infrastructure around the stadium can be paid for in some capacity by borrowing against future growth in property taxes within that district — a form of tax break.

Essentially, the Broncos can wind up using the potential for a larger-scale stadium district at Burnham to actually pay for the stadium itself.

“This is incredibly typical in stadium ancillary development,” said Geoffrey Propheter, a . “You build the stadium first, and then all the non-stadium stuff that you’re actually using to try to convince lawmakers to support this — all of this comes in years 10, 20, 30. And they all come with a promise.”

“The track record for delivering on these promises by teams in development,” Propheter said later, “is shaky. And that����ap being super generous.”

Why the phasing and selection of district features matter

Fortunately for Denver, the Walton-Penner Group has built a considerable track record of delivering on its promises.

Look to Denver, for one, where Broncos owners Penner and Carrie Walton Penner have revitalized the NFL franchise and just invested significant capital into the Colorado Rockies. And look across the country to Bentonville, Arkansas, where has been transformed into a mini-metropolis at the Walton family’s investment.

Nelson Worldwide senior vice president Lamar Wakefield, an expert in mixed-use development who helped design The Battery stadium district in Atlanta, told The Post that he’s working on a current development in Bentonville for the Waltons.

“They really want to see a wide range of housing options,” Wakefield said. “And I was really pleased to hear that. They understand that if you can make it attainable, but the whole neighborhood itself has all these wide ranges — maybe that single mom with three kids raising them in that environment is a little bit different … so they embrace that. I was very impressed.”

The Broncos will likely focus, in the initial phase, on the stadium and surrounding infrastructure before a 2031 opening at Burnham, multiple experts in stadium-district development told The Post. Slow-playing other aspects of the district for too long, though, would do a “huge disservice,” nearby warehouse owner John Victor said, to both community and city investment in the development. And the Broncos will face the challenge of establishing a center of gravity where there isn’t one at Burnham — different from KSE’s task of developing a district around the nearby Ball Arena.

“That’s the secret sauce there,” said Matt Mahoney, KSE’s senior vice president of development, “when we’re talking about neighborhoods that just do not exist. I mean, both these properties — our property is a surface parking lot. We’re fortunate to actually have an arena already built.

“The Broncos have a much tougher, steeper hill to climb. Because they want to create a neighborhood, but they also have to build a new stadium at the same time of establishing a sense of place there.”

The organization’s initial infrastructure master plan outlines that the Broncos would complete vertical construction of an “entertainment zone” in time for the stadium’s 2031 opening. The key there is what mix of mixed-use development (housing, office, retail, dining, hospitality) the Broncos will prioritize within that specific zone. Wakefield, who helped design The Battery Atlanta — a gold standard of mixed-use stadium development that the Broncos’ brass toured while identifying stadium-district ideas — emphasized the initial importance of establishing residential units to build an on-site customer base.

Any dreams about the district’s makeup, though, will be clouded by the current Denver market. Ortiz said building hotels would be an initial priority. But hotel-occupancy rates in metro Denver still haven’t rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels, . RC Myles, a broker with Denver-based Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors, said he anticipates the Burnham district won’t prioritize much office development, as office vacancies in downtown Denver .

“There’s so many missing pieces to this,” said Carrie Makarewicz, chair of CU Denver’s urban and regional planning department. “I mean, they’re moving forward in the typical style of a private developer — you acquire low-cost land in a strategic location, you build the revenue generators first, you tap into as much public funding you can get … and then you work on the immediate surroundings for your project, but you don’t take into consideration the city and regional demand for retail, apartments and entertainment.

“Like, we’re cannibalizing all of our districts around the city.”

Demand for multi-family housing in downtown Denver has steadily ticked up, though, according to . And Myles pointed to Cherry Creek, which has dropped retail vacancy rates below 2%, as an example of a local destination for offices, families and businesses alike. Multiple real-estate experts noted to The Post that there aren’t currently many options for dining or support retail in the extended Burnham area — identifying a potential development focus for the Broncos.

“Colorado needs a big high five right now,” Gruber said. “And I think the Penners are helping do it.”

The Broncos, though, have yet to truly cement their investment in Burnham Yard, let alone a phased approach for an amorphous stadium district. And time is ticking, now a full nine months after their initial preferred-site announcement.

“If they can pull it off — I mean, dude, I guess money talks,” Herman said. “And they got plenty of that.”

“You will see a significant reduction in the time fresh food is sitting on the trailer before it actually gets to a store, and it also gives us a lot more flexibility when you think about weather,” said Amy Probst, a senior vice president with Target.

Palisade peaches that might have been shipped from Grand Junction to a distribution facility in Denton, Texas, only to make the trip back to the Front Range, now can come straight down Interstate 70.

And the facility, beyond serving an 11-state region, will be a central transfer point where vendors can bring their products to one location rather than having to drop them off at multiple warehouses.

The facility contains more than half a million square feet of refrigerated space and will employ 380 warmly dressed workers, including 37 holding salaried positions.

Wages for the hourly positions will range from $15 to $24, Probst said. The facility will run around the clock, with most workers on four 10-hour shifts, with three days off.

Target employs 9,300 people across 45 stores in Colorado, as well as at a dry goods distribution facility in Pueblo and a sorting center in Denver. Employees at other locations are being offered the chance to work in Thornton.

The company has hired employees from careers outside distribution, said Juan Armendariz, who joined the company in February.

Target takes the time to bring its workers up to speed and has a focus on safety, he added. But the work isn’t for everyone.

“You have to like cold,” he said.

Most of the facility is kept at a constant 34 degrees , which is balmy compared to the minus 15 that those working in the freezer section must endure.

A focus on healthier options

Although both got their start as general merchandisers, Target has lagged Walmart in appreciating the power groceries have to drive store traffic and sales.

Walmart now accounts for just under a fifth of U.S. grocery sales, followed by Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers, and Costco, with about 10% each.

Albertsons, which operates in the state as Safeway, and Ahold Delhaize USA, owner of Food Lion and Giant, round out the top five grocery providers.

Target falls into the bracket of the next five largest grocery retailers, but it historically has been treated as a “fill-in” rather than a “stock up” source of food.��“Fill-in,” as in grabbing a gallon of milk while shopping for school supplies after remembering the jug at home is running low.

Until recently, the company relied on third-party vendors to distribute its fresh food offerings, which increased supply costs by adding middlemen.

Walmart, by contrast, built a “hub and spoke” distribution model for refrigerated goods and mastered the art of moving items with a short shelf-life.��Its efficiency allowed it to beat larger grocery-dedicated chains in price and, over time, surpass them in sales.

Playing catch-up, Target has built three new distribution hubs in the past four years to replace the capacity third-party partners previously provided.

Thornton represents its fourth and largest facility in square footage, and it has enough room to allow for an expansion in the products that can be carried, Probst said.

The new center will allow Target to offer its customers a greater variety of products, improve freshness and carry healthier options, she said.

Target has overhauled its food and beverage lineup to include more health and wellness items, like premium protein and meat products and products that promote improved gut health.

The “mass wellness” strategy, as some analysts describe it, also emphasizes “clean” ingredients. In late February, the ��from its cereal line by May.

“Certified” refers to FDA-inspected synthetic colors, typically derived from petroleum sources, such as Blue No. 1 and No. 2, Red No. 3 and No. 40 and Yellow No.5 and Yellow No. 6.

“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” said Cara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Target, in a release in February.

The company has reformulated its in-house Good & Gather brand to reduce artificial colors and sugar content. And to keep in the retailer’s good graces, national suppliers have reformulated their cereals and other products.

WK Kellogg Co., for example, is providing Target with an exclusive Wild Berry version of Froot Loops made without certified synthetic colors.

And the retailer plans to carry more exclusive boutique brands, like Boulder-based Purely Elizabeth, which will provide a Protein Granola, and new offerings from Lovebird out of Minneapolis.

Target is known for its mass-market prestige or “masstige” lines in clothing and home decor, such as its partnership with Missoni, the Italian apparel design house, and its collaboration first with Michael Graves and then Studio McGee for household goods.

“We’re just seeing a lot more celebrity and design intention within our food and beverage. That’s a fun element, and we are seeing a lot of growth there,” said Ashley Lowes, a spokeswoman for the company.

Top Banana

But curated brands won’t ever dethrone the uncontested king atop the grocery store food pyramid — the common banana.

Highlighting its importance, the tropical fruit receives special accommodations at the new food distribution center with 12 dedicated rooms, said Sean Walker, quality manager at the new facility.

Bananas, as they are at most grocery stores, are the top-selling item at Target, surpassing other staples like milk, eggs and bottled water in popularity.

In contrast to more seasonal fruits, they remain available and popular year-round. But that requires providing special ripening rooms where they can bathe in ethylene after arriving in the U.S.

Bananas release the gas naturally during ripening as complex starches turn into simple sugars, and the green chlorophyll in the peel softens.

But soft bananas don’t travel well. It takes about six to eight days for a newly arrived and green banana to get the proper yellow tan required to head to market, under the watchful eye of a ripening system powered with artificial intelligence.

Ten of the rooms are “single” rooms that can accommodate 21 pallets at a time, and two of the rooms are double rooms. Each pallet carries a ton of bananas.

If all the rooms were at capacity, the Thornton facility could host about 1.5 million or more bananas at any given time.

A strong Colorado connection

Target’s first location opened in 1962 in a suburb of St. Paul, and when the retailer expanded outside of Minnesota in 1966, it didn’t head to neighboring Wisconsin or Iowa.

Instead, Colorado received two stores, and six decades later, the one launched in Glendale remains one of the company’s most active.

Colorado has one of the highest concentrations of Super Target stores, which have expanded food and beverage sections. And the company’s focus on wellness plays well in a state that was at the center of the health food movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

The food distribution center represents an investment of more than $300 million, a significant chunk of the $5 billion in capital spending Target plans to make this year.

It will serve 130 stores in a region stretching from Salt Lake City to Kansas City, Mo., and from the Dakotas down to Texas.

“This gives us the added capacity to really continue to accelerate growth in food and beverage,” Probst said.

Colorado should see additional Super Target stores opening in the years ahead, part of the ongoing investment the company is making.

And existing stores in the state should see fresher food compared to the previous system that brought food in from Denton, Texas, and Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Regional suppliers also should benefit. Several consolidation docks between the inbound and outbound sides of the building will handle vendor shipments.

After arriving, those items will be transferred immediately into other outbound trucks, along with other incoming deliveries, and sent out to other warehouses.

The setup is designed to reduce the number of stops and miles that vendors have to complete to reach the various distribution facilities. And the trucking firms that Target contracts with can operate with fuller loads.

But it will also mean a lot more trucks on the road in Thornton.

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, who attended the center’s opening ceremony along with several Thornton City Council members on May 20, said the area is commercial with no residential nearby.

Food processors operate in the area, and the hope is that the distribution center will drive more of them to locate there.

As to truck traffic, the center is on Washington Street, south of E-470 and east of Interstate 25.

Trucks will have easy highway access and will spend a minimal amount of time on local roads, like Washington Street, which has been expanded to handle higher freight volumes, she said.

“They have a good plan for managing it,” she said.

Target has also agreed to help the Food Bank of the Rockies and Food for Hope with its surplus product, she said.

The Salida man is now among Colorado entrepreneurs navigating the choppy waters of seeking refunds on tariffs declared illegal. He and his two partners in hired a broker to apply for refunds for the tariffs the company paid on surfboards, bodyboards, inflatable stand-up paddleboards and other items manufactured in China.

From Walmart to automakers to Main Street businesses such as the Badfish surf shop, companies across the country started submitting records and invoices when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims portal went live April 20.

“It would be nice if we got some money back,” Harvey said. “It would be amazing.”

But he’s skeptical about how much money Badfish will recoup from tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in February. He said sorting through the different kinds of tariffs and rates the company paid is daunting.

“We’re definitely going to try to figure it out,” he added. “But it����ap just hard for me to imagine that they’re just going to easily offer up refunds for all of us. I don’t place a ton of hope on refunds.”

levied by the Trump administration under a law allowing the president to regulate international commerce in a national emergency. The Supreme Court said the tariffs enforced against numerous countries were unconstitutional.

ordered the Trump administration to set up a process for businesses to recoup an estimated $166 billion in taxes paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.

Tariffs in Colorado have risen sevenfold, rising from 3% to 21%, the highest level in more than a century, Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young said in April. He said Colorado businesses paid $1.1 billion in tariffs in 2025.

Badfish, which started in 2010, faced higher tariffs during the first Trump administration when levies on imports from China were raised. The Biden administration didn’t lower those.

In 2025, tariffs on China surged as a trade war erupted. A ship carrying Badfish’s products was headed to the U.S. “when Trump did his whole escalation thing with China,” said Harvey, a co-founder of the company.

“We had a container which effectively we didn’t make any money on last year because of the tariffs,” he said.

Harvey said although one of the reasons given for tariffs was to stimulate domestic manufacturing, the cost of producing goods in the U.S. is insurmountable for companies like his. He views tariffs as unfair taxes on small businesses that adapted as manufacturing shifted offshore.

“That global economy enabled two guys who didn’t have very much money to start a business in a garage in Salida and sell products all over the place, out of this little town in Colorado,” Harvey said.

Boulder-based ��a high-end women’s outdoor and lifestyle apparel company, plans to apply for a refund. But first, it has to correct how it’s listed in the database.

“We are set up for some reason as an exporter only instead of both an importer and an exporter,” said Gail Ross, Krimson Klover’s chief operating officer.

The company has tried for several weeks to correct the information with no luck. Ross was going to contact Krimson Klover’s attorney for ideas.

The company was paying a 37.5% tariff on its clothes manufactured in China. As with many small businesses, the higher tariffs forced Krimson Klover to put some spending on hold. On-again, off-again tariff increases have made it tough to plan, Ross said.

“It’s crazy-making from a business standpoint,” Ross said.

And even if Krimson Klover receives a refund, Ross doesn’t know what to expect next. Trump imposed a temporary, across-the-board 10% duty that Congress would have to approve after 150 days.

Another avenue for the administration is to that allows tariffs against countries for unreasonable or discriminatory trade practices. The administration has said it’s opening investigations into other countries.

“We believe that the president remains as committed to his tariff strategy today as he was when he entered office, and that small businesses are unlikely to see a significant drop in tariff rates during the Trump Administration without an act of Congress that defies the president����ap wishes,” Ben Johnston, chief operating officer of , a small-business lender and marketplace, said in an email.

While the future of tariffs remains unclear, the prospect of reimbursement for past tariffs is a little more solid for Denver-based , which has produced commercial ice machines for more than 70 years. The company applied for a refund two days after the claims portal opened, said Kevin Walker, Ice-O-Matic’s strategic sourcing manager.

“I was really surprised how well it went because they built that in like 45 days,” Walker said.

Ice-O-Matic uses materials produced in the U.S. and in other countries: China, Canada, India and the Middle East. Walker said the kinds of tariffs levied on the various countries and the rates changed quickly over the last year, making it a challenge to keep up with the latest numbers.

The system to apply for refunds was busy the first two days. After that, Walker said he was able to pull a report he needed, figure out which tariffs were affected by the court ruling and upload the information. The refunds will be transferred electronically to recipients’ bank accounts.

“They gave approval right away that the information was correct and that they did accept it,” Walker said. “I would never say it’s 100%, but it feels at least like we’re at a good point of having the chance to get that money back.”

Walker has heard refunds might start hitting people’s accounts in 60 to 90 days. “But then I’ve heard other estimates where it could be as early as May 11.”

Customs brokers at the Denver office of are working with businesses of all sizes on applying for reimbursement for the IEEPA tariffs that were ruled illegal.

“We’re supporting our clients with multiple, different sources of data, trying to help them consolidate their import data, go through it, see what is eligible, what is not eligible,” said Kate Rayer, vice president of regulatory services at Green Worldwide.

“I think a lot of the smaller companies are the ones who have been needing the most help because they don’t generally have in-house resources,” she said.

So far, Rayer has been impressed with the process set up by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. “I was very pleasantly surprised at the system they stood up because it does enable this mass processing.”

, according to a filing by the CBP. Roughly 1.7 million were in the refund process.

, a travel-gear company based in Steamboat Springs, has filed for a refund. The company, which largely manufactures its goods in Indonesia, estimates it could be due close to a half million dollars.

“I’m reasonably optimistic that we’re going to see the refunds that we’re owed,” said Travis Campbell, Eagle Creek owner and CEO. “They essentially hit the timelines that they laid out for developing the system and the system appears to be working.”

Campbell said he understands why customers want to be reimbursed for the higher prices passed on by suppliers and importers. Consumers have filed lawsuits seeking refunds.

“As a consumer who’s been obligated to pay higher prices because of these tariffs, I understand the sentiment. As a business person, though, I also understand the complexity,” Campbell said.

Eagle Creek absorbed the tariff-related costs for all of 2025, Campbell said. He believes it would be difficult to draw a direct line from the tariff to the price paid by the consumer.

What’s also difficult for Campbell to calculate is the overall impact of the tariffs on his business. Plans were upended. The company’s profits dropped. Employees were laid off.

“There were so many negative repercussions beyond just the cost of the tariffs,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take us years to come to terms with all of the impacts.”

This is not the weekend for the Broncos’ front office to be sensible with its Walmart money. Oh, no. The 2026 NFL Draft is a free hit. An open goal. A chance to patch holes on a good roster by taking some chances.

Denver was an ankle away from the Super Bowl last season. A freak injury from waving high enough for everybody in Kansas to see.

Act like it.

Be bold.

Be brave.

Please don’t be an inside linebacker.

We’re wringing our hands about pick No. 62, of course, a second-round selection that, as of Monday, is the Broncos’ first — and maybe only — chance to make a draft weekend splash.

Six of the Broncos’ seven picks are slated to fall on Day 3 (rounds four-seven), and three of those six currently lie in the final round. History says Paton and Payton will move around some if they see someone specific they like. But a class this small needs to be about quality — not quantity. So as the weekend approaches, here are five things you’d hope general manager George Paton and coach Sean Payton keep in mind as they shop for depth:

1. If Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers is available at No. 62, or close, move Heaven and Earth to make him yours

Linebacker or tight end? Defensive lineman or slot weapon? You nuts? Did you watch the Commodores? Don’t overthink this. Stowers is a tight end who looks like a wide receiver (6-foot-3, 239 pounds), runs like a wide receiver (4.51 in the 40) and jumps like a wide receiver (45.5-inch vertical).

He’s a matchup nightmare, the kind of target who leaves linebackers eating his dust and safeties flailing to reach jump balls they can’t touch. Stowers the draft epitome of a “Joker,” the TE/WR/inside triangle hybrid that Payton spoke about so lustily in January 2025. He’s Evan Engram. Only younger. Sure, Stowers doesn’t grade out well as a blocker. Guess what? You’ve got plenty of “blocking” tight ends on hand already.

2. Grab a contributor Friday — save your projects for Saturday

Could you find a starting-caliber linebacker late in the second round, too? Sure. Assuming Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez is still on the board, he’d make a perfect understudy for Alex Singleton, who’ll turn 33 in December. Or Justin Strnad, who turns 30 in August.

But with only seven picks, and a ton of contracts slated to end after the 2027 season, isn’t time of the essence? Shouldn’t you be saving the understudies for Saturday?

This is a back-filling draft, not the foundational one that 2024 turned out to be, thanks largely to Bo Nix. But winning now means getting guys who can play, and contribute, from the jump. Ideally, that means finding someone in Round 2 who could start for you in a pinch as soon as Week 1. Nail that, and the rest is gravy. Because if you don’t …

3. Don’t fall in love with BPA if that BPA has nowhere to play

See: Barron, Jahdae. Paton’s 2025 BPA with selection No. 20 a year ago. As in, “Best Player Available.” Or is it, Best Pick Again?

You can never have too much of a good thing in this league, given the volatility and injuries. Unless, of course, it’s nickel backs, especially when you’ve already developed an undrafted one (Ja’Quan McMillian) into one of the best in the AFC. At the time of Paton and Payton picked Barron, last spring’s first-round selection, folks didn’t whoop and holler. Barron, a speedster who raised Cain at the University of Texas, made folks sort of shrug and go, ‘Yeah, well, makes sense.’

The Broncos late in 2024 got badly exposed along the perimeter in the passing game — that Cleveland game on Monday Night Football was wild — while Pat Surtain II was out and a still-young Riley Moss was forced to cover more WR1s.

Fast forward to the fall of ’25, where Moss improved and cut down on his penalties. McMillian upped his game another level and rarely left the field on passing downs.

Before last spring’s draft, pundits and fans pleaded for the Broncos to add more help at running back, tight end and wide receiver. By and large, they’re making the same pleas in 2026 — which doesn’t exactly speak well for the early returns on Barron in the first round or for RJ Harvey in the second.

There’s time. But 2027, when so many of the contracts for this current core are slated to run out, gets closer by the day.

4. Remember Bo Nix — and Nix’s costs down the road

If someone offers you picks — even late ones — for the 2027, 2028 or 2029 drafts, you’d be wise to listen. Nix’s four-year rookie deal The Bo Show is slated for a $5.08-million cap hit this fall, and a $5.92-million hit in two seasons. Justin Herbert’s first post-rookie-contract extension had an average annual value of $52.5 million. Joe Burrow’s post-rookie extension featured an AAV of $55 million.

That raise is coming. More rookies will need to be coming, too.

5. Secure a RB you can trust in January

Here’s an idea. Actually, think of it as an exercise. At some point on Saturday, or before, look at the tailbacks most likely to be on the board after Round 2 or Round 3. Ask yourself, very simply, one question: Which one would I feel good about starting, at home, in late January, come rain, sleet or shine?

Because, presuming that J.K. Dobbins is going to be there is pure hubris. Or ignorance. Or both. Presume he’s not. Presume the rest of your options are still best used as pass-catchers in space (Harvey) or as special-teamers (Badie). Which of these prospects can pound the rock between the tackles 12-15 times per game against a salty defense? Which one could help grind me to a Super Bowl?

I’m partial to Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson, a workhorse for the Cornhuskers last year, a volume carrier with power who recorded just three fumbles over 550 touches as a collegian. A born closer. Johnson averaged 6.7 yards from scrimmage last November every time he saw the ball, scoring five times on 120 touches that month. Sounds like the perfect fit, on paper, for a franchise that won’t just be judged on how it finishes next season. But where.

Kris Bryant’s last at-bat in Rockies pinstripes happened a year ago this past Sunday. April 12, 2025. Haven’t seen him since.

“Hey, look, I get it — baseball is a business,” Bryant’s father Mike told me during a short conversation last spring. “They want (Kris) hitting 40 home runs and hitting .300 … you got your Todd Heltons for that, and you’ve got your other guys. Kris is happy. When it’s all said and done, (Denver fans are) going to look back on Kris favorably.”

As a person? Without a doubt.

As a contract? As an investment? No chance.

Which is where the Broncos enter the picture, riding to the rescue on The Penner Sports Group, fronted by Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and husband Greg Penner, now possesses a 40% stake in the Rockies. As reported by The Post’s Patrick Saunders last Friday, the Walton-Penners are the largest minority investors for Colorado’s Major League Baseball team, topped only by the Monfort family, who retain team control.

The Broncos needed leadership and money to get out of the darkness and back into the AFC Championship Game. The Rockies need … well, everything. But more money and better leadership would be two welcome steps in the right direction.

Because, lest we forget, the Broncos had to bottom out before starting their three-year climb. The Penners and Waltons went all-in on Russell Wilson. They got a 5-12 train wreck in 2022 to show for it, all while fans counted down the play clock. At home.

Sean Payton wanted to wash his hands of Russ, who was clearly toast. So the Broncos ate $85 million in dead cap money over the ’24 and ’25 seasons for cutting Wilson, the kind of hit that’s supposed to punish a franchise for its free-spending folly.

Only a funny thing happened: The Broncos got better. Much, much, much better. And fast. Bo Nix hit. Nik Bonitto hit. Jonathon Cooper hit. Quinn Meinerz hit. Brandon Jones hit. Talanoa Hufanga hit anything within six feet of him. A lot of shrewd drafting, a pinch of smart free-agent signings and good coaching hoisted the Broncos from outhouse to penthouse.

The road is longer for the Rockies, who’ve lost 100 or more games for three straight seasons and will flirt with a fourth. The NFL is designed for parity, competitive socialism at its finest. Major League Baseball is the last of the major North American sports leagues without a salary cap.

But the Broncos couldn’t move forward until they chucked Wilson’s contract overboard and let Payton build a roster in his image.

And any hope for a new dawn in LoDo, any tailwind that pushes the Rockies forward, starts with getting Bryant’s seven-year, $182-million contract off the stinkin’ books. And as quickly as possible.

Not his fault, mind you. Nice guy. Amazing dude. Bryant’s spirit, like his smile, was always willing. His body, alas, had other ideas.

Since signing with the Rockies in March 2022, KB23 has played in only 170 games over the first four years of his deal. In what’s amounted to basically a full season of stats over the last 48 months, KB’s Colorado line to date is 632 at-bats, 29 doubles, 17 home runs, 61 RBI, a .244 batting average and a .695 OPS.

In other words, for $26 million per season, the Rockies have gotten 42 games a year of (.244 career batting average, .695 career OPS) in the middle of the order.

The surface takeaway from the Walton-Penner family’s investment was that all that sweet Walmart dough would wipe away debt. Most MLB clubs lost some serious change with the collapse of regional sports networks — the Rox reportedly collected at least $57 million from AT&T SportsNet in 2023, the last season of their old TV contract.

Given inflation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that $57 million in March 2023 would’ve been worth $58.98 million in March 2024, $60.39 million in March 2025; and $62.4 million in March 2026.

That’s an estimated $181.7 million shortfall for the Monforts, even before factoring in returns from the direct-to-consumer/subscriber model. You need cash to patch the wound and stop the bleeding.

The other purple elephant in the Monforts’ room, of course, is Bryant, a deal that’s aging the way

A bad idea at the time looks even worse now. Counting this season’s salary, the Rox still owe Bryant, now 34, another $81 million through the end of the 2028 season.

Word leaked that Bryant was signing with Colorado the same day that Wilson was introduced as the new QB savior of the Broncos in Dove Valley — March 16, 2022, a date that will forever live in Front Range infamy.

The Waltons and Penners quickly saw the error of their ways, although it helped that NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed beyond the signing bonus. MLB deals are. Bryant is repped by Scott Boras, and baseball divorces aren’t cheap. An injury settlement feels like the most logical path at this point. Which is why it’s also not hard to picture the Monforts asking Walton-Penner and her husband if they’d like to chip in to help the Rockies get past their version of the Wilson deal.

“It’s just been very frustrating (here),” the elder Bryant told me. “We came in with high expectations for him to really enjoy himself and it was killing him (to not play). Then to listen to the B.S. that goes along, people running their mouths about how he wasn’t worth the contract …

“It’s not like he was trying to play at 80% (health). He was trying to play at 50%. You can’t do that in this game. There’s just too many good pitchers. It’s a brutal game.”

With brutal realities. If the Broncos can make two of the worst deals in Denver sports history go away, that would be almost as impressive as sticking a fork in the Chiefs’ AFC West dynasty.

After two decades of operating the Rockies as a mom-and-pop grocery store, it was time for owner Dick Monfort to bring in Walmart as a partner.

In what amounts to a home run for baseball fans in this state and region, Monfort has agreed to sell a 40 % minority stake in the Rockies to the Penner Sports Group, composed of Broncos’ co-owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner.

With a roughly $672 million investment based on��Forbes’ most recent $1.68 billion valuation,��the Penners will provide funds��to pay down debt and financial resources that give Monfort runway to determine his future vision for the franchise as a labor stoppage looms following this season.

For Monfort, it was past time in the national pastime to treat the Rockies as a civic institution. By bringing on the Penners, he shifts the conversation about his ownership from selfish to selfless. At last.

It is wise, if not belated, recognition that family-run sports teams are becoming archaic and lack the wherewithal to consistently chase championships.

Monfort has groused in recent years, including in an interview with The Post before the 2024 season, about Major League Baseball’s lack of a salary cap. The concern about competing became amplified with regional sports networks dissolving, siphoning a source of revenue for a Rockies team that is already heavily dependent on attendance.

In the most recent homestand, the Rockies posted their smallest crowds in Coors Field history.

But lost in that nadir is that Monfort finally realized in October that significant changes were needed.

His decision to promote son Walker Monfort to vice president and give him freedom to hire baseball president Paul DePodesta, general manager Josh Byrnes and a battery of new business people was the clearest signal that he understood how dormant the team had become after seven consecutive losing seasons.

Until Friday.

This is a seismic event. A grand slam for Rockies fans.

By bringing the Penners on board, it creates a pathway for the Rockies to become relevant.

In 34 seasons, the Rockies have managed only five playoff berths, never won a National League West title and appeared in one World Series in 2007, swept by the Boston Red Sox in a buzzkill end to the most magical run in baseball history.

The obvious question: Why wouldn’t Dick Monfort simply sell the team?

This is something understandably frustrated fans have been chirping about for years.

It was not time for that. On multiple levels. Could that change down the road? Perhaps.

But starting with conversations a year ago, the Penners were motivated to get involved rather than take over. This is not a palace coup. It is a partnership. But it is also one (heck) of a safety net.

The new partnership continues momentum for Monfort, which has been evident on the field with the team’s 6-7 record after starting last season 7-33 en route to losing 100 games for a third consecutive season.

And it gives the Penners an opportunity to become financially tethered without dealing with the minutiae of running another team.

Can we pause for a second and acknowledge the commitment to sports and this community the Penners have shown since the summer of 2022?

As they enter their fifth year owning the Broncos, they have built a $175 million team headquarters, moved forward on a privately-financed new stadium for billions of dollars, created a $12 million initiative to donate over 15,000 helmets to high school football teams and and turned the franchise from a laughingstock to a Super Bowl contender by hiring Sean Payton and signing players to in-house contract extensions for more than $400 million over the last 18 months.

To Colorado sports fans, it’s worth even more.

The Penners have shown at every turn that they are amazing stewards, setting a standard for excellence in everything from how their players travel and eat to how they increase alumni involvement.

Before you ask, their roles with the Broncos will not change. Owning the team has exceeded their expectations in how fulfilling, challenging and rewarding it has been. They will still attend practice a few days a week and mingle at the facility.

The Rockies, make no mistake, piqued their interest as a business investment.

Like many who have lived here, they recognize that baseball is a sleeping giant, a potential No. 2 sport in Colorado if Rocktober returns semi-annually. Coors Field, despite being the third-oldest ballpark in the National League, remains a destination spot with its timeless appeal and charm.

Fans have shown they will come if the team is good. It just takes several flips back in the calendar to remember when that was.

Overall, baseball is on the right track, benefiting from the pitch clock, eliminating shifts and creating the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System.

The Penners obviously saw this.

For the Rockies, for Monfort, this move makes sense.

Just look at all the Penners have done, how deep their pockets are, and how much they commit to ventures. They are unbelievably curious people who look for answers, never satisfied with the status quo or mediocrity.

They will learn baseball just as they did the NFL. There is no reason to think they cannot help make the Rockies better.

Everyone will wonder if they will eventually buy the team. That is for a later day and could hinge on the outcome of the labor talks, in which Monfort serves as a hawk in the negotiations for commissioner Rob Manfred.

Since back-to-back playoff berths in 2017 and 2018, the Rockies have nosedived, bottoming out with 119 losses last season.

By bringing in the Penners, Monfort is letting the respected neighbors down the street spruce up the place. Their money matters. But more than that, it provides hope for the future.

And for this city, this state and the fans, that is priceless.