If the sale goes through, the Denver Broncos will join the Green Bay Packers as the only co-operatively owned 32-team National Football League.
The National Football League’s Denver Broncos team is up for sale and a DAO could be the next owner.
ESPN estimates the team would sell for $4 billion, which the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) wants to raise.
The effort is being led by Sean O’Brien, a 10-year veteran of Cisco Systems’ legal team.
O’Brien said the DAO will be released this week.
According to O’Brien, the DAO would also be formed as a cooperative and the DAO participants would have a parallel equity interest in the cooperative.
The team has been managed by a trust since the death of owner Pat Bowlen in 2017.
The NFL has signaled that it wants a deal to start the 2022 season.
The Wisconsin Green Bay Packers are owned by a community cooperative that was first incorporated in 1923 into a structure similar to what the DAO would use to purchase the Denver Broncos.
In 1980, the NFL introduced new rules that banned the community-focused “decentralized” ownership used by the Green Bay Packers (although the team had an exception through a grandfathering clause).
The rules state that ownership must be managed by a single person who owns at least 30% of the team’s equity, with minor exceptions for a family-owned structure.
There is also a limit of 32 owners per team, and sales must be approved by the NFL.
In Canada, the Canadian Football League has two teams with a community-owned structure: the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
