DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies are bringing in Denver Broncos owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner through a minority investment from the Penner Sports Group.
Rockies chairman & CEO Dick Monfort and owner/general partner Charlie Monfort announced the deal Friday. It's been approved by Major League Baseball.
The Penner group is purchasing approximately a 40% share of the Rockies, a person with knowledge of the situation said. That person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the figure hasn't been released. The group becomes the largest minority partner for the Rockies, a team Forbes has valued at $1.68 billion.
Dick and Charlie Monfort will continue their roles, with Walker Monfort serving as the team's president. The organization said the investment allows the club to “retire all outstanding debt” in addition to providing an enhanced experience at Coors Field.
“Greg and Carrie have proven that they share the same passion for our region and a strong commitment to compete at the highest level," Dick Monfort said in a statement. "We are thrilled to add them to the Colorado Rockies’ ownership group as we best position this franchise for long-term sustained success.”
The Rockies are off to a 6-7 start this season. They made big changes in the offseason after a third straight year with 100 or more losses. The front office is now led by Paul DePodesta, the president of baseball operations, and general manager Josh Byrnes.
The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group bought the Broncos from the Pat Bowlen Trust in August 2022 for a then-record $4.65 billion. Walmart heir Rob Walton also is an owner, while Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, Mellody Hobson and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice serve as limited partners.
Denver made it to the AFC championship game last season before losing 10-7 to the New England Patriots.
“While our focus remains firmly on the Broncos, we look forward to being supportive, long-term partners of the Rockies and Major League Baseball,” the Penners said in a joint statement. “We’ve enjoyed getting to know the Monforts and are grateful to join Dick and Charlie in the Rockies’ ownership group along with the other partners.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Denver Broncos owner Greg Penner walks after attending a session at the NFL football annual meetings, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
GENEVA (AP) — Gianni Infantino truly looked the “King of Soccer,” as U.S. President Donald Trump likes to call him, as the two allies sat together watching the World Cup final less than two weeks ago.
Sure, there were some boos inside MetLife Stadium near New York, when the two men walked across the turf to present the trophy and medals to Spain and Argentina players on July 19.
Still, that 104th and final game capped a biggest-ever tournament seen as a vindication for the FIFA president — a consensus success on the field and a financial bonanza for global soccer. Infantino could look ahead to his likely reelection coronation next March.
The sunny scene must now feel an age ago since Infantino caused a seismic rift in global soccer.
The intensifying fallout has threatened the 56-year-old Infantino's job after he seemed untouchable until this week.
Infantino's misstep was inviting private investors, led by Joshua Kushner, to buy a stake in future profits from World Cups and all FIFA events. The ensuing backlash — which included vows by European nations to boycott FIFA events and claims from senior staff that Infantino deceived everyone — led Infantino to announce Friday that he was abandoning the plan.
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” he said in a statement.
Infantino left New York City last week with letters pledging election support from about 200 of FIFA’s 211 national member federations who vote for their leader every four years. Now, even after scrapping his divisive investment project, his support remains unclear at best.
Infantino's proposal would have created a subsidiary — known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — for the money-making parts of the not-for-profit soccer body's work: Running tournaments like the World Cup, selling broadcasting and sponsorship, tickets and hospitality.
Private equity and petrostate sovereign wealth money has been normalized in European club soccer, yet they still seem unthinkable for many observers in the World Cup — soccer's ultimate prize is about glory, not money, and fans have long believed the World Cup belongs to them.
FIFA proposed raising $4.2 billion from investors buying stakes amounting to about 20% in FFE, based on an equity valuation of $20 billion. The “anchor investor” would have been Thrive Eternal, launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of Trump.
FIFA’s 211 member federations — already effective owners of the governing body as a nonprofit association under Swiss law — were offered $20 million each. The deadline to accept was Sept. 19.
The members already are due $10 million each from FIFA over the next four years, funded largely by its record $15 billion revenue over 2023-26 tied to the World Cup just ended. FIFA says under FFE, that would have doubled to $20 million each, then rise to $22 million each through 2034, and $24 million to 2038.
That’s a huge sum for tiny soccer federations in places like Andorra, Montserrat and Papua New Guinea. Deep-pocketed soccer powers like England, Spain or France have other priorities.
Some FIFA vice presidents, some of FIFA’s top executives, all the European soccer federations, the soccer bodies of Asia and North America, Britain’s Prime Minister, the global group of national leagues, a lot of fans worldwide. Everyone, essentially.
Infantino was looking increasingly friendless Friday. His senior adviser, former Goldman Sachs banker Carlos Cordeiro, resigned and called it a bad deal. FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour gave a stinging statement to The Associated Press in defense of colleagues that all but invited his boss to fire him.
A key move Thursday was European soccer body UEFA vowing to boycott all FIFA competitions until Infantino dropped the plan. Europe’s teams routinely dominate and win FIFA trophies like the men’s World Cup and Club World Cup that are its biggest revenue earners.
They collectively feared that private investors would seek — and demand — value from more games and bigger competitions that threaten the balance of global soccer. That could jeopardize attention and revenues for club soccer, including the Champions League.
Fixture calendars are already congested, elite players are at their limits, broadcast and sponsor money is not unlimited.
All are angry that Infantino seems not to have consulted anyone while planning the project over the last year, when he was so focused with spending time in Trump's orbit. Even Trump said Friday he had not spoken with the FIFA chief on his plan to sell stakes in the tournament.
Infantino's traditional support base in Africa, which has 54 of the 211 voting members, had been neutral about the offers of game-changing money for many of them.
The 10-nation South American group CONMEBOL said on Friday it had received the proposal and would evaluate the issue “with the rigor it demands.” CONMEBOL is led by FIFA vice president Alejandro Dominguez of Paraguay, who is relying on Infantino expanding the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams. That would give more games to minority co-hosts Argentina, Paraguay and inaugural 1930 World Cup host Uruguay, who currently are set to get just one game each of the 104. The rest are in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
The UEFA-led resistance succeeded in stopping the sell-off plan. Will that satisfy Infantino's opponents to leave him in office?
Does Infantino have the credibility to stay in office after interventions Friday by Lamour and Cordeiro that surely would make most presidencies untenable?
Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.
Infantino was reelected unopposed in 2019 in Paris and 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda. FIFA statutes allow him one more four-year term in office. The FFE spinoff seemed a way to create a commissioner-like role for Infantino beyond 2031, likely paying much more than his current annual salary and bonus deal of more than $6 million.
It would take 106 votes to ensure a majority in a contested election. Continents surely do not vote uniformly en bloc, but most of Europe's 55, plus CONCACAF's 35 and Asia's 46 would be a solid base.
Speculation on a likely direct challenger typically lands on Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaïfi and the Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani.
Such talk seemed fanciful until this week, despite long-term unease with Infantino's style and previous attempts to force through unpopular projects.
The talk has never seemed more likely to become action.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage
FILE - UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, right, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino pose during the 48th UEFA congress in Paris, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
FILE - Asia Football Confederation President Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, left, poses with FIFA President Gianni Infantino during an inauguration ceremony for the new building of the Asia Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
President Donald J. Trump speaks with FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the awards ceremony at the end of the World Cup final soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
U.S. President Donald J. Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino applaud to welcome the players during the presentation ceremony after the World Cup final soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
