Denver stadium sponsor Empower Retirement disrespects Broncos Country, celebrates Chiefs

In September, the Denver Broncos announced the stadium sponsorship that slapped Empower Retirement’s name atop and all over the stadium at Mile High.

Joe Ellis touted the partnership with all the enthusiasm one would expect.

We are proud to reach an agreement on a long-term naming rights deal between the Broncos and Empower Retirement... Empower is a thriving—and growing—hometown company that has been a valued team partner since our Super Bowl season in 2015.

Most people, myself included, promptly asked, “What is Empower Retirement?”.

On Sunday, Broncos Country found out.

I get it. Empower sponsors not just the Broncos, but the Chiefs and Patriots as well, but come on! You have to have some awareness that the fan base on whose stadium your logo and name appear may not be overly enthusiastic about your full throated celebration of their division rival’s success.

This is a hometown Colorado company? For real? Hometown Colorado companies don’t hashtag their tweets “#ChiefsKingdom”.

Here’s the deal, if Empower is a champion of Chiefs Kingdom, it comes at the expense of Broncos Country. As we have all told that misguided friend or relative, you simply can’t root for two teams in the same division. It’s not done. That’s what’s so mind-bogglingly stupid about this tweet.

Years ago when Sports Authority tried to paste a bright red logo on the stadium, Broncos fans rightly flipped out. Here’s Denver’s stadium sponsor overtly rooting for our most relevant rival (sorry Raiders). There was such an outcry that Sports Authority muted the red to appease (some) fans.

Empower Retirement can do whatever they want with their social media account. We all know that stadium sponsorship isn’t so much about endorsing the (hometown) football team that plays there as it is making money off their fans. As much as Broncos Country loathes bandwagon fans, it needs to be said that Denver’s stadium sponsor, by all appearances, is a bandwagon company.

If we didn’t know what Empower Retirement was before, we sure do now. #ChiefsKingdom