Mat Ishbia reportedly visits with Denver Broncos execs in bid to buy NFL team

Years after winning a national championship as a walk-on reserve with Michigan State basketball, Mat Ishbia is trying to enter professional sports.

Pro football, that is.

Ishbia, a top MSU donor and billionaire executive of Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage, recently met with those involved with the sale of the Denver Broncos, according to a Colorado television station.

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KUSA-TV, out of Denver, reported Ishbia and his brother, Justin, recently met with Broncos executives in their attempts to buy the team — which could cost $4 billion or more. The last NFL franchise sold, the Carolina Panthers in 2018, went for $2.3 billion.

In February, the Los Angeles Times reported Ishbia, Alec Gores (billionaire brother of Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores) and Dean Metropoulous (a large-scale investor who also owns Pabst Brewing Company) were combining forces in a bid for the Broncos. The three men have a combined net worth of $10 billion, per Forbes, though KUSA in its Wednesday story said Metropoulous and Gores were not part of the Ishbias' group.

Ishbia has used his fortune, as well as sponsorship deals between his company and his alma mater, to support Michigan State's basketball and football programs.

United Wholesale Mortgage was started by Ishbia's father and has reported billions in profits over the past few years, though a recent interest rate hike has cooled some of those revenues.

Multiple groups, including those featuring Hall of Fame quarterbacks Peyton Manning and John Elway, are in the running to buy the Broncos. The team will be sold via auction and has already taken one round of bids, KUSA reports, with a second round of offers coming from five groups, including the Ishbias. Once a winner is named, the winning group must be approved by 75% of the league's owners.

Justin, an MSU alumni who lives in the Chicagoland area, owns a minority share of UMW and founded his own private equity firm, Shore Capital Partners, which Mat has a stake in.

Another former Michigan State basketball player, albeit with a bit higher stature, is bidding for the Broncos: Magic Johnson (also a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers). He reportedly joined a group led by Josh Harris, an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers. That group, as well as one headed by Walmart heir Rob Walton, also met with the Broncos' selling parties. Walton's cousin, Ann, is married to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

Byron Allen, a media mogul and Detroit native, could be a buyer as well, but has not yet visited the team, per KUSA.

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The Broncos, who have won three Super Bowls and boast one of the league's biggest fanbases, are valued at more than $3.7 billion, according to Forbes. The late Pat Bowlen paid about $78 million for the team in 1984; last year alone the team pulled in $368 million in revenue.

Bowlen, a lawyer who also owned Denver-based pro lacrosse and arena football league teams, died in 2019, and his family has since decided to sell the Broncos.

In 2020, the New York Mets sold for $2.4 billion, a record for a North American sports franchis. The Broncos sale, rare for an NFL team, is almost assured to pass that figure. Chelsea, a Premier League soccer club in England, sold this week for $3.1 billion — an international record — to an American group after Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was forced by British sanctions to divest the team. Part of that group was Todd Boehly,who is also in the mix to buy the Broncos but is not known to have placed a bid.

Follow the Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Tyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@freepress.com or on Twitter @TDavisFreep.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mat Ishbia, Magic Johnson each trying to buy Denver Broncos: report