Personal Seat Licenses Are Employed by More Than 20 NFL Teams

When the Denver Broncos announced plans to build a new stadium, fans - aka taxpayers - across the State of Colorado let out a collective groan.

That is, until they read that in fact the team's ownership group planned to completely fund the project with their own money and not any taxpayer money, the way the current Empower Field at Mile High was built back in the late 90s.

So the fact that the Broncos are paying to build their own home confuses me a little bit as to why fans are upset about the latest announcement that they will likely be charging what's called a "personal seat license" for season ticket holders.

A personal seat license is a one time fee in addition to the ticket prices, essentially paid for the right to purchase those tickets. Think of it like buying a chunk of land, then paying to build a house on it.

READ MORE: Denver Broncos Announce Their Plans to Build a New Stadium

You own the license to those seats and can sell the license at market price to anyone else, for the right to purchase those season tickets in the future. If you, nor the new PSL owner, do not subsequently purchase the season tickets, then you forfeit the license and the seats ultimately go to someone else on the Broncos' famous 100,000+ waitlist for season ticket holders.

Many people are upset about this idea, but in fact it's a practice already employed by more than 20 other NFL teams, and several teams in other sports as well.

The main difference here is many of those other stadiums were also built with public money. Ours will not be. And they haven't even officially announced they will be doing so, though the odds are quite high they will.

In the short term, fans should look forward to enjoying the upcoming season ahead, and giving the old Empower Field at Mile High the same proper send off the original Mile High got in the late 90s: with a couple Super Bowl wins to close up shop before the big move.