New KSE Leaders Promise to Get Nuggets and Avalanche Back on TV

If new executive Kevin Demoff lives up to the talk in his introductory press conference with Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE), Nuggets and Avalanche fans might soon rejoice: He’s promised to do everything he can to get their teams back on Denver’s TVs.

“It's our job as leadership here at KSE and Altitude to deliver a solution,” Demoff, who was just named president of team and media operations at KSE, told gathered media. “Nobody wants to hear us talk about why it's hard. Nobody wants to hear us talk about the cost. What they want is for us to solve this. I promise you we will spend every waking hour doing that.”

KSE is the company through which the Kroenke family, who owns the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids and Colorado Mammoth, runs its operations in the state. (The Kroenke sports empire also includes the European soccer club Arsenal and the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, but under a different ownership group.) Demoff has long been president and chief operating officer of the Rams and will also keep that title as his new role with KSE expands his work with the Kroenkes to Denver.

The move was announced today, March 7, along with the promotion of longtime KSE executive Mike Neary, who will now be executive vice president of business operations and development. Neary has known Josh Kroenke, Stan's son and vice chairman of KSE, since college and has worked in various roles with Kroenke companies, mainly in real estate and management.
Demoff will now oversee operations of all KSE teams as well as Altitude Sports and Entertainment, KSE Radio and Outdoor Sportsman Group. Neary will be in charge of KSE venues including Ball Arena, DICK’S Sporting Goods Park and the Paramount Theatre, as well as the planned developments around them.

On March 11, KSE followed those moves by promoting Steve Smith to president of KSE media ventures. Smith, formerly the executive vice president of content distribution and marketing for KSE, will now oversee Altitude Sports and Entertainment, KSE Radio, SkyCam, Outdoor Sportsman Group, Kroenke Network Operations Center and KSE Broadcast Services Group while reporting to Demoff.

Resolving the ongoing dispute between Altitude TV — the Stan Kroenke-owned television channel that holds the local media rights for the Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche — and Comcast and DISH Network is the top priority in this organizational reorganization, Josh Kroenke said.

“When Kevin and I sat down to talk about this new role and this new opportunity, the first and only thing we discussed was how to get Altitude back on the air for the majority of the Denver area,” he said at the press conference. “This is truly the issue that hits me to my core, and I promise it's going to be something that we're going to try to find a creative solution to in the very near future.”

For years now, Comcast and DISH have claimed that the fees Altitude charges are too high to make financial sense to carry the channel. This has prevented most people in Denver from being able to watch their teams unless they have DirecTV, which re-upped with Altitude in 2019 after a short-lived dispute with the network. The fight with Comcast has remained fiery, with Altitude filing a lawsuit alleging Comcast violated antitrust laws by trying to eliminate the Kroenke channel. The case was settled last May, but Comcast and Altitude still haven’t agreed on a deal.

Demoff doesn’t have experience in TV, which he says is both a challenge and an advantage. He said he’s ready to do the work to understand why it hasn’t been possible to resolve the dispute and prioritize fans in its solution.

But he’s not just going to give Comcast what it wants, either.

“No one's just going to cave or capitulate or say, ‘At this point, okay, it's been enough time,’” he said. “What it's going to take is all of us figuring out what serves our fans best. What gets our games on the air? What builds the next generation of fandom, and how do we do it in a way that everybody who's looking across the table can feel good about the outcome?”

Games on Streaming and TV Antenna?

Demoff said adding a fresh perspective is “the most important thing we can do” when it comes to Altitude. Last August, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury announced that every one of both teams’ games would be available over the air, free to anyone who has a TV antenna and streamed online for free for the Mercury and for a subscription fee for the Suns. The Utah Jazz soon followed suit, and Nuggets fans wondered why their team couldn’t do the same.

“I understand the concern,” Demoff said. “When you look around the landscape and you see what Phoenix has done, you see what Utah has done, you see a lot of these teams that are creating a streaming product or an over-the-air product. You wonder: Why is it more difficult for us?”

Both of the regional sports networks that previously carried Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz games, AT&T SportsNet and Bally Sports, announced they would shut down over financial trouble before their owners moved their games to antenna broadcast.

Demoff said it is possible that KSE could wind up creating a streaming product or something over the air, though it still wants to find a deal with the cable providers.

“There is no greater priority to this organization and for our fans than getting these games on the air,” he said. “We have generational talents, championship teams. … It's not just about who's watching now; it's about making sure we don't lose that next generation of fans by not being on the air.”

While KSE works on the Altitude problem, Kroenke told media these changes won’t mess with the operations of the Avalanche, Nuggets, Rapids or Mammoth.

On Neary’s side of the business, he has major land developments to deal with. First, KSE has proposed to turn the 55 acres of parking lots around Ball Arena into a mixed-use development.

Downtown Development

The project would center around a new community park adjacent to the arena, replacing the current acres of asphalt. Around the park would be businesses and housing options. The development calls for five new bridges, four of which will connect the Ball Arena area to the River Mile, another KSE-connected project being done in partnership with Revesco Properties that will take over the land where Elitch’s currently sits. The fifth bridge will be a pedestrian bridge crossing over Speer Boulevard, connecting the Ball Arena development with the rest of downtown Denver.

Given the breadth of the project, it will take anywhere from ten to twenty years to complete; KSE is currently working through the zoning and planning process with the city.

“We have an opportunity to transform downtown Denver that will probably last throughout my lifetime and beyond,” Kroenke said. “We're not taking the responsibility lightly. We've already had great conversations with city officials about our ideas about what they think the city might need to help Denver evolve toward the future, and those conversations have been fantastic — but these are very heavy undertakings with a lot of capital involved, and we want to make sure we have all our ducks in a row before we start moving forward.”

Last May, KSE also reopened its interest in redeveloping approximately 88 acres of land around DICK’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, where MLS’s Rapids play. The stadium has been there since 2007, but KSE has long promised to turn the area around it, dubbed Victory Crossing, into a mixed-use development.

Former Commerce City mayor Benjamin Huseman blasted KSE in a May 2023 meeting for the years of delays: “You could have shown good faith to everybody involved that this is something your organization is committed to do, but nothing has happened,” Huseman said.

This time, KSE has set up the area as a Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge (RMREC) project site for 2024. The RMREC is a development competition between grad students at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado in which they compete to submit designs for the area. KSE also paid to conduct a site study and begin planning at Victory Crossing.

Demoff, who helped oversee the Rams’ move to Los Angeles from St. Louis and build SoFi Stadium and the development around it, said the goal for both developments is to activate the spaces there for communities every day of the week, not just on game days.

Kroenke also teased official drawings of a new practice facility for the Avalanche and Nuggets, as their current facilities have long lagged behind others in their respective leagues.

All three men emphasized that they know the Denver sports market is special, and they want KSE to honor the fan base moving forward. Demoff even suggested a “listening tour” to hear from fans.

Kroenke said he wants a resolution to the Altitude TV problem so he can finally hear feedback from fans about something else.

“There’s not a more painful issue in our entire web of companies than the Altitude issue,” he said. “I can't escape it. There's nothing that I would like more than to be out in the community, going to the grocery store, picking up some eggs on a Tuesday morning and not being asked about the Altitude situation, going up a ski lift and not being asked about the Altitude situation.”

Fans will wait with bated breath to see if KSE follows its words with action.

This story was updated Monday, March 11, to include news of Steve Smith's promotion.