KSE spending $135 million on Ball Arena — still no new practice facility for Jokic or MacKinnon

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) announced on Friday $135 million worth of upgrades coming to Ball Arena this decade, that ownership says is focused on making The Can more “comfortable, accessible, modern and fan friendly” — no word on the long desired practice facilities for the two championship-level teams that call the 27-year-old stadium home.

In a news release from KSE, they say that updates will include a bigger East Atrium (downtown side of the building) including a glass façade, new escalators and a team shop. They’ll be widening that somewhat small ingress and egress and expanding the concourses there to eliminate a frequently congested area on game days. The stadium will also boast three new premium clubs, and better point-of-sale tech.

“When we acquired the Nuggets, Avalanche, and the Arena, we committed to developing winning teams and to supporting the City of Denver,” E. Stanley Kroenke said in a news statement. “The renovated Ball Arena and the subsequent redevelopment of the surrounding land allow us to keep doing both for another 25 years and beyond.”

The project will be done in phases to minimize the impact to fans and neighbors, with completion expected in time for the 2028-2029 seasons, according to the release.

“The result of this project will be a world-class venue that offers a legendary guest experience night after night,” said voice of ownership Josh Kroenke in the release. “The Nuggets, Avalanche, and Mammoth will have a home in Downtown Denver to rival any in their respective leagues, and we will reinforce our position as the city’s top indoor space for touring concerts and other major productions.”

BIG CHANGES ARE COMING TO BALL ARENA. 👀

We’re reimagining Ball Arena with renovations designed to make your experience more comfortable, accessible, modern and fan friendly!

🏟️ Expanded East Atrium with a new glass façade, escalators and team shop
🚶 Wider entrances, exits and… pic.twitter.com/Bq6KhZfk5k

— Ball Arena (@ballarenadenver) September 18, 2026

Ball Arena opened in 1999 and the updates come on the eve of the planned 55-acre redevelopment of the parking lots around Ball Arena that are planned to include a hotel, a mid-size entertainment venue, a central park, shopping, dining, and residential and office towers. This project is expected to eventually work in tandem with the 62-acre site on the other side of the train tracks that currently hosts Elitch Gardens, which is also owned by KSE. If those two projects work the way the Kroenkes hope, they could double downtown Denver’s square footage.

The new entrance may end up being considered the main one some day as development shifts from car-centric to other forms of transportation. The first big move in all of this will be the pedestrian and bike bridge (Wynkoop Crossing) connecting downtown and the Cherry Creek Trail over Speer Boulevard and to the arena, where fans will use that east entrance.

The upgrades shared with the public on Friday also work with the previously announced renovation of the arena’s luxury suites, which will be ready for this winter sports season. It’s been part of a bigger focus from ownership on Ball Arena, as they’ve run surveys to figure out next steps for the building and have added a bunch of new concessions in the last few years after getting flamed for some of the worst food across the NBA.

Earlier this decade KSE signed a lease to remain at Ball Arena or another site in the same location through 2050. These upgrades further strengthen ownership’s commitment to this venue.

“It’s an honor when you get to reimagine a venue that means so much to so many,” added Josh Kroenke. “Everyone will still recognize this as the site of some of their most cherished memories, but with the amenities, conveniences, technology, and aesthetics of a brand new building.”

Denver is one of the three cities that is in the running to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention, after doing so in 2008. No public word yet on how the Ball Arena projects may be impacted by that event.

But for most fans of the Avalanche and Nuggets the question is not about adding more glass to the outside of the building or making getting up to your seats on game days two minutes faster, it’s why are they spending $135 million — roughly 1.5 Peyton Watson contracts, the player they shipped to Cleveland rather than pay this summer. More importantly why is the money being spent here and not on the long begged for practice facilities that would take Nikola Jokic out of a de-facto middle school gym and pull Nathan MacKinnon away from a laser tag center?

The obvious answer is return on investment and these upgrades work with their other project in finding new or creating stronger revenue streams, whereas giving Jokic and Co. more hoops to shoot at doesn’t even guarantee an additional win, let alone more money — not that winning is the priority here, just look at the Rapids summer of selling (shipping out Lucas Herrington and Rafael Navarro for a combined $35 million) for a microcosm of how this group prioritizes profits above all else.

Josh has been asked about practice facilities for nearly a decade and said it’s in progress that entire time. As recently as June, he told the media, “There’s one final hurdle that we’re in and we hope to have some information relatively soon.” It seems as if the effort to get that done is at best on the back-burner as the group again goes to the city to get something else approved — this time the Site Development Plan later on Friday for the newly announced updates to Ball Arena.

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