A maze, underground parking and a shorter walk: Inside the Broncos’ new $175M HQ

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Patrick Surtain II felt like he was in a maze. Quinn Meinerz was glad his truck wasn't baking in the Colorado sun.

The Denver Broncos prepared to open training camp this week from their new $175 million headquarters, which was designed with players in mind.

“Oh, this is incredible,” said Meinerz, the Broncos' perennial All-Pro guard. “I'm finding new things every time. I've just stayed on the first floor. I got to park underground. When I get done with practice my truck's not going to be 150 degrees. That's a nice little thing.”

The Broncos will hold their first practice of their acclimation period Wednesday in the shadows of the new state-of-the-art facility funded by owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner.

It was designed to keep players from having to exert extra energy in a superfluous manner, such as long walks to their weight room like they had to make in their old headquarters across the football fields, buildings that will be torn down after training camp next month.

“The locker room is close, the food's right there, the weight room's right there, the field's right here," Meinerz said. “The ease of everything is just incredible."

Meinerz said when he first walked into the spacious new locker room, “I couldn't stop smiling, it was just incredible. It feels like it has more of a social atmosphere to it. It's kind of a big room with like an underlayer of couch, TVs. So, I'm excited to see the flow of it.”

The Broncos are counting on their new headquarters having an positive impact not only on performance but also on the offseason recruitment of free agents.

“I've already noticed how much closer everything is,” Meinerz said. “Like in the previous building ... it sounds so spoiled but you have to walk a little bit to get to the weight room. And right now, the weight room is connected to the locker room pretty much. So, everything is so close. Those little minutes of time do add up throughout the day."

Surtain couldn't name his favorite feature of the new digs, which the media will tour this weekend.

“Honestly, everything's state-of-the-art,” he said. “When I first got in yesterday, I was like, wow, I was in awe. It's pretty special. ... It feels like I'm in a maze right now, though. I've got to figure out where to navigate.”

Surtain sees it attracting free agents, too, just like the digs at Alabama, where he played in college.

“Yeah, pretty much so,” Surtain said. “It feels like I'm in college again, immersed into that experience. Like I said, credit to Greg and Carrie for putting all this together. My expectations were high. It's definitely exceeded my expectations. I don't think there's anything like this in the league.”

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