The price of football on the old city dump west of downtown Denver has risen exponentially over 63 years.

In August 1959, the Howsam family paid $25,000 for the Denver professional football franchise. In August 2022, the Walton family is paying $4.65 billion for the franchise.

In between, a group of five Denver businessmen paid $250,000 (1961); the Phipps brothers paid $1.25 million (1965 for 94%); Edgar Jr. of the Kaiser family paid $33 million (1981), and the Bowlen family paid $71 million (1984 for 61%).

The AFL owners approved of Bob Howsam, his father, Lee, and brother Earl 6-0 at a Friday meeting in Chicago’s Conrad Hilton Hotel. The NFL owners will approve of Rob Walton, daughter Carrie Walton Penner, son-in-law Greg Penner and three prominent associates 32-0 at a meeting in the Minneapolis JW Marriott Hotel Tuesday.

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The final official action of Joe Ellis — Broncos CEO and one of three Bowlen family trustees — will be to give a tribute to late owner Pat Bowlen, introduce the Walton family and vote as the Broncos’ representative on the sale of the franchise.

Then he’s out. And the Waltons are in.

They are expected to be at the Broncos headquarters at Dove Valley Wednesday and take control. Rob will be the principal owner while Greg and/or Carrie will oversee the franchise. Rob serves on Walmart’s board of directors, while Greg is the corporation’s board chairman and co-founder/managing partner of investment firm Madrone Capital Partners. Carrie is a national leader of the charter school movement and a board member of KIPP Foundation, Alliance for School Choice and Charter School Growth Fund.

The titles of chief executive officer and team president may be designated immediately, and general manager George Paton could be elevated to executive vice president of football operations.

Of the 14 vice presidents, 13 probably will be retained. The other was senior VP of strategy, Brittany Bowlen, the last of her family to have a role with the Broncos. Each of the seven children will receive approximately $511 million (before taxes), while Pat’s older brother John, a minority shareholder of 22%, will get more than $1 billion. Marybeth Bowlen Jagger sold her 20% in late 1997 to brother Pat, and Bill Bowlen, Pat’s younger brother, was bought out in 2002.

So, the Bowlen Era will be over Tuesday after 38 seasons, seven Super Bowls, three NFL championships, 13 division titles and 36 postseason games.

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The Walton era should be so fortunate. The first four ownerships made the playoffs four times and the Super Bowl once.

Reaching the playoffs this season would be an excellent start for the Walton family with the players and coaches they have inherited from the Bowlen family.

The Broncos haven’t sniffed the postseason since 2016 when they finished 9-7, but lost five of their final eight and Gary Kubiak resigned.

E&E — Ellis and Elway — were blamed, from outside the organization and inside the Bowlen family, for the decline and fall of the Broncos’ empire following Super Bowls in 2013 and 2015. Ellis said Saturday his last-best memory was the 2016 AFC Championship victory over the Patriots (with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady). “I knew we’d beat Carolina.’’ He also could have mentioned the ’13 AFC Championship over B&B and the Patriots.

Ellis joined the Broncos in 1983, when he was 25, to sell T-shirts, then ads in the game-day program. He eventually became Bowlen’s closest adviser and ultimate successor as CEO when Pat bowed out with Alzheimer’s in 2014.

Now, the responsibility of franchise power shifts to Rob Walton and his daughter and son-in-law, their ownership alliance and the people they keep and hire during the Broncos’ “Walmart’’ reign.

Bowlen was an attorney, a developer and an executive with his father Paul’s oil-and-gas drilling company in Canada before buying the Broncos. He quit the other jobs and committed completely to the Broncos, to the point he experienced serious financial difficulties.

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Rob Walton will become the richest NFL owner, but his estimated net worth has decreased to an estimated $59.4 billion.

The winning bid of $4.65 billion beat three competitors’ offers of more than $4.2 billion, The Gazette has learned.

Will any of the Waltons concentrate totally on the Broncos? Will they succeed or fail? Will they win a Super Bowl or three? Will they move the team from the old city dump?

We are about to begin finding out.

What price football?