Pay attention, Walmart shoppers. In a real Monopoly Game and sports franchise Battle Royale, the Penner-Walton group confronts the Kroenke-Walton group later this month.

Meanwhile, Richard “Roxbottoms Dick” and Charles “Sorry Charlie” have not yet passed “Go” yet. But this is the most Mile High-likely final September the Monfort Bros. will possess the preponderance ownership of the Rockies. According to multiple sources, the Penners and Waltons intend to take over the 30-season-old club when and if Major League Baseball returns sometime in 2027.

Stan Kroenke just agreed on Sept. 1 to purchase the majority ownership of the Los Angeles Angels for an MLB record $4 billion, which was nearly the number of the then-NFL record $4.65 billion that Walton family members and associates led by Rob Walton and Greg Penner paid to buy the Denver Broncos on Aug. 9, 2022.

On April 10 of this year, Penner and his wife Carrie Walton Penner bailed out the rocky Rockies ownership and paid all their debts by securing a 40% share of the franchise, which still plays like an expansion team, for approximately $700 million. They are expected to acquire another 35% after the baseball collective bargaining ultimately is settled – probably following a potential work shutdown by the owners, led by Dick Monfort, chairman of the MLB labor committee and the most fervent advocate of a salary cap.   

Now, Stan Kroenke, whose net worth has increased to $27.6 billion, is the owner of the Angels, Nuggets, Avalanche, Rapids, Rams, Arsenal and disregarded Mammoth as the world’s most valuable sports empire ($30-plus billion). He also has become the largest private landowner in the United States.

Kroenke & Son (Josh) have under contract the NHL’s highest-paid player (Cale Makar at $172.2 million over nine seasons) and the No. 5 player in the Premier League (Bukayo Saka at $21.37 million in 2026-27). Nikola Jokic is in the fourth season of a five-year deal for a total of $276 million. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will have a salary cap hit of $48 million this season.

The Rockies gifted $172 million to Kris Bryant, who sits on a sofa.

The extended Walton Family (no John Boy) is the country’s richest at an estimated $520 billion.

Greg and Carrie Penner are building a new multiple billion dollar stadium in proximity to downtown Denver and surrounded by a center featuring businesses, entertainment and housing. Kroenke, who owns the baseball-hockey arena (with a personal condo atop) on the edge of downtown, will be building a center featuring businesses, entertainment and housing. Dueling centers.

The Monfort family — including two sons of Dick and Charlie’s two daughters, two sons and a stepson — always seemed more interested in LoDo real estate, especially on Market Street and McGregor Square, and gas stations than the baseball franchise. However, the Monforts probably will retain about 20% of the Rockies so offspring Walker and Sterling might keep jobs. Three other partnerships hold small percentages. The Brothers Grim inherited their money from father Kenneth, owner of the meatpacking company in Greeley. Charles, who was the biggest original investor in the 1992 birth of the Rockies ($20 million he once told me) and who will be 67 in October, was joined  five years later by older brother Richard, who turned 72 in April,  and they began buying out other shareholders.

Charlie served as managing general partner from 2005-2011 (including when the Rockies reached the World Series). Then Dick assumed full control. Twice since, and seasons ago, the Rockies participated briefly in the playoffs. But, under Dick, the franchise hit rock bottom with the most defeats in baseball over a six-season span.

On Saturday afternoon, the Rockies were on pace to lose 100 games for the fourth straight year.

Dick has been Harpo Marx this season, but he will be front and center in representation of the owners when the CBA ends midnight Dec. 1. A “hard salary cap” is Monfort’s only true mission, but he can be anticipated to do for MLB what he has done for the Rockies — lose.

Perhaps, in a half dozen years, Kroenke’s Angels and the Penner-Walton Rockies will play in the World Series. The Rams and the Broncos could meet  sooner in Super Bowl LXI at Kroenke’s SoFi Stadium Feb. 14.

But, first, the Walmart Bowl is scheduled Monday night, Sept. 27, at Mile High.