re: Benson needs to sell to the Mannings

They can't "easily afford" it, but they could probably pull it off. Peyton is listed with a net worth of a little over $115 million, as of around 2012. Let's say he could put together $100 million in cash. The NFL requires that one party own controlling interest in a franchise. So, for this example, assume he buys the team for $1.2 billion - he puts up $100 million cash and borrows $512 million, for a 51% ownership stake. He puts together a group of investors to pony up $588,000,000 in cash for their percentages and deal done. Debt service is around $30 million per year on a regular amortization (Forbes estimates operating income at $50 million per year), but could be considerably reduced in the short term through any number of methods. He could institute a one time PSL program that averages, say, $2,500 per seat and raise $177,500,000 right off the bat, considerably reducing debt service. Anyway, while it wouldn't be the easiest deal to put together, it's certainly not out of the question, if there would be a will on both sides to do a deal.