DENVER — You can’t spell “hopeless” without P-S-L. And that’s sort of how Mary Hayes feels when she thinks about all her friends who’ve got Broncos tickets right now.

“To me, personally, it speaks about the rich getting richer, and (everyone else) has to absorb the cost of everything,” Hayes sighed when I reached her by phone on Monday. “Honestly, I don’t know how you get around that.”

Mary is a Josh Allen gal in Bo Nix territory, a Bills Mafia transplant, a Rochester, N.Y., native who’s lived in Boulder County for eight or nine years now. When she hears talk about the Burnham Yard stadium site and the Walton-Penner Group, or when folks start whispering about “Personal Seat Licenses,” or PSLs, in Denver, she circles back to her ex-father-in-law.

Almost every adult Broncomaniac has met somebody like Mike from upstate New York at some point. He had Bills season tickets for five decades. He was a combat veteran who served in Vietnam, was awarded a Purple Heart, and became a true Don of Bills Mafia. Now in his 70s, Mike recently elected to give up his tickets rather than pony up for a PSL — an annual fee paid by customers of some NFL franchises to gain the right to purchase season tickets. In essence, it’s a cover charge for a cover charge.

Major pro franchises that agree to foot the bill for privately financed stadiums these days often seek to defray at least some of those costs by adding PSL fees to their customers’ bills. The Walton-Penner Group is working on a privately financed stadium and entertainment district for the Burnham Yard area near I-25, with an estimated $ 4 billion price tag. It’s not hard to do the math on the possibility of PSLs landing here.

The Bills announced last December that it had sold out its PSLs — reportedly more than 53,000 — for the team’s net revenue of roughly $259 million. The average annual cost of a PSL at its new Highmark Stadium ranged from a reported $750 to $50,000 per seat, depending on location. Just to give you a ballpark figure, literally, of what might be coming down the pike for Broncos Country. And why she thinks of Mike.

“And those are the people who are behind the scenes, with personal stories,” Hayes continued. “Growing up a Bills fan, to me, that was all about family. I remember watching games with my dad on the couch on Sunday afternoons. And him taking us to games that we could afford … it’s just become this thing, now, where that (tradition) is getting lost in everything. To me, that’s the heart of being a Bills fan or a Broncos fan, is generational memories. And its connection.

“Those were the people that want it and need it the most, that are struggling to make ends meet every day. And now you’re taking away the one thing that they look forward to year-round.”

That one thing — the Broncos — is more than a line item on a tax return. It’s fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. It’s woven into the fabric, baked in the blood. It’s passed on, like a grandfather clock, from generation to generation.

“But we’re winning now,” chuckled Lori Hosmer of Rochester, N.Y., child of two massive Bills fans and a Buffalo season-ticket holder since 2010. “We have to pay up. If you want Josh Allen, you’ve got to pay Josh Allen. If you want James Cook, you’ve got to pay James Cook.”

The Bills are not a perfect comp, granted. For one thing, the new Highmark is jointly funded by public and private sources, with at least $850 million coming from New York taxpayers. For another, the Bills’ home upgrade is estimated to feature about 10,000 fewer seats (62,000) than the current version’s reported 71,608. Empower Field features a capacity of 76,125 for football.

But in terms of passion, devotion, organization, loyalty, national presence and a blue-collar ethos, Broncos Country and the Mafia are cousins cut from the same AFL cloth. And the ones in upstate New York have some advice for Denverites on the fabric of PSL life:

Do your homework

If you treat PSLs sales like Black Friday at Walmart and storm through the doors at midnight, you might get your bank account trampled, Hosmer noted. Have a plan.

“Understand what your budget is before you walk in, so you don’t get excited about the hype,” she said. “Your experience depends on who your rep is … we had some (fans) who felt very pressured (initially).”

Hosmer’s old seats were above one of the Bills’ tunnel entrances, but that section wasn’t offered to her in the new Highmark.

“It’s a very good idea to have written down what you can actually want to afford and what you can afford, and what you actually want to spend on (seats),” Hosmer said, “before going forward. It’s a big commitment. It’s easy to get caught up in that (sales pitch).

“Our rep said, ‘Guys, no pressure, but all these other people are going to have a chance to (have these seats) the next couple weeks, I’m not sure where you’ll land.'”

Be patient and prepared to change seats

Hosmer described the PSL selection and confirmation process as “very long” and “very confusing, because you had no idea when you’d be called … that was just an odd thing.”

Another layer of odd? Her PSL ‘rep’ was not the same person as her season-ticket rep.

“My understanding is that every team does it how they want to do it,” she stressed, “but (Buffalo) was not based on seniority, because seniority didn’t matter. People spending the most money got first dibs. That makes sense. It’s a business.”

While preaching patience, Hosmer also would advise Broncos fans to “be prepared to change seats.”

“Someone who was sitting next to me (for years) was like, ‘I’m not paying $2,500, I’m not paying $3,000 (for this),’ so he ended up in a different (section),” she said. “He said, ‘I wanted to be in the new stadium, but it was too much of a (financial) ask. It was just too much.'”

Brace for sticker shock

Hosmer’s end-zone seats cost $450 a head in 2010. The ones she’ll be getting this fall landed at $1,895 — and that’s before parking.

“If (a Broncos fan) is not sure (about a purchase), you make sure you find out before you sign any paperwork,” she said. “People in our group were really mad to find out afterwards, after we signed our (contract), that the Bills were actually going to go in and out at the end of the half and at the end of the game by their bench and not by (the end zone).”

The community hand-wringing picked up when the Bills began charging $8,000-$50,000 annually per patron on PSLs for club seats. Late last year, Bills ownership introduced a $1,000 PSL cost for an upper-deck seat, and some higher-up end zone seats were offered at a three-figure level — $500-750 per patron.

In all cases, Hosmer said, financing options were made available, “so it’s not killer .. you have to have a credit card, you have to put down a deposit.”

She recalled being offered a six-year plan to pay off her PSL at an interest rate of around 8.7%. Hosmer was also told she couldn’t sell her PSLs until at least a year after its purchase, and that there were restrictions as to how those licenses could be resold, and to whom.

“I’ve heard fans complain about the (lack of stadium giveaways and bobbleheads) here,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘You don’t get that, but you get Victory Mondays.’ Take your pick. Do you want cheap sunglasses, or do you want AFC Championships? I know what I’m choosing. Every time.”

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