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The Denver Broncos are looking for a new owner in what’s expected to be the most expensive team sale in U.S. sports history.

The Pat D. Bowlen Trust announced Tuesday it’s in the “beginning of a sale process” for a franchise that’s valued at $4 billion and is expected to draw heavy bidding that could push the sale price well beyond that figure.

The highest price paid for a U.S. sports franchise is the $2.35 billion that Alibaba Group cofounder and Canadian billionaire Joe Tsai paid for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019. The last NFL team that went on the market was the Carolina Panthers, whom David Tepper bought for $2.275 billion.

The trustees who run the Broncos hope to have a new owner in place by the start of next season, said team president and CEO Joe Ellis.

Ellis, who is one of three trustees of The Pat Bowlen Trust, said Steve Greenberg of Allen & Company was retained as financial advisor and Joe Leccese of Proskauer Rose LLP as legal advisor for the ownership transition.

“Selling an NFL team is a complex process involving numerous parties and league approval procedures. Nonetheless, the trustees hope to have the sale completed by the start of the 2022 NFL season,” Ellis said in a statement.

NFL franchise values have skyrocketed with new broadcast deals and the league’s embrace of sports betting, which is now legal in many states, including Colorado. And teams rarely go on sale.

The Broncos are a regional team with a great history including three Super Bowl titles, seven Super Bowl appearances and 21 playoff berths since Pat Bowlen purchased the team from Edgar Kaiser in 1984.

The team has an up-and-coming roster under general manager George Paton, who was hired a year ago when John Elway was reassigned to president of football operations. Last week, Paton hired Nathaniel Hackett as the team’s new head coach, replacing Vic Fangio.

Elway, who is in the final months of his contract, and Peyton Manning, who has lived in Denver since his retirement, are expected to get involved as minority partners of billionaires competing to win the NFL’s approval to acquire the franchise.

The Broncos won two Super Bowl titles in the late 1990s with Elway under center and again in 2016 with Elway in the front office and Manning at quarterback in the final game of his Hall of Fame career.

The Broncos haven’t reached the playoffs since then, however, and have churned through 10 starting quarterbacks since Manning retired.