Brittany Bowlen has returned to the Broncos a vice president of strategic initiatives and she is being groomed to eventually replace her late father, Pat, as the team’s next controlling owner.

The transition won’t happen smoothly — and it might not happen at all. Beth and Amie, two of Bowlen’s other daughters, are attempting to have the Pat Bowlen Trust removed from power through a lawsuit. The trust was tasked by Bowlen to pass on ownership of the team to one of his children when a candidate was deemed ready to take over and the trust has seemingly decided on Brittany but not all of her siblings agree with the decision.

If the family can’t come to an agreement, selling the team will be among the trust’s options.

“It is an option and we’ve told the beneficiaries that because if Brittany were to succeed and take over for her father, everybody else is going to have to sign off on that, most likely,” Broncos president and CEO Joe Ellis said Monday. “That may not be a requirement, but it’s going to be necessary, I think, moving forward from a trustee viewpoint. That’s why a sale remains a possibility, I think, given the circumstances we’re in.”

The situation probably won’t be resolved anytime soon.

Ellis continues to support Brittany as a potential future owner.

“She’s got a really good future ahead of her, whether she succeeds he father or not,” Ellis said. “She’s very comfortable in her own skin, very confident, very intelligent and hardworking, unassuming and not trying to have the Bowlen name get her anything in particular.

“As I said, she’s really integrated herself well here in the first month and I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and tell me that.”