Stan Kroenke

Stan Kroenke

Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire real estate magnate and sports team owner. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal of the Premier League and Arsenal Women of the Women's Super League, the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, Colorado Rapids of MLS, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League.

The Nuggets and Avalanche franchises are held in the name of his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, to evade NFL rules that forbid a team owner from having teams in other markets. Ann, part of the Walton family, is the daughter of Walmart co-founder James "Bud" Walton.

Kroenke's holding company for sports teams has been controversial. In 2016, he moved the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, which later led to a lawsuit that incurred legal costs for the entire league. In 2021, Kroenke was involved in a failed effort to end the traditional European soccer system by creating a closed European Super League that would have included Arsenal and several other teams.

In the five major U.S. sports, Kroenke's teams have won multiple championships under his ownership (either partial or full), with the Rams winning two Super Bowl, the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup twice, the Nuggets winning one NBA Championship, and the Rapids winning one MLS Cup. The Colorado Mammoth have also won two National Lacrosse League Championships while he was the owner.

Early life and education

Stan Kroenke

Kroenke grew up in Mora, Missouri, an unincorporated community with a population of approximately two dozen, where his father owned Mora Lumber Company. His first job was sweeping the floor at his father's lumber yard. At Cole Camp (Missouri) High School, he played baseball, basketball and ran track.

Business career

Real estate

Kroenke married Ann Walton, a Walmart heiress, in 1974. He founded the Kroenke Group in 1983, a real estate development firm that has built shopping centers and apartment buildings. He has developed many of his plazas near Walmart stores.

He is also the chairman of THF Realty, an independent real estate development company that specializes in suburban development. He founded this corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1991. In 2016, THF's portfolio was valued at more than $2 billion, including more than 100 projects totaling 20 million square feet, primarily in retail shopping centers.

Kroenke was already wealthy in his own right, but became even more so when Ann inherited a stake in Walmart upon the death of her father, Walmart cofounder Bud Walton, in 1995.

Kroenke is a major owner of working ranches, owning a total of 848,631 acres (343,429 ha) in 2015 when The Land Report magazine ranked him as the United States' ninth-largest landowner. In February 2016, he acquired the Waggoner Ranch in Texas, the largest ranch within one fenceline. As of 2026, Kroenke is the largest private landowner in the United States. He owns over 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.

Other ventures

In 2006, Kroenke, in partnership with the money manager Charles Banks, acquired Screaming Eagle, a winery in Napa Valley. In April 2009, Banks stated he was no longer personally involved with Screaming Eagle.

In August 2017, he came under fire for launching a British outdoor sports television channel that will show regular hunting programmes that includes killing elephants, lions, and other vulnerable African species.

Professional sports

Kroenke Sports and Entertainment

Founded in 1999, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment owns Ball Arena in Denver, home of the Nuggets, Avalanche and Mammoth, and co-owns Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, home of the Rapids. Both venues were built by his development company. In 2004, Kroenke launched his own competitor to FSN Rocky Mountain (now known as AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain), Altitude, a new regional sports network which became the official broadcaster for both of Kroenke's teams on launch. Kroenke also established TicketHorse, a ticket company that provides in-house sales for all of his teams.

Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche

Kroenke (center) at the Nuggets championship parade

In 2000, Kroenke became full owner of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche, purchasing the teams from Charlie Lyons's Ascent Entertainment Group.

Colorado Crush

In 2002, Kroenke partnered with Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and former Bronco quarterback John Elway to become part-owner of the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush.

Colorado Mammoth and Colorado Rapids

Kroenke continued to grow his sports portfolio in 2004 when he purchased the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids from Phil Anschutz.

St. Louis Rams

On April 13, 1995, Stan Kroenke helped Georgia Frontiere move the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams from Anaheim to St. Louis by purchasing a 30% share of the team.

In 2010, two years after Frontiere's death, Kroenke exercised his right of first refusal to purchase the remaining interest in the Rams from her estate. On August 25, 2010, he became full owner of the Rams by unanimous consent of the NFL. To gain approval from NFL owners, Kroenke agreed to turn over control of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche to his son, Josh, by the end of 2010, and he had to give up his majority stake in both teams in December 2014. The NFL does not allow its owners to hold majority control of major league teams in other NFL markets. On October 7, 2015, the NFL approved transfer of his ownership stake of the Avalanche and Nuggets to his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke.

Stadium lease issues

In April 2010, as he was trying to gain full ownership of the team, and knowing of an escape clause in the Rams lease at the Edward Jones Dome, Stan Kroenke said: "I'm going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis."

In February 2013, the Rams and the City of St. Louis went to arbitration over a clause in the Rams' lease that stated that their stadium must be among the NFL's best. The arbitrators agreed with the Rams, enabling the team to break their original lease and assume a year-to-year lease agreement.

In 2015, Kroenke said that he was willing to work with Missouri officials and to give them a "complete understanding" of the stadium situation. On November 30, 2015, he met with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon at Rams Park in Earth City, Missouri.

Move to Los Angeles

On January 5, 2015, the Kroenke Group announced that it would team up with Stockbridge Capital Group to build a 70,000-seat NFL stadium and venue in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. To persuade Kroenke to keep the Rams in St. Louis, the city offered to build an open-air stadium, later named National Car Rental Field, in the north riverfront area of downtown.

In his pitch to fellow NFL owners, Kroenke said that St. Louis was no longer a viable market for the Rams or the NFL. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the St. Louis funding did not meet the criteria set by the NFL. St. Louis officials countered that Kroenke was misrepresenting the city and said that St. Louis was being misrepresented at the owners' meetings.

The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers had complained about the aging amenities of their old stadiums (Oakland Coliseum in Oakland and Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, respectively), and had been proposing a stadium in Carson, California (another suburb of Los Angeles) in competition with Kroenke's Inglewood proposal.

On January 4, 2016, all three teams applied to move to Los Angeles for the 2016 NFL season. The following day, the Rams and Stan Kroenke released their proposal for the move. Some of the Rams' conclusions were disputed by the Mayor of St. Louis Francis Slay (in a letter to Roger Goodell), the St. Louis Regional Chamber, and Forbes. Others said the city would be better off by not paying for a new stadium.

On January 12, 2016, the NFL, after discussions led by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, approved the Rams' application to move from St. Louis back to Los Angeles with a 30–2 vote; the Chargers would have a one-year option to join them. In 2017, the Chargers announced that they would move to Los Angeles for the 2017 season, with the intention of initially playing games in Carson, but then moving into Kroenke's Inglewood Stadium, pending completion. The Raiders subsequently announced a move to Las Vegas, Nevada.

On April 12, 2017, it was reported that the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority filed a 52-page lawsuit against the NFL and all 32 NFL clubs as defendants (including Stan Kroenke) and sought damages and restitution of profits. On July 12, 2017, the Los Angeles Rams filed three motions seeking to: dismiss the case for failure to state a claim, dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction, and appeal to have the case determined through arbitration rather than in front of a St. Louis-based jury. The motions in the case were decided upon by Judge Christopher McGraugh. On April 20, 2020, the Supreme Court denied Kroenke and the NFL's appeal of the lawsuit. On November 24, 2021, it was announced that the NFL, Kroenke, and the various St. Louis parties had agreed to a $790 million settlement to end the lawsuit before it would have gone to trial in 2022. Some legal experts believe the lawsuit was not dismissed because Kroenke lied about his true intentions with the Rams, the NFL did not follow its own relocation guidelines created after the league failed to stop the Raiders move to Los Angeles in the early 80s, and Kroenke/the league allowed St. Louis to spend money planning a replacement stadium when they had no intention of making a deal to lease it.

Arsenal

Kroenke is the owner of Arsenal Holdings, which owns football clubs Arsenal of the Premier League and Arsenal Women of the WSL. Arsenal already had a technical link-up with Kroenke's Colorado Rapids when in April 2007 Granada Ventures, a subsidiary of ITV, sold its 9.9% stake in Arsenal Holdings to Kroenke's KSE UK. Kroenke went on to buy further shares in the club, taking his total stake up to 12.19%. The club's board initially expressed skepticism that a bid would be in its best interests, but gradually warmed to him as part of counteracting Alisher Usmanov's rival bid for the club.

By June 2008, the board had prepared to let Kroenke take over, and on September 19, 2008, it was officially announced that Kroenke had joined the board of directors. Kroenke had a beneficial interest in, and controlled voting rights, over 18,594 shares, representing 29.9% of the issued shares. Nearing the maximum 29.99% threshold, beyond which an offer for all remaining shares would be forced to be made.

On April 10, 2011, it was reported that Kroenke was in advanced talks to complete the takeover. The following day, it was announced that he increased his shareholding to 62.89% by purchasing the stakes of Danny Fiszman and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, and agreed to make an offer for the rest of the club at £11,750 per share, valuing the club at £731M.

In August 2018, Kroenke made an offer that was accepted of around £600M valuing the total shareholding at £1.8 billion, to Alisher Usmanov, to bring his ownership of shares beyond 90% and forcing the compulsory purchase of the remaining shares.

In April 2021, Arsenal were announced as a founding member of the European Super League, which would have effectively ended the pyramid system of European soccer and placed Arsenal in a closed league without prospects for meritocratic relegation and promotion. Arsenal and the five other English clubs involved backed out within two days after a strong backlash. After the aborted attempt to end the European soccer system, Arsenal fans protested and called for the Kroenke family to sell the club. The Kroenke family released a statement saying they would not sell the club.

Los Angeles Gladiators

In late 2017, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment developed a new esports team franchise named the Los Angeles Gladiators in the newly founded Overwatch League; their inaugural season began on December 6.

Los Angeles Guerrillas

In 2019, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment developed its second e-sports team. KSE founded the Los Angeles Guerrillas of the Call of Duty League. They, along with the Los Angeles Gladiators of the Overwatch League, are based out of Hollywood Park next door to where Kroenke's Rams play.

Awards and honors

Stan Kroenke

• Two-time Super Bowl champion (XXXIV in 2000 as co-owner of the Rams in St. Louis and LVI in 2022 as full owner of the Rams in Los Angeles) • Two-time Stanley Cup champion in 2000-01 and 2021-22 (as owner of the Avalanche) • 2023 NBA champion (as owner of the Denver Nuggets) • 2010 MLS Cup champion (as owner of the Colorado Rapids) • Two-time National Lacrosse League champion in (/wiki/2006NLLseason) and (/wiki/2022NLLseason) (as owner of the Colorado Mammoth) • ArenaBowl XIX Champion in 2005 (as co-owner of the Colorado Crush)

Personal life

Stan Kroenke

On a ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, Kroenke met his future wife, Ann Walton, daughter of Bud Walton, who co-founded Walmart with his brother Sam. As an heiress to the Walmart fortune, Ann is worth $9.1 billion as of 2023. They married in 1974.

Kroenke is of German descent and was raised Lutheran. He is popularly known as "Silent Stan" because he rarely gives interviews to the press.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Kroenke donated $100,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund. He subsequently donated $1 million to Donald Trump's inaugural committee.