excellent article on kroenke

[general counsel]

There is an excellent article on stan kroenke on the front page of todays new york times. maybe someone can post the link. Little mention of the rams and no mention of his possible intentions regarding buying out the rosenblooms. Apparantly, he owns 29% of the soccer club Arsenal and may be making a bid to buy the entire team.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[TheBritishRam]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

Kroenke is the largest shareholder at Arsenal and only needs to buy 17 more shares to reach 30% which force him to make an offer for the entire stockholding. He's beem slowly buying more shares over the last year, which may indicate his intention to takeover Arsenal, if he did I'm guessing that would put him out of the running to buy the Rams. But then again, I'm not exactly sure of the financial status of Kroenke, perhaps he could afford both within a year or two of each other.

Edit: Just found an article posted a week ago that states that Arsenal do expect a takeover bid from Kroenke.

[general counsel]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

Kroenke is an extraordinarily wealthy individual (married to a walmart heiress in additition to his own billion dollar fortune). The issue i think would be available leverage in today's hostile capital markets, which are settling down to some degree on the m and a side. I think that money will not be the issue in terms of whether he buys the rams (that is to say availability of money, the issue will be price and the conflict rules with ownership of other teams). I would LOVE to see kroenke buy the rams (ie full ownership).

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[Truth]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

Buying the Gunners hunh? Wow. I'm definately an Arsenal fan.

I think most potential buyers are going to wait and see what transpires with the league. There are lots of things up in the air right now. There's even potential for a strike or lockout. That's not really the way a new owner wants to come into the league; plunk down a ton of cash and then sit for an unspecified period of time before you can start seeing any dividends.

[Varg6]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

I'm not trying to be funny but apparently, a guy named Rich who is close with Chip is trying to buy the team; wants to keep the Rams in STL. I don't really know the details because I didn't want to get into things that are none of my business and quite frankly I don't really feel right posting this but I love you guys so I thought I'd throw that in there.

[general counsel]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

But TRUTH, that risk and uncertainty is factored into the price of a team, which is theoretically lower now, given the financing conditions and uncertainty in the league. Many could conclude (if they can finance with appropriate leverage) that now is a great time to buy for long term investment purposes.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[TheRammer]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

I think we should start putting together a ClanRam savings account and buy the Rams... what say you?

[Truth]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

But TRUTH, that risk and uncertainty is factored into the price of a team, which is theoretically lower now, given the financing conditions and uncertainty in the league. Many could conclude (if they can finance with appropriate leverage) that now is a great time to buy for long term investment purposes.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

I don't know about that. I believe that the teams record is factored in. After all, it is a business. But a potential looming strike might affect offer price, but I don't think it really has the same effect on the overall value of the team. The NFL has been a very good investment for those capable of putting deals together. Even for those that purchase losing teams. And, if offer prices do decrease because of potential labor strife, I expect the current owners to hang on a bit longer.

No matter what, it will certainly help to get this franchise into the hands of an owner (or owners), who want to dedicate the time and effort (and money) it will take to bring our Rams back to prominence. That's not a jab at the current owners. They have their lives and interests. I just don't think that either of them have a burning desire to run this team.

[MauiRam]

Re: excellent article on kroenke

Would this be it GC?

David Zalubowski/Associated Press
Stan Kroenke owns or has a share in five professional teams, making him one of the most powerful figures in sports.

Stan Kroenke has built a portfolio that makes him one of the most powerful people in sports. He owns the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, as well as a 40 percent stake in the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League.

He is circumspect and seldom speaks with reporters, who have nicknamed him Silent Stanley. He is regularly called the anti-Donald Trump, the anti-Jerry Jones, the anti-Mark Cuban.

His next move, however, will firmly establish him — if not his hometown — as a major attraction on the sports world’s map.

Mr. Kroenke is on the verge of taking control of the English soccer club Arsenal, one of the game’s most treasured franchises. He owns 29.9 percent of Arsenal and is 17 shares short of reaching 30 percent, a threshold at which he would have to make a bid for the entire team, according to English Premier League rules. The club was valued at $1.2 billion by Forbes in 2008, the third-highest internationally behind Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Before Mr. Kroenke (pronounced KRONK-ee) began buying American sports teams, before he pursued Arsenal, before he started his real estate career and married into the Wal-Mart fortune, he was the son of the owner of the Mora Lumber Company. His father and grandfather loved the St. Louis Cardinals, whose baseball games arrived in staticky regularity over the radio.

Enos Stanley Kroenke, 62, was named after two Cardinals Hall of Famers: Enos Slaughter, an epic hustler, the man nicknamed Country who famously scored from first base on a single in the seventh game of the 1946 World Series; and Stan Musial, Stan the Man, known no less for his quiet decency than for his sublime hitting skills.

Those who know Mr. Kroenke say the boy developed traits suggested by his name: He swept floors at his father’s business on Mora Road and by age 10 or so, sat at a table keeping the books.

His personality, influenced by a Lutheran-German upbringing, is most often described for what it is not — flamboyant.

David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, described Mr. Kroenke as inquisitive and analytical, “as knowledgeable a person as there is” about basketball, an owner “willing to do old things in a new way,” but ultimately a man without anecdotes.

Neither Mr. Kroenke nor his associates were made available for this article.

Baseball gave Mr. Kroenke his name, but basketball provided his passion. In those pompadoured days of the mid-1960s, as a lanky 6-foot-2 forward, he developed an elegant shot from the wing at nearby Cole Camp High School.

“You never know who you’re going to school with until later in life,” said William Smart, a high school teammate of Mr. Kroenke who later became the principal at Cole Camp High and is now its athletic director. “Stan was quiet, a good player and student. His dad was a good businessman and he got good training.”

Mr. Kroenke’s interest in soccer was apparently piqued by another billionaire entrepreneur, Phil Anschutz, from whom he bought the Rapids in 2003, according to Don Garber, the soccer league’s commissioner. His business model with the Rapids, the Nuggets and the Avalanche has been to own not just teams, but also the building in which they play, the regional sports network (Altitude) that broadcasts their games and the ticket distribution system (TicketHorse).

“There was once a great line by one of George Steinbrenner’s partners that there’s nothing so limited as being a limited partner,” said Don Elliman, the chief operating officer for the state of Colorado and a former president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises. “A lot of people get into sports and wake up later and realize, ‘I’m along for the ride; I’m beholden to the other guy.’ That’s not Stan’s nature.”

In Arsenal and the Nuggets, Mr. Kroenke has positions in the world’s two most popular sports, though it remains unclear whether he is a fan of soccer or intrigued primarily by the global business opportunity. Three other Premier League teams are owned by Americans, including Manchester United, which is owned by the Glazer family.

“American sports have a very poor track record of being exportable,” said Larry DeGaris, an associate professor of sports marketing at the University of Indianapolis and former head of research for a sports marketing firm in Denver. “Where are the growth opportunities? In the world’s biggest game.”

Arsenal has not marketed itself internationally with the same eagerness as the other three big English soccer clubs — Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Its manager, Arsène Wenger, has shown little interest in taking Arsenal on big-money international tours in the off-season. The club would be expected to become more aggressive under Mr. Kroenke’s stewardship.

Though some Arsenal fans worry a new owner will saddle the club with debt and curb the signing of players, that has not been Mr. Kroenke’s style, sports finance experts say. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001 under his guidance and the Rams won the Super Bowl after the 1999 season. (There has been speculation that he might sell his interest in the Rams to facilitate the Arsenal deal.)

For the National Football Conference championship game preceding that Super Bowl a decade ago, Kroenke sent tickets to Milton and Eldon Harms, the brothers who bought Mora Lumber from his family and helped look after his mother once his father died. He contributes autographed items from his teams for a yearly fund-raiser for Cole Camp High and paid for a whirlpool bath in the locker room.

“He never forgot where he came from,” Milton Harms said.

In 1965, Mr. Kroenke left for the University of Missouri in Columbia, earned an M.B.A., bought into a clothing store there and attended law school until he contracted infectious hepatitis. He once told The Columbia Daily Tribune that when he realized he could not be a professional basketball player, he wanted to own a team.

“I always thought I’d enjoy it because the professional sports business is part business and part sports, and I love both of them,” he told the paper.

On a trip to Aspen, Colo., he met Ann Walton, a Wal-Mart heiress; they were married in 1974. He would make his initial fortune developing shopping centers, many anchored by Wal-Marts. Mr. Kroenke and his wife were both listed among the top 117 richest Americans by Forbes in 2009 — she with an estimated worth of $2.9 billion, he with $2.7 billion.

It has become a sensitive issue with Mr. Kroenke, wanting others to know that his wealth — which has spread to ranching and wineries — was mostly self-made and not simply matrimonial, said Maclyn Clouse, a finance professor at the University of Denver.

“His people want to make sure the public recognizes he was well-to-do before marriage,” Mr. Clouse said.

Mr. Kroenke remains so self-controlled, Mr. Stern said, that he has never once called the N.B.A. offices to complain about officiating. Such a guarded man could not have been at ease when someone complained so publicly and theatrically about him.

A conflict with a Nuggets’ playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Pepsi Center in May 2009 forced a rescheduling of a World Wrestling Entertainment event that had been booked for the arena. Vince McMahon, the outlandish wrestling impresario, criticized Mr. Kroenke for not having faith that his team would make the playoffs and said he “should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman.”

The wrestling event moved to the Lakers’ arena in Los Angeles, where Mr. McMahon pushed a Kroenke impersonator through the ropes to the floor amid a chorus of cheers.

“For a guy that takes himself seriously, I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it,” Mr. DeGaris, the marketing professor, said.