26 Apr 2021 12:36:47
Obviously talk on here and social media have been dominated by kroenke being told to sell up but one thing I'm not seeing much of is what kind of owner he is viewed as for his American football team. Is he liked? Does he invest in them? Anyone here follow American football or from America and know what their opinions of him seem to be like.

1.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 13:24:18
He has a huge interest in American sports and owns the Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rapids as well as Arsenal. The Rams fans have deemed him a 'hero' which was probably due to them making the Superbowl in 2019. They lost though.
I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere as well that the new SoFi Stadium was privately funded by the Rams owners, with a construction cost of nearly $5b. I might be wrong though.
In my opinion he has no interest in the success of Arsenal FC so long as he continues to make money from the club. Josh on the other hand is a football fan but I guess he just plays puppet to Stan.

2.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 13:50:35
American here. It's important to note that the concept of ownership is perceived quite differently here than in the UK and Europe. Since our professional leagues are structured as a fixed set of teams, the profits are all shared rather equally among teams and there is less focus on owners putting in their own money. We also have the draft system where players coming out of university are drafted into professional leagues, with the poorest performing teams picking first, so this is intended to organically cycle talent in and out of teams. All this is to say that an owner is generally judged on being active in the decision-making at the team, employing a good management team and being in touch with the fanbase, with less emphasis on whether they were willing to put up the money for star players. Overall I would say overall there is less criticism of owners here.

With that said, Kroenke has a reputation as one of the worst owners in all of US sports. I follow football more closely than American sports, and could name maybe 5 other owners across all American sports, but I knew of Kroenke even before he became majority owner of Arsenal. He has a set of teams in Colorado that are known to be perennially mediocre, largely due to a lack of attention. He simply doesn't care about the success of the team and sees them as appreciating assets as the appeal of the wider sport grows (sound familiar? ) .

The NFL team he owns is an exception to this - it seems to be a team managed with the intention of sporting success. However, its important to note that Kroenke took over the Rams when they were based in St. Louis, which is his own hometown, and then pushed to move them out of St. Louis into L. A. Now, there were issues with the stadium infrastructure in St. Louis and obviously L. A. is a larger fan base, but there are other successful sports teams in St. Louis, so its not that the city can't support a team. Kroenke was also known for lying to fans about a desire to stay in St. Louis and during the final years was given the "Silent Stan" nickname because he refused to communicate openly with the fans (again, the fans of his hometown) about the team's plans. My guess is that the recent success of the team is to ensure they establish themselves in L. A., at which point they can return to mediocrity.

All this to say - he has shown time and again he has no interest in sport, only as an asset class. The sporting regulators must decide whether this attitude is permissible, or whether sports are for the public good and require more involved owners.

{Ed014's Note - thanks for the insight YG much appreciated

3.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 13:53:51
I don't think it went down too well with the fans when he moved the Rams from St Louis to LA!

4.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 14:19:57
Thank you YG! Sounds like the same old Stan we know!

5.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 15:06:51
Thank you YG, your insight is much appreciated.

6.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 16:52:57
Thanks YG. Exactly what I was hoping to learn when I posted this.

7.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 17:00:05
Another interesting point to add - when the Rams were based in St. Louis they were known for having some of the highest ticket prices, despite being one of the worst performing teams, one of the worst stadiums and being based in a comparatively lower cost city than other teams. Again, something that is not unfamiliar to us Arsenal fans. This obviously further drove down attendance, which was used as an argument for moving the team to L. A.

There is a clear pattern with KSE's ownership. Which is why, despite my strong personal objection to the Super League, from my view the PL governing body has only itself to blame - they invited this type of ownership in, and either performed no due diligence or saw the pattern but didn't recognize what the end-goal would be (i. e. the ESL which would have replicated the American model which minimizes financial risk for owners above all else) .

8.) 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 17:05:27
Daaaamn didn’t realise he owned the Denver Nuggets too 😳 fingers in all the pies this guy eh.