Stan Kroenke, who has seen the value of the Rams soar since their controversial relocation out of St. Louis, runs the world’s second-biggest sports empire.
Silent Stan has something to crow about.
Stan Kroenke, the famously reserved owner of the Los Angeles Rams, watched his team beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, in the Super Bowl on Sunday, avenging a championship game loss to the New England Patriots three years ago. The cherry on top: The victory came at SoFi Stadium, the $5 billion, privately financed venue he opened in 2020.
“It’s amazing, and I’m just really proud of this group,” Kroenke said from the on-field stage after the win, surrounded by Rams players, coaches and executives. His eyes misty, he added, “It was a tough game, and I’m just so proud of them executing at the end like they did.”
That qualified as an outburst from Kroenke, who rarely grants interviews. But the 74-year-old has made plenty of noise in the sports world. He is worth $10.7 billion by Forbes’ count and has compiled a collection of sports properties valued at $10.5 billion, making it the world’s second-biggest sports empire.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell handing the Lombardi Trophy to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
AFP via Getty Images
Kroenke had a humble upbringing in central Missouri, but his life changed when, while still a student at the University of Missouri in Columbia, he met his wife, Ann Walton—a Walmart heiress. That jump-started his career in real estate as the young Kroenke began working alongside a developer who built shopping centers, often around Walmart stores.
But Kroenke’s fortune is separate from that of his wife, who Forbes estimates is worth $8.7 billion thanks to her inheritance. He owns some 60 million square feet of real estate and more than 1.5 million acres of ranches, which helped put him at No. 70 on Forbes’ 2021 ranking of the 400 richest Americans. His wife ranked 83rd.
Still, the bulk of his wealth is now tied up in an eye-popping assemblage of sports assets: not just the Rams but also the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the English Premier League’s Arsenal FC, Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids, the National Lacrosse League’s Colorado Mammoth and two esports teams, the Los Angeles Guerrillas and Los Angeles Gladiators. He also owns many of the buildings his teams play in as well as the regional sports network Altitude Sports and Entertainment, which airs Avalanche, Mammoth, Nuggets and Rapids games.
In his first sports deal, he bought a 30% stake in the Rams to help owner Georgia Frontiere move the team from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995. He increased his share of the team to 40% a couple of years later and assumed full ownership in 2010, after Frontiere’s death.
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford celebrated after winning Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Frustrated by the stadium situation in St. Louis, Kroenke took the Rams back to Los Angeles in 2016. The move cost him a $550 million relocation fee, disbursed among the other NFL teams owners, and also prompted a lawsuit by the city he had abandoned. In a settlement reached in November, he and the NFL agreed to pay St. Louis $790 million.
Despite those costs, the relocation has been a goldmine, more than tripling the team’s value from $1.45 billion in 2015, the Rams’ last season in St. Louis, to $4.8 billion.
THE GREAT DIVIDE
While both competitors in Super Bowl LVI ranked in the bottom half of Forbes’ NFL team valuations during the early 2010s, the Rams soared toward the top after moving to Los Angeles.
Kroenke’s opponents from Sunday are also billionaires, but the game was a true David-and-Goliath situation—and this time, the underdog couldn’t pull off the upset.
The Bengals were cofounded in 1967 by legendary NFL coach Paul Brown, after he was fired from his post as coach and general manager of the Cleveland Browns—a team that had been named for him. Today, the Bengals are controlled by his 86-year-old son Mike and other members of the family; Forbes values their stake at $2.1 billion.
Kroenke, meanwhile, is poised to continue his upward trajectory, ignoring the sneers of St. Louisans and fans of his soccer club Arsenal, who have bridled under an American owner they perceive as caring about money more than the game. His luxurious new stadium will host the College Football Playoff championship game and WrestleMania next year, the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Summer Olympics and, if all goes well with its hosting bid, World Cup soccer games in 2026.
“As far as building this stadium, I think it turned out all right,” Kroenke said from the field after Sunday’s game, with typical understatement.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2022/02/13/stan-kroenke-just-won-a-super-bowl-6-years-after-moving-the-rams-to-la-heres-the-billionaires-story/