Stan Kroenke

Enos Stanley "Stan" Kroenke (born 1947 in Columbia, Missouri) is an American business entrepreneur who is listed in the Forbes 400 as one of the richest people in the world. His wealth is estimated to be about $2.1 billion and based primarily on real estate. His wife, Anne Walton, is a Wal-Mart heir. Kroenke is also on the board of Directors of English Football giants Arsenal FC.

Business career

Real estate

Kroenke obtained a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Missouri. He founded the Kroenke Group in 1983, a real estate development firm that has constructed numerous shopping centers and apartment buildings. Since his marriage to Walton, he has been in the special position to develop many of the plazas near Wal-Mart 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 in 1991.

Kroenke Sports Enterprise

Kroenke is a known and powerful sports mogul. As the head and owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprise, he has been co-owner of the National Football League's St. Louis Rams since their relocation to Missouri in 1995. In 2000, he became full owner of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche, purchasing the team from Charlie Lyons' "Ascent Entertainment Group". In 2002, he partnered with football legend John Elway and Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen to become co-owner of the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush. He continued to grow his sports empire in 2004, when he purchased National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids from Phil Anschutz.

Kroenke Sports Enterprise also owns Pepsi Center in Denver and co-owns Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, which was built by his development company. In 2004, Kroenke launched the Altitude Sports and Entertainment cable channel, a direct rival to Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, and the current home to all games of Kroenke-owned Denver teams. Kroenke recently formed TicketHorse, a ticket company that provides in-house sales for all of his teams.

Kroenke also became a substantial investor in English football club Arsenal FC. Arsenal already had a technical link-up with Kroenke's Colorado Rapids when in April 2007 Granada Ventures, a subsidiary of ITV plc, had sold their 9.9% stake in Arsenal Holdings plc to Stan Kroenke's KSE UK inc. [ [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=419168&cc=5739 Kroenke buys stake in Arsenal] ESPN Soccernet, April 5 2007] Kroenke went on to buy further shares in the club, taking his total stake up to 12.19%. [cite web
title=Arsenal Holdings plc - Holding(s) in Company
url=http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/story.shtml?ISIN=GB0030895238&NewsID=24704
publisher=PLUS Markets Group
date=2007-04-12
accessdate=2007-04-12] The club's board initially expressed skepticism that a bid would be in its best interests, [cite web
title=Arsenal chairman to meet Kroenke
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/6602809.stm
publisher=BBC
date=2007-04-28
accessdate=2007-04-28] 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 the club, [cite web
title=Arsenal put Kroenke in position to take over club
url=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-put-kroenke-in-position-to-take-over-club-850928.html
publisher=Independent
date=2008-06-20
accessdate=2008-06-23] and on September 19 2008 it was officially announced that Kroenke had joined the Arsenal board of directors. Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood told the club's official website: "We are delighted to welcome Stan to the board of Arsenal... He brings with him a wealth of experience through his direct involvement in sports clubs in the US and we expect to benefit from his commercial insights and knowledge. Mr Kroenke fully supports the approach the board has taken in setting the direction of the club." [http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=871702]

Other businesses

In 2006, Kroenke, in partnership with the money manager Charles Banks, acquired the Napa Valley winery Screaming Eagle.Cite web|last= Laube, James and Sogg, Daniel |first= "Wine Spectator" |title= Screaming Eagle Sold |url= http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3185,00.html | date= March 21, 2006]

References

External links

* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/H6A2.html Entry in Forbes’ List of Richest People]

* [http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2005/07/25/news/news3.txt Reference to Malibu Times denoting Stan's purchase of the Malibu Colony Shopping Center, which is only 1 of 2 shopping centers in affluent Malibu, CA]