Stan Kroenke

Enos Stanley Kroenke (/ˈkrɒŋki/; 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 one 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.

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.

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.