Stan Kroenke

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Enos Stanley "Stan" Kroenke (born July 29, 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 $3.5 billion and based primarily on real estate. His wife, Anne Walton, is a Wal-Mart heir. Kroenke is also the owner of professional basketball team Denver Nuggets and a minority shareholder of English football team Arsenal. He has twins; 16 year olds Katie and Brett.

Contents

[edit] Business career

[edit] 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.

[edit] Kroenke Sports Enterprises

Kroenke is a well known sports mogul. As the head and owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, 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 American 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 potential 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 is the largest shareholder of English Premier League 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.[1] Kroenke went on to buy further shares in the club, taking his total stake up to 12.19%.[2] The club's board initially expressed skepticism that a bid would be in its best interests,[3] 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,[4] and on 19 September 2008 it was officially announced that Kroenke had joined the Arsenal board of directors.[5]

On 30 March 2009 Arsenal announced that Kroenke had further increased his shareholding to 20.5%, after acquiring 5,000 shares from fellow club director Danny Fiszman. [6] [7] By 1 May 2009 Kroenke had acquired the shares of RCL Carr, Clive Carr and Lady Sarah Phipps-Bagge for between of £8,500-£10,500 a share, increasing his stake further in the club to 28.3% [8]

On 10 July 2009 Kroenke bought a further 160 shares at £8,500 per share taking his current holing to 28.58% at Arsenal. [9] Kroenke's shareholding is now close to the 30 percent threshold that would force him to make an automatic offer for the remaining shares, although he has previously said he is not interested in pursuing a full buyout.

[edit] Other businesses

In 2006, Kroenke, in partnership with the money manager Charles Banks, acquired the Napa Valley winery Screaming Eagle.[10]

[edit] Denver Debacle

Main article: May 2009 Pepsi Center double-booking controversy

On the May 18 Edition of ESPNews, it was reported that there was a double booking of events at the Pepsi Center for May 25. The Denver Nuggets were scheduled to compete in the Western Conference Finals, and Vince McMahon's television show WWE Raw was also booked. This issue was settled when McMahon moved to the Staples Center in Los Angeles. An impersonator of Kroenke then appeared on RAW, booked in a (kayfabe) altercation with McMahon.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kroenke buys stake in Arsenal ESPN Soccernet, April 5, 2007
  2. ^ "Arsenal Holdings plc - Holding(s) in Company". PLUS Markets Group. 2007-04-12. http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/story.shtml?ISIN=GB0030895238&NewsID=24704. Retrieved on 2007-04-12. 
  3. ^ "Arsenal chairman to meet Kroenke". BBC. 2007-04-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/6602809.stm. Retrieved on 2007-04-28. 
  4. ^ "Arsenal put Kroenke in position to take over club". Independent. 2008-06-20. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-put-kroenke-in-position-to-take-over-club-850928.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-23. 
  5. ^ http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=871702
  6. ^ "Club Statement: Arsenal Holdings plc". 2009-03-30. http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/club-statement-arsenal-holdings-plc. Retrieved on 2009-04-30. 
  7. ^ "Stan Kroenke increases stake in Arsenal". 2009-03-30. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/arsenal/article6002073.ece. Retrieved on 2009-03-30. 
  8. ^ http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arsenal-holdings-plc-director-shareholding
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8144069.stm
  10. ^ Laube, James and Sogg, Daniel, Wine Spectator (March 21, 2006). "Screaming Eagle Sold". http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3185,00.html. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kroenke"
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