The NFL is expected to approve Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s $571 million settlement with the City of St. Louis over his move of the franchise to Los Angeles. And by doing so, the league will protect team owners from making personal financial disclosures as part of the St. Louis lawsuit against Kroenke.
League teams collectively contributed $219 million to the $790 million settlement, leaving the rest for 75-year-old Kroenke.
The settlement was originally agreed in 2021, nearly five years after the 2016 Rams’ departure from St. Louis. Both Kroenke and the NFL had failed in attempts to have the lawsuit dropped or moved to a new location, increasing the likelihood that league owners would be forced to release financial information.
Such disclosures could be disastrous for some NFL team owners, especially those who also own EPL teams. Both Kroenke, the owner of Arsenal, and the Glazer family, owners of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, have been criticized by English football fans for being overly frugal.
Meanwhile, Kroenke spent lavishly on the Rams last season as she won the club’s second Super Bowl title.
According to multiple reports, final approval of the deal is expected at Tuesday’s owners’ meeting in New York.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, on the field with Rams owner Stan Kroenke in LA
The Rams originated in Cleveland in 1936, before first moving to Los Angeles ten years later. In 1995, the team moved to a new taxpayer-funded dome in St. Louis (pictured)
Kroenke, who was a minority shareholder of the club, bought it outright in 2010, but the billionaire real estate mogul moved the Rams back to Los Angeles in 2016 with the promise of another taxpayer-funded facility (pictured)
The Rams originated in Cleveland in 1936, before first moving to Los Angeles ten years later. In 1995, the team moved to a new taxpayer-funded dome in St. Louis. Kroenke, who was a minority shareholder of the club, bought it outright in 2010, but the billionaire real estate mogul moved the Rams back to Los Angeles in 2016 with the promise of another taxpayer-funded facility.
Kroenke, a Missouri native who also owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and reigning NHL champion Colorado Avalanche, has been relentlessly attacked by Arsenal fans over allegations of greed.
Even former players, such as Thierry Henry, have resigned his rule at the Emirates Stadium.
“I don’t recognize my club and what has just happened, where they were trying to join a league that would have closed, makes no sense to me,” Henry told the Telegraph in 2021.
“They run the club like a business, not a football club, and they’ve shown their hand.
“Maybe it’s a lack of understanding of the core values of football and maybe the money was too much of a temptation. But whatever it was, they were wrong. Very wrong.
“I was genuinely shocked like most people and couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I’ve never talked, but what happened recently made me realize that fans are this, this is your club. It’s your club and I’m an Arsenal fan too.’
Kroenke spent lavishly on the Rams last season as they won the club’s second Super Bowl
A huge demonstration of fans against Sam Kroenke, the current Arsenal owner, takes place in front of the stadium for last year’s Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at the Emirates Stadium
Both Kroenke and the Glazers were among the EPL owners pushing for a new European Super League last year – a doomed attempt that was additionally rejected by fans as another example of billionaires’ greed
Both Kroenke and the Glazers were among the EPL owners pushing for a new European Super League last year – a doomed attempt that was also rejected by fans as another example of billionaire greed.
A fan pointed out the similarities between Arsenal’s move to a European super league and Kroenke’s decision to move one of his other teams, the Los Angeles Rams, away from his fans in St. Louis in 2015.
“In 2015, Kroenke moved the St. Louis Rams away from their (sic) passionate fan base in St. Louis to LA, which is 1,826 miles away, all because the team would get more revenue in LA,” the return fan wrote. the Rams. to Los Angeles. “These are the kind of people who would run the European Super League, who care about the money and not the fans.”
Despite his involvement in sports watched by millions, Kroenke avoids the spotlight and is nicknamed “Silent Stan.”
Sports aside, Kroenke is a large landowner, with nearly 1.4 million acres of ranches in the US and Canada.
Kroenke also owns approximately 30 million square feet of real estate, much of it in the form of shopping plazas near Walmart stores.
In 2016, he bought a 520,000-acre ranch in Texas worth $727 million, making him one of the top ten landowners in the US.
The following year, he was indicted for launching an outdoor sports TV channel in the UK, which regularly ran blood sports and hunting programmes, including the killing of elephants, lions and other endangered African species.
Buccaneers Co-Chairman Joel Glazer and Manchester United Executive Co-Chairman Avram Glazer walk off the field together for the regular season game between the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 12, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa
