Kroenicles of Stan, 3/6

St. Louis Examiner

The estimated current population of the Earth is 7.07 billion people, and Forbes announced this past week that Rams owner Stan Kroenke is one of the planet's 250 richest. Stan's not just one of the 1%, he's one of the .000003%. He's one of the 3% of the 1% of the 1%. Forbes estimates his worth at $5 billion ($1.8 billion more than Donald Trump) and ranks him #248 in the world. That amount doesn't even include Stan's wife Ann Walton, who's not too far behind Stan with $4.5 billion to her name.

Researching the list, Kroenke appears to be the second-wealthiest NFL owner, though a good $10 billion back of Seahawks owner Paul Allen. Former aspiring Rams owner Shahid Khan, now the Jagwires owner, is 490th on the list at $2.8 billion. Vikings owner Ziggy Wilf's fortune is said to be $1.3 billion, but he isn't on Forbes' list.

These other owners, and Kroenke's wealth, are all valid factors as the discussion of funding a future stadium for the Rams progresses. On one hand, Wilf, with one-fourth of Kroenke's wealth, put up half the funding for Minnesota's new stadium. On the other hand, CenturyLink Soccer Park got about one-third of its funding from Allen, and that stadium cost about half of what any new stadium is going to cost now.

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Another valid factor is the money that Stan's been willing to spend lately. I've already mentioned he bought a ranch in Montana in November for $132.5 million. That's already as much as Allen spent on Seattle's stadium. Then word came out earlier this week that Stan has put in a $227 million bid on the Outdoor Channel. Obviously, he's the businessman, and I'm the schlub, but why the hell would you pay that much money for what must be about the 116th most-watched channel on TV? That's a lot of money for a bunch of hunting, fishing and shooting shows. Myself, I'd just buy the DVD of "Sons of Guns" or "Duck Dynasty".


Just saying, the NFL's 2nd-richest owner, one of the world's 250 richest men, married to one of the world's richest women, who's proven willing in the last three months to spend nearly $360 million on cows and shootin' shows, is going to have an uphill battle claiming to need any significant amount of public money to build a stadium for his football team.

Stan also appeared to get bad news on the competition front this week when Yahoo Sports reported that AEG's plan for a downtown stadium in Los Angeles appears to be economically infeasible and is now considered "essentially dead" by the NFL. That certainly devalues a major negotiation chip for Kroenke and other owners seeking stadium improvements.

Football is a game of leverage both on and off the field, and it appears that St. Louis got a little bit back this week. We're still waiting for the Rams' stadium upgrade to be officially rejected, though, before we can find out how much it's all going to matter.

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