Say what you will about Stan Kroenke, but never lose sight of the fact that a person doesn't get to be a billionaire - that's billionaire with a "B" - by being stupid. And the man proved he's not stupid again this week.
First, a little background. Kroenke is a Missouri native who had the good fortune to marry into Walmart money - his wife is Ann Walton Kroenke, the daughter of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton. While that was a nice bit of happenstance, he's proven to be a smart businessman in his own right, as his personal net worth currently sits in the neighborhood of $4.9 billion. I've never been there, but I hear that's a pretty nice neighborhood.
Most of Kroenke's money has been made in the real-estate game, as he has developed properties around the globe. But he's also a longtime sports fan, as some of his other holdings bear out that fact. He's the majority owner of the NFL's St. Louis Rams, the largest shareholder of the soccer team Arsenal of the English Premier League, and the owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of the MLS and the Colorado Mammoth of the NLL. Which is the National Lacrosse League, but of course you already knew that.
Sports Illustrated did an excellent article on the man about two years ago, and one of the main takeaways I had was Kroenke doesn't just own successful franchises, he owns the things around those franchises. Such as, he owns things like the Pepsi Center, the arena in Denver where the Nuggets and Avalanche play. And he owns Dick's Sporting Goods Park, the home of the Rapids.
But he didn't stop there, as he's also started a ticket-selling vendor for all the events that take place at his holdings and an athletic outfitter to sell jerseys and team gear.
What all this does is it lets Kroenke make money not only off the normal team-related stuff, but all sorts of other revenue streams. And if those teams would ever cease operating for any strange reason, he'd still own large plots of land in desirable locations.
So make no mistake, the man knows how to run things and make money while doing so. Which made the news that came out late last week very interesting.
It seems Kroenke is up to his land-buying ways again, as he's just purchased a huge plot of land in Los Angeles. Why should this be of interest? Because it could be the first step in the Rams leaving St. Louis.
Kroenke and the Rams have been in discussions for what seems like an insufferable amount of time about concerns surrounding the Edward Jones Dome. There is a clause in the Rams' lease that says the Dome must meet criteria to make it a "first-tier" stadium, putting it among the top quarter of the NFL stadiums based on a variety of criteria. Long story short, the EJD doesn't meet those criteria.
The Rams have since won an arbitration case against the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, putting them in the driver's seat. The commission offered $124 million to make upgrades, but the team said it would likely cost closer to $700 million. Talks have been few and far between since then, moving Gov. Jay Nixon to take over those negotiations, to very little success.
Which takes me back to my original point, the wisdom of Kroenke's latest move. It's time to fish or cut bait, and he knows that. While doing what he does best, buying land, he's killed two birds with one stone. The first bird: He's forcing the St. Louis CVC to get serious about negotiations, as they know he's not making an idle threat. The second bird: If he decides not to move, providing the city agrees to his demands, he's still got some prime real estate in the nation's second-biggest city to use as he will.
Sounds like a win-win situation for a guy who's proven he knows something about winning.