He is a low-key person and does not show his edge. He is called "Silent Stan" by the media; he has excellent business resources and business skills, and has become the world's top sports industry tycoon; he has a bad reputation because of his "stinginess" and "worst boss" by Arsenal fans. This issue of "Bai Lao Hui" brings you the current boss of Arsenal: Stan Kroenke .
basic information
name: Stan Kroenke (Stan Kroenke)
Birthday: December 18, 1948
Age: 71 years old
Nationality: United States
Birthplace: St. Louis
Position: Arsenal Club Boss
Entry Club Time: 2007
Pair Club contribution evaluation:
Funding investment (1): ★
Care for the team (1): ★
Club results (2): ★★
First pot of gold
1948, Enos Stein- Kroenke was born in a wealthy middle-class family in Missouri, USA. His parents are avid sports fans, and even Kroenke's name comes from two MLB St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame members: Enos Slaughter and Stan Muschel.
Under the influence of his family, Kroenke has been fascinated by various sports since he was a child, but he did not have much athletic talent but it was difficult for him to participate. He could only watch the sports experts in the school who attracted the attention of girls performing on the court with envy. In contrast, Kroenke's academic performance in his adolescence was much better. Not only did he successfully enter the University of Missouri and studied in further studies, he also obtained a bachelor's degree in arts, a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in business administration within a few years, becoming an absolute top student in the school.
In 1971, 23-year-old Kroenke met Ann Walton, who was the same age as him, while skiing in Colorado, and the two soon fell in love. It is worth mentioning that Ann Walton is the daughter of the extremely wealthy Walton family, Ann's father Sam Walton and uncle Bud Walton founded Walmart in 1962, and since then, he has gradually become the top tycoon in the global retail industry.
Ann-Walton's special identity provides an excellent environment for Kroenke's path to wealth. After the two fell in love, Kroenke often traveled around with the Walton family. They climbed the canyon and watched birds, leaving countless beautiful memories. But more importantly, during the trip, they will also find a suitable retail mall for Walmart, which allows Kroenke to learn business and negotiation skills from the most successful businessmen in the United States at close range, and obtain very reliable guidance and advice when making decisions on their own.
Relying on Walmart's business expansion, in 1991, Kroenke led the establishment of real estate development company THF Realty (THF means To Have Fun). The company's main projects include the development and construction of shopping malls, retail malls and commercial housing. With the help of the Walton family, the company has developed smoothly and has held shares in more than 100 shopping malls across the United States within a few years, which has also become the first pot of gold in Kroenke's wealth path. Through successful business operations, Kroenke's popularity and social status in Missouri have also steadily improved. He once confidently told reporters in an interview with the St. Louis Post, "I am a Missouri native. Everyone in our state knows me. People know that I can trust me. Everyone knows that I am an upright person."
The Road to Wealth
1993, the American Professional Football League (NFL) announced the expansion of the army. A local consortium in St. Louis was very interested in this, but in the end it failed due to funding issues. He had to watch the expansion team settle down in Jacksonville and Charlotte.
Kronk saw and remembered all this. Since then, the idea of entering the sports world has taken root in Kroenke's heart.So when the NFL club Rams decided to move out of Los Angeles in 1995, Kroenke made a decisive move, buying 40% of the Rams for $80 million, and moving the Rams home court to St. Louis. Thanks to his reputation in Missouri, Kroenke received almost no resistance in the process, and even successfully convinced the government to use St. Louis public funds to build the Rams' new home court, Edward Jones Dome Stadium. At the same time, Kroenke also obtained a priority right to enjoy the right of first refusal when the then-club owner Frantire sells the remaining equity of his team.
At that time, many American media speculated that the reason why Kroenke invested in the NFL was perhaps because of his crazy love for sports as a child. But now it seems that this idea is really stupid and naive, because after joining the team, Kroenke never cared about the team's record and rarely even went to watch the game on the spot. He has never been a fan like Mark Cuban. He just keenly noticed the unlimited business opportunities hidden in the sports industry, and NFL events are undoubtedly the largest sports business in the United States.
In order to show its strengths in the sports market, in 1999, Kroenke established KSE company with the sports industry as its main business. As mentioned earlier, real estate is Kroenke's way of making a fortune and has long occupied the center of its wealth. Therefore, in Kroenke's business practice, all industries must be fixed in the form of real estate, and then various services such as sports, entertainment, media, etc. can be attached to them, so that the value of wealth can be added. In other words, in Kroenke's mind, running a stadium (or stadium) is much more important than the team's performance. The formation of this view may also be related to the general lack of promotion and relegation pressure for professional sports events in the United States.
In 2000, KSE bought the Denver Nuggets, the North American Professional Hockey League (NBA) club, the Colorado Avalanche, and the two teams' gymnasium Pepsi Center. After the transaction was completed, Kroenke still ignored the achievements of these two teams, but he made a fortune in the commercial development of Pepsi Center - in addition to taking on NBA and NHL events, Pepsi Center also holds hundreds of sports and entertainment activities every year. After that, Kroenke was out of control. From 2002 to 2004, he successively bought the AFL (American Indoor Football League) club Colorado Crush, which also used Pepsi Center as its home court, and the NHL (American Hockey League) club Colorado Mammoth, which allowed his team to coordinate and arrange more cultural and entertainment activities based on the schedule of various events, and develop the commercial value of the Pepsi Center to the extreme.
In September 2004, Kroenke bought the Major League Soccer (MLS) team Colorado Rapids, and then began to build a new stadium for the team, and fully developed real estate projects and supporting facilities around the stadium. In April 2007, Kroenke personally unveiled the Rapids' new stadium, the largest football field in the United States at that time. According to media reports, before the stadium was completed, Kroenke's real estate projects around the stadium were sold out, and the stadium's contract to hold a large concert was even signed a year later.
After years of hard work, although Kroenke's teams are in the middle and lower reaches of their respective leagues (except for the Rams, they won the NFL Super Bowl in 2000), they have brought him extremely considerable profits - in 2010, Kroenke's net worth reached 1.8 billion pounds, which further expanded Kroenke's ambitions in the field of sports. That year, he bought the remaining 60% of the Rams for $450 million, and after 15 years, he finally completed the privatization of the NFL club. This investment, which was nearly one-fifth of his net worth, was definitely a big bet for Kroenke at that time. I don’t know if it’s luck or misfortune, but this time, this guy won again. In 2016, Kroenke used his influence to successfully convince all parties to bring the Rams back to Los Angeles, a move that directly doubled the team's valuation. He then spent $2.6 billion to build his new business empire - the Los Angeles Entertainment Center in Inglewood, Los Angeles.The project not only includes an 80,000-seat stadium and a 6,000-seat performance venue, but also a previously approved Hollywood park, while building 2,500 commercial residences, a 300-room hotel, an 890,000 square feet retail store, 780,000 square feet office space, etc. When all the projects are completed, Kroenke's assets will usher in a rapid growth model.
A bad fate
Kroenke and Arsenal's bad fate traverses back to 2007. At that time, Russian oligarch Abramovich took over Chelsea and was a big success in the Premier League. Against this background, Arsenal, who had just built the Emirates Stadium and was carrying huge debts, has also begun to consider finding a wealthy foreign boss. However, there are serious differences within the club in terms of foreign investment choices. Former Arsenal vice chairman David Dane hopes to seek refuge in Russian capital like Chelsea and is the first to start cooperation with wealthy businessman Usmanov. However, the conservatives, who occupy a large majority of positions in the board of directors, are worried that Arsenal will become a toy in the hands of oligarchs, so they choose to introduce US funds as a confrontation.
Kronk and Usmanov
That's it, Kronk is here. At first, he bought 9.9% of Arsenal's shares under Granada Venture Capital Group through his KSE company, and then continued to acquire shares from other shareholders, making his shareholding ratio reaching 12.19%. In April 2008, KSE acquired a 50% stake in Arsenal Networks from Independent Television, which also helped Kroenke to the board of directors successfully. Since then, Kroenke began to use the board's defense against Usmanov to form an alliance with most other shareholders and successively bought shares in several individual Arsenal shareholders. By the end of 2009, his shareholding in Arsenal had reached 29.9%.
At that time, Kroenke gradually gained support from Arsenal fans and management with his low-key and pragmatic style and strong economic strength. Gazidis, then CEO of Arsenal, also described Kroenke's business model as a diversified sports and entertainment industry. "Look at the Denver market's Stan Kroenke . He not only owns a sports team, but also a stadium and a TV station that distributes sports programs on local TV stations. He even owns an internal ticketing system called TicketHorse." In 2011, Kroenke successively acquired shares of two other Arsenal shareholders, Danny Fitzman and Baswell Smith, and finally became the club's largest shareholder with a 67% stake.
Most importantly, with the support of management, Kroenk always refused Usmanov to join the board of directors, which made the 30.04% stake in the hands of the Russians never have any actual influence. Usmanov also tried to acquire shares in Kroenk, but in the end they all ended in failure. By 2018, Usmanov may also understand that it is meaningless to hold 30% of Arsenal's shares without gaining enough trust and respect from the board of directors. Eventually, he decided to sell his shares to Kroenke for £600 million. This decision may not be a bad thing for him. Compared with the original Russian investment, he made a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars this time.
However, while Kroenke completed his own path to privatization of Arsenal clubs, the Arsenal fans were in great pain. Kroenke has always held high the banner of "virtuous cycle" and insisted on making the club self-sufficient. Since the American boss bought Arsenal's shares for the first time in 2007, the billionaire has not invested even a penny in the club in 12 years. If fans were not strongly protested, Kroenke might even take £3 million from the team every year in the name of "consultation services". It is said that Kroenke also considered adding a cover to the Emirates Stadium to turn it into a fully enclosed course to increase the appeal of the stadium to the concert.
Looking forward to dawn
has always been the top ranks in European football thanks to professor Wenger's tactical philosophy of beautiful football.However, in the context of the era of gold and dollar football, the "zero investment" over the years has directly led to the team being stretched in the transfer window, and even once could only rely on selling the captain to maintain normal operation. The team's strength declined instead of rising, resulting in a decline in performance. After failing to qualify for the Champions League in the 16/17 season, Arsenal's revenues were significantly reduced, further reducing the team's competitiveness in the transfer market.
Such a vicious cycle has made Kroenke the culprit in the hearts of fans, but in my opinion, the Arsenal management should also bear unshirkable responsibilities for the current situation. After Kroenk acquires Usmanov's shares, no one will know what Arsenal's real financial situation is (there was a shareholders' meeting before). Some fans have worried that Arsenal will completely become a tool for Kroenk to make money. But ironically, wasn’t Kroenke’s successful acquisition of Arsenal? Wasn’t the board of directors worried that the team would become a toy in the hands of Russian oligarch Usmanov? Unfortunately, the dragon slayer eventually became a dragon.
As mentioned in the previous article, Kroenke has never been a fan. He has only one identity, that is, a businessman. He is not even obliged to give up his interests to satisfy the fans' demands. In 2017, Kroenke said at the Sports Analysis Summit at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston: "If you just want to win the championship, then as a businessman, I will never participate. I think the best boss in sports is to see both. If I don't have a good business income, I can't afford to spend and get the best players unless you have other support and other better sources of income."
In February this year, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVeigh, who led the team to the Super Bowl, once said, "Kroenke is a good boss. He almost meets his requests. He will take care of the players' contracts and provide us with the high-tech facilities and equipment needed by the team. When you see the Rams' new stadium project, you will find that it is really great." This passage once made Arsenal fans laugh and cry, but in fact, even in the face of the "own son" Rams, Kroenke's investment is mainly based on stadium projects and related supporting facilities. The author always believes that the profit-seeking nature of capital is an important factor that led to Kroenke's large investment in the Rams, and these investments have no direct relationship with the Rams' entry into the Super Bowl (just like in the 15/16 season, Arsenal was infinitely close to the Premier League championship trophy after double-killing Leicester City. If Arsenal could win the championship that season, the author believes that no one would attribute this credit to Kroenke). There is no doubt that what Kroenke cares most about is not the Rams’ performance, but the huge benefits his infrastructure projects in Los Angeles can bring.
It is gratifying that in 2017 and 2018, Arsenal had shown a rebound momentum in the investment of recruitment funds. In the summer window of 2019, although the transfer budget was reduced again, the excellent operation team used a wave of god-level operations to make £45 million to the extreme, which more or less gives people some hope. In fact, with Arsenal's paper strength, there is a great chance to compete for a Champions League place this season. By then, it may be the beginning of the team's out of the haze.
Finally, the one who was hurt by Kroenke may not really be Arsenal fans. In 1995, when Kroenke bought the Rams for the first time, he successfully convinced the government to use St. Louis public funds to build the team's home court, it directly caused the government to owe $36 million in loans and needed to repay them until 2021. When Kroenke ruthlessly moved the Rams back to Los Angeles for his own business interests, it was difficult for St. Louis to attract new teams. This means that all St. Louis taxpayers will continue to pay for this old stadium, but they will not receive any returns or even see even an NFL game again.
(SHY)
