Between himself, his wife, and his enterprise, Enos Stanley Kroenke owns quite the plethora of professional sports teams. The 7.5 billion dollar man bought a minority stake in the (then) St. Louis Rams back in the 90’s, and became the full owner of the team in 2010. Kroenke also became full owner of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche after buying them both in 2000. Perhaps most notably, Kroenke is the largest shareholder in the English Premier League’s soccer team Arsenal. He’s held shares in the team for 10 years now. Kroenke also owns the MLS team Colorado Rapids, and the professional lacrosse team in the area, the Colorado Mammoth. It’s quite the resume that Mr. Kroenke has built up. Let’s see how his main teams did this past season.
Colorado Avalanche
The Avs finished the NHL season 22-56-4, the worst record of any NHL team in the 2016-17 season. Their mark of 22 wins is the worst in franchise history (besides 16 wins in 2012-13, but season was shortened to 48 games due to lockout). To add insult to injury, the Avalanche didn’t even get the number one pick in the draft, as they fell to pick number four in the NHL Draft Lottery. The Avalanche have also failed to make the playoffs in 8 of the last 11 seasons.
Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets had a relatively rough year, finishing the NBA season 40-42. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Since Kroenke became owner, the furthest the Nuggets have made it was to the Western Conference Finals a single time, and have never made the NBA Finals under his ownership. 2008-09, the year the Nuggets made it to the WCF, was the only season since 2000 that they advanced past the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Los Angeles Rams
Silent Stan finally got what he and all his rich NFL buddies aspired for, an NFL team in LA. The Rams gave up a fortune of draft picks to draft California pretty boy Jared Goff with the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Rams then jumped out to an incredible 3-1 start, but under that amazing leadership of Jeff Fisher, finished the season 1-11 afterwards to finish the season 4-12, their lowest amount of wins since 2011.
Arsenal
Since Kroenke became majority shareholder of the club, Arsenal has not won the English Premier League Title. They finished fifth in the standings this season, the first time they finished outside of the top four in 20 years. Overall revenue for the team has dropped severely but Kroenke has reassured the Arsenal faithful that he has absolutely no intentions of selling his shares in the team. If you thought good old Stan was bad in St. Louis, just listen to some of the things Arsenal fans have to say about him.
Colorado Rapids
The MLS season just started. The Rapids are currently 2-1-8 (wins-draws-losses), which is the worst record in the league right now. The Rapids went 15-6-13 last season, and made the semifinals of the MLS playoffs (yay?). They’ve also accounted for one of the few championships Kroenke has won as an owner, as they won the MLS Cup in 2010.
Colorado Mammoth
Counting a National League Lacrosse team in this list is extremely borderline, but we might as well. The Mammoth went 9-9 this past season, and lost in the division final in the playoffs. The Mammoth also gave Kroenke another championship, this one in 2006. I’m sure Stanley had a blast knowing his lacrosse team won a championship. Woohoo.
Between Kroenke’s franchises, his teams have played 247 total regular season games in the past year, and have lost 140 of them, and tied in an additional seven games. In his tenure as full owner of each of these clubs, Kroenke has won three championships. The Avalanche in 2000, Mammoth in 2006, and Rapids in 2010. But the Avalanche in the NHL is the only of the four main professional sports in America that Kroenke has won a title in. He lucked out and walked into owning a great Avs team, and his hockey team has gone downhill ever since, just as many of his other franchises.
There’s a good chance that if you’re playing for a professional sports team owned by Stan Kroenke, you won’t be competing for a championship in your league anytime soon. Stan has never cared for the fans, players, coaches, or surrounding communities of his teams. As long as his franchises are making his wallet fatter, that’s all that matters to him. If given an ultimatum where his teams could be stellar and he make less money, or his teams go winless and he make more money (if even possible), Kroenke would easily choose the latter. Hopefully reading this has made you glad that this scumbag took himself and the awful football team of his out of this great city.
