My Mother and Stanley Kroenke

By: Abby | July 2nd, 2008

I moved to Denver from Washington, DC when I was eleven. I left for school at 18 and have been slowly transitioning into a Seattleite ever since (something that I think is finally just about completed now that I have a full-time job, an apartment, and the ability to bitch about the heat when it gets past 85). My parents and younger sister still live there and I go back regularly.

So when Stan Kroenke first started getting involved with Arsenal it struck me as a very odd coincidence. Of all the sports billionaires in the US, it’s the one that owns most of the Denver teams that wants to buy/invest into my beloved club. Nothing ever comes out of Denver, and suddenly it wants my English club?

In the very beginning, my father told me that if Stan Kroenke wanted to buy Arsenal, he’d end up doing it. And while recent quotes have him still protesting he won’t, it does seem likely that, in the future, Stan Kroenke will own Arsenal Football Club. He will be taking a place on the Arsenal board, which makes him privy to the “lockdown” agreement that the rest of the board members agreed to, and his joining is a flashing neon sign that he’s favored by the current ownership. Being a “foreigner” myself I’m not as against non-English ownership as many, but there’s a lot of convincing to be done that it’s a good thing.

Being as I haven’t lived in Denver for many years, I’m no expert on Stan Kroenke, but as I lived there for a long time and still have roots there, I know something. And since my mom was in town last weekend, I talked to her a bit about Kroenke.

My mother is a passionate, irreverent sports fan. I like to think that I learned how to be a fan from her, and I certainly learned a lot of important lessons- like how your team will sell your favorite player, that they’re going to probably lose more trophies than they’ll win, and you never, ever change your team. While she mostly still supports the New York teams she grew up with, she’s adopted one Colorado thing- the Denver Nuggets, the basketball team owned by Stan Kroenke.

She didn’t have much to say about him. No one does. She certainly didn’t think he’s an idiot, and thinks that he’s mostly done a good job with them. However, she did have one thing to say that set her off on quite the rant- he won’t fire the coach. She can’t figure out why, with all the money that’s being spent on players and the stars that they have, how their record has been what it is. Coaches get fired for far less, and yet, he’s still there. Kroenke won’t do anything.

Now, here’s where I get into speculation about things I know very little about. Please, if there are people who still live in Colorado (and actually pay attention to the non-football sports, which is something I’ve never done) and know better, set me straight.

The trend in Kroenke teams seems to be that he doesn’t interfere a lot, for better or for worse, in the sporting side. What he does do is raise the profile of teams. The Nuggets now compared to the Nuggets from when I left Denver are completely different- they have players I’ve heard of (including my mother’s beloved Carmelo Anthony, who won a title for the Syracuse Orangemen and therefore will forever have godlike status in my house), a stylish logo and uniforms, and are no longer the laughing stock of the city. The Rapids, his football team (so you can’t say ‘why isn’t he investing in the sport in America?’), have a new stadium, a different stylish logo, and a link with Arsenal. Every time I go home Kroenke-owned teams seem to be everywhere- even the lacrosse team had banners up.

What does that mean for Arsenal? Well, the one thing that Arsenal has is stability in management. In Arsene Wenger they have a long-term manager who, knock on wood, isn’t going anywhere for quite some time. He’s also a manager who doesn’t like to be messed with, who likes to have ultimate control. Kroenke, for better or for worse, seems unlikely to interfere. If the Denver teams are anything to go by, he will give money for players- both the Avalanche and the Nuggets get funded well. Judging by the few things said, Kroenke’s focus will likely be on the unromantic branding aspects- raising the profile of the club in non-English markets, the sort of thing that Manchester United has become so successful at. We’re a big club, but as recent transfer wrangling has shown, there is probably room for us to be bigger (if we want to go in that often-obnoxious direction).

Now, don’t take this to mean I don’t have any reservations about a Kroenke takeover. I definitely have them. Especially when it comes to commitment- he already owns nearly every team in Denver and half of St. Louis’ NFL team. How much can he really spend- and commit to- a team far away from his base that will require lots of time and money. Arsenal are a bigger commitment then the Denver teams- can he make the step up?

On the other hand, if our options are Kroenke and Usmanov, I’ll take Kroenke.

Thoughts?