ATLANTA • The St. Louis Rams have a new owner -- finally. Stan Kroenke was approved this morning in Atlanta by a full vote of the NFL's league membership, making him the seventh majority owner in the team's 73-year history.
Kroenke, a billionaire from Columbia, Mo., already owned 40 percent of the team before the vote. But after the league's finance committee recommended unanimously last week that Kroenke's bid be approved by the league, his purchase of of the remaining 60 percent ownership of the team appeared to be a mere formality.
"We are delighted with today's vote by NFL owners," Kroenke said in a statement released by the Rams. "It is one of the very high points of our long association with the NFL. We look forward to working with our fellow owners and Commissioner (Roger) Goodell as the transaction is finalized and in the years ahead. ...
"Building organizations that win consistently is a challenge that we understand. We are excited about the opportunity as principal owner of the St. Louis Rams."
Today's vote by the 32 club owners to approve Kroenke was unanimous.
"Fifteen years ago, my family entered a partnership with Stan Kroenke and it has been a wonderful relationship," said former majority owner Chip Rosenbloom said in a statement. "Although today is an emotional day and the end of an era for our family, it is also the beginning of a new chapter in the rich history of the St. Louis Rams. We look forward to Stan continuing the great tradition of the organization. On behalf of my sister Lucia (Rodriguez) and our entire family, we congratulate Stan and the Kroenke family on becoming the majority owner of the Rams."
The purchase is based on an overall franchise value of $750 million, 60 percent of which amounts to $450 million.
Money was never an issue for Kroenke. He and his wife, Ann - a Wal-Mart heiress - are worth $6 billion, according to Forbes. Kroenke has made a fortune on his own in real estate and strip mall development; many of his projects have included Wal-Mart stores.
The stickiest part for Kroenke in the sales process had been satisfying the NFL's rules on cross-ownership, which read as follows:
"No person who owns a majority interest in, or has direct or indirect operating control of an NFL member club, may own or acquire any interest in a club in another major team sport (baseball, basketball, hockey), except for a club located in: a.) his/her NFL club's home city, or b.) a non-NFL city that is not a potential NFL city."
Kroenke owns the Denver Nuggets basketball team and the Colorado Avalanche hockey team in a town where the Denver Broncos football team also does business. Kroenke will transfer ownership in the Nuggets and Avalanche to his son, Josh Kroenke.
Kroenke's bid appeared to be on the right track from the outset, as New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, chairman of the finance committee, said following the NFL's May owners meetings in Dallas that, "Everybody wants him to be an owner, I can tell you."
It took three additional months to iron out the details of what is a complicated purchase, but there is now closure on an ownership situation that has been uncertain since longtime owner Georgia Frontiere died of breast cancer on Jan. 18, 2008.
Her children, Rosenbloom and Rodriguez, inherited Frontiere's share of the club, with Rosenbloom becoming controlling owner. Estate tax issues have helped force the sale of the team, with Rosenbloom consistently stating that his goal was to sell the team to someone whose priority was keeping the Rams in St. Louis.
It has been a long road over the last 2½ years from Frontiere's death to Kroenke's takeover. The sale seemed almost complete just a few days after the Super Bowl in February when Shahid Khan of Urbana, Ill., an auto parts manufacturer, entered into a sales agreement with the Rams.
Two months later, Kroenke surprised just about everyone, Rosenbloom and Rodriguez included, when he exercised a right of first refusal matching the Khan sales agreement.
And now, four months after exercising that right, Stan is the man running the Rams.
"I have nothing but best wishes for Stan Kroenke as the new controlling owner of the St. Louis Rams," Khan said in a statement. "I have gotten to know Stan very well this year, I admire his success and I am certain he will be an excellent owner for the Rams, the National Football League and the St. Louis community.
"I'll always appreciate the trust Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez put in me, and I thank Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owners for their professional approach in everything related to the sale process. This adventure didn't turn out the way I had hoped, but it was otherwise a worthwhile experience in every respect and I'll always be a fan of the St. Louis Rams."
