Stan Kroenke's bid to buy the 60 percent share of the Rams football team currently for sale is approaching the goal line. The NFL has scheduled a special league meeting Aug. 25 in Atlanta, at which time the league's finance committee is expected to report to the full membership on the Rams sale.
Barring the unexpected, club owners will vote on Kroenke's bid at the Atlanta meeting. There are details still to be worked out, but all signs point to league approval of Kroenke, the Missouri businessman who already owns 40 percent of the team.
"Everybody wants him as an owner, I can tell you," New Orleans owner Tom Benson, the chairman of the finance committee, told the Post-Dispatch in late May at the NFL owners meetings in Dallas.
It was at those Dallas meetings that Kroenke presented the finance committee with his Rams purchase plan, including how he would meet NFL cross-ownership guidelines regarding his current ownership of the Denver Nuggets National Basketball Association team and Colorado Avalanche National Hockey League franchise.
Things have been quiet on the sale front since then, but the finance committee discussed the Rams sale last Thursday via conference call, according to Greg Aiello, NFL senior vice president. Under normal procedures, the finance committee will make an assessment and a recommendation to the full membership on Kroenke's bid before the full league meeting. That recommendation apparently has yet to take place.
The scheduling of the special meeting is seen as a strong sign by league sources that a vote will be taken.
Kroenke plans to either transfer ownership or sell controlling interest in the Nuggets and Avalanche to family members to meet cross-ownership guidelines, which prevent an NFL team owner from also owning major league baseball, hockey or basketball teams in another NFL market.
The league wants assurances from Kroenke that he will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the Nuggets and Avalanche even if family members are running those teams.
The exact details of turning over the Nuggets and Avalanche are complex and to a degree remain unclear even to some close to the sale process.
In addition, Kroenke is seeking time to work through the transfer of the hockey and basketball teams, perhaps because of estate tax issues. But barring some last-minute hitch, enough of the unsettled details will be worked out over the next couple of weeks, leading to the expected vote in Atlanta.
Chip Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, assumed controlling interest in the Rams after the death of their mother, Georgia Frontiere, in January 2008. The team has been for sale for more than a year, with Urbana, Ill., businessman Shahid Khan signing a sales agreement to buy the club last February.
However, Kroenke exercised a right of refusal on April 12 to buy the 60 percent share of the Rams held by Rosenbloom and Rodriguez.
There's no doubt Kroenke has the money to make the purchase. The most recent estimates by Forbes magazine are that Kroenke and his wife, Ann, are worth a combined $6 billion. Satisfying the NFL's cross-ownership policy has always been the issue.
Through a spokesman Monday, Kroenke said he was remaining respectful of the sale process and had nothing to say at this point regarding recent developments.
