Arsenal fans are up in arms these days as another disappointing season ends without a trophy. But if you a fan of any other side that Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke owns, not winning anything is a commin feeling.
I took a look at the other teams that Stan Kroenke’ owns and the picture is not a good one for Arsenal fans who are hoping that the Gunners get back to challenging for trophies anytime soon
Besides owing Arsenal, Kroenke owns five US sports franchises: the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL and St. Louis Rams of the NFL (he also owns the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League but they are not relevant to this article).
None of the U.S. teams that Kroenke owns are leaders with within their sports. Instead they are all mediocre at best.
In 2000, Kroenke bought the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche. Since then, neither club has been a major contender in either of their sports.
Since 2001, the Denver Nuggets have reached the conference finals once and have lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs 8 times in the 11 seasons that Kroenke have owned the team.
The Denver Avalanche has been just as inept as the Nuggets. They lost in the Stanley Cup Conference Finals in 2001-02, and it has been all downhill since then, as they have not made the playoffs in four of the last six seasons.
The one success on the field has been the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer as they delivered Kroenke’s one Championship in 2010. But even then, in Kroenke’s seven year of ownership, the Rapids have not qualified for the MLS Playoffs three times in his seven years of ownerships.
Lastly, Kroenke become majority owner of the St. Louis Rams in August 2010 and their record the last two seasons have been 2-14 and 7-8. On paper a good improvement, but nobody is expecting the Rams to be playing in the Super Bowl anytime soon.
So if you add up Kroenke’s American teams records since he bought them, in a combined 31 seasons of ownership, his teams have won one championship and reached the conference finals twice. That is it.
In American sports with salary cap restrictions and revenue sharing, where it is common to see a team go from a losing record to winning a title within 12 months, the records of Silent Stan’s teams is amazing poor.
Which brings me to Arsenal. There is nothing in Kroenke’s US sports ownership that suggests that he is willing to spend money to compete like Man City, Chelsea or PSG are.
There is actually nothing to suggest that he is willing to spend like Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group in order to compete.
His US teams are middle of the table, with few stars and a payroll that is in the middle of the pack.
And is that where Arsenal seems to be heading?
I wrote early about newspaper reports suggest that Arsene Wenger will be given a £150m transfer budget this summer. I hope they are right. But there is nothing in Kroenke’s decade plus ownership of US sports teams that suggests that he will be willing to spend that kind of money on players.
