The City Football Group, led by Manchester City, is probably the most famous entity in world football right now (on par with Red Bull). Mention of it has become increasingly common after the success of this year’s Girona.
However, one of Manchester City’s main rivals in the Premier League title race this year, London’s Arsenal, also has its own sporting empire. Moreover, it is much more global and extensive, as it encompasses not only football but also many other popular sports.
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Focus on the USA. Teams in nearly every major American sports league
In 2007, American businessman Stan Kroenke acquired a stake in London football club Arsenal, and since 2018, he has owned the entire club, with his holding company KSE (Kroenke Sports & Entertainment) being the sole owner of the organization from the British capital.
However, Kroenke had already begun his journey in sports long before this. In 1995, KSE acquired a stake in the NFL club “St. Louis Rams.” The team had just moved from Los Angeles and started its new era in the NFL. The Rams managed to win the Super Bowl in 1999 and play in it again in 2001 (though less successfully that time). However, the team’s fortunes declined both in sports and financially. In 2010, KSE bought out the Rams completely and definitively.
Just five years later, in 2015, Kroenke took a rather radical step – he wanted to move the franchise back to Los Angeles. At that time, the team was valued at $1.45 billion (28th among the 32 teams in the league). Additionally, the NFL set a special fee for teams wanting to move spontaneously to the major market of Los Angeles – $550 million. Nonetheless, the Rams still returned to LA from St. Louis. This move brought the franchise significant financial profit. The team’s value quickly doubled, allowing the club to rise from 28th to third place among all NFL teams. As of 2023, Forbes estimates the Rams’ value at $6.9 billion (still third in the NFL after Dallas and New England).
The sporting achievements did not lag behind either – in 2018, the team made its first Super Bowl appearance since 2001 (losing to Tom Brady’s Patriots), and in 2021, they won the Super Bowl for the second time in their history.
Even before the entire Rams saga, which is obviously KSE’s biggest asset in the USA, in 2000, the holding acquired two sports clubs in Colorado: the basketball team Denver Nuggets, which in 2023 became NBA champions for the first time in their history, and the hockey team Colorado Avalanche, which won two out of three of its Stanley Cups already under Kroenke’s ownership (in the 2000/01 and 2021/22 seasons).
It’s also worth mentioning that Arsenal is not the only football club owned by KSE. The MLS team Colorado Rapids also belongs to this holding and achieved its best result in history under Kroenke’s ownership – winning the MLS Cup in 2010.
What else does the company owning Arsenal own?
The only major American league where KSE is not represented is MLB.
However, this fact is compensated by activity in another market. KSE owns the Colorado Mammoth team in the NLL. The club is very successful there, having been champions twice (2006, 2022) and playing in the finals again in 2023.
In addition to this vast holding, Kroenke also owns a women’s football club Arsenal, the home stadium of the London team Emirates, and about a dozen other lesser-known sports complexes, arenas, and facilities in Europe and the USA.
And KSE is even in the esports arena. The Los Angeles Gladiators play Call of Duty (won the Major in 2022), and the Los Angeles Guerrillas are represented in Overwatch.
In 2013, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment acquired the company that developed Skycam – the technology on which Spidercam was later based. It is already being used in the world of sports (especially in football, rugby, and tennis) for better filming and replays of game moments.
In 2024 the main star of the KSE empire ended her sports career
There are many contenders for the title of the main star among the huge number of athletes who have played in KSE clubs. Whether it’s current or former Arsenal stars, 2-time NBA MVP and 2023 NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, or Stanley Cup winner and one of the best scorers in modern NHL history Nathan MacKinnon. However, there is one person who has given more to Kroenke’s main club than anyone else.
In 2014, then-St. Louis Rams drafted defensive tackle Aaron Donald with the 13th overall pick. In March 2024, Donald announced the end of his professional sports career. He leaves having broken a bunch of club defensive records and earning the status of the greatest player in franchise history and perhaps the greatest player in American football history at his position.
Aaron Donald went through everything with the Rams – relocation to another city, a radical change in the team’s direction, a Super Bowl loss, and a Super Bowl win. Aaron emphasized that it was very important for him to end his career here, at the club where it all started for him. He grew tired and burned out from football, so he made the willful decision to end his career even with a year left on his contract, for which he would have earned between $10 million (guaranteed) and $35 million (including all bonuses).
