NFL owners voted Wednesday to permit St. Louis businessman Stan Kroenke to take over majority control of the Rams, with the proviso that he turn over control of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche to his son, Josh.The NFL owners, meeting in Atlanta, approved the sale unanimously for an estimated price of $750 million. Kroenke, 63, must turn over financial and operational control of the Avalanche and Nuggets, who he has owned since 2000, along with the Pepsi Center, the Denver arena the two teams play in. NFL rules strictly prohibit league owners from having control of a franchise in another major American team sport.
Kroenke also owns the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, as well as possessing the largest share of stock in Arsenal of the English Premier League.
"I don't think it's a mystery the way we're running our other clubs. Connect the dots," Kroenke said. "I like to know what's going on; I like to be involved. But the number one thing is finding the right people, putting them in place and trying to help them out."
Kroenke had led the effort to bring an NFL expansion team to St. Louis in 1995. When that bid failed, he helped facilitate the move of the Rams from Los Angeles to St. Louis, and purchased a minority share of the team.
Kroenke, who currently owns 40 percent of the Rams, had exercised an option to purchase the remaining 60 percent of the Rams from the family of the late Carroll Rosenbloom, who swapped the team for the Baltimore Colts in 1972. Rosenbloom ran the franchise, then located in Los Angeles, until his death in 1979. Control then passed to his widow, Georgia, who ran the team until her death in 2008.
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