Stan Kroenke Net Worth 2024: Building Land and Sports Empires Valued at $20 Billion

Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire businessman, owns and manages the largest privately-owned sports empire in the world, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

In 2024, Stan Kroenke’s net worth is estimated at over $20 billion.

Kroenke’s holding company manages multiple valuable sports teams such as the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and the 2023 NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets.

That’s not all this businessman is famous for, though – he’s also the founder of a famous real estate development firm, ruling over a massive portfolio of land.

5 Fun Facts about Stan Kroenke

1. Kroenke’s sports teams include the 2023 NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets.
2. He met his wife, Ann Walton, on a ski trip; she is the daughter of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton.
3. Kroenke owns the most expensive stadium in the world, SoFi Stadium, worth $5.5 billion.
4. His yacht, Seanna, is valued at $60 million and was built in 2011.
5. Kroenke co-founded THF Realty, known for its suburban shopping centers.

Stan Kroenke’s Net Worth 2024: Full Breakdown

Stan Kroenke is the richest person in the sporting world, standing in the ranks of Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner, and Robert Craft, the New England Patriots owner.

He owns a full or majority stake in teams worth billions, but his net worth also comprises personal assets like land and real estate, his luxury yacht, as well as shopping malls and stadiums.

After detailed research of all of his assets, we’ve tracked down everything significant that contributes to his fortune.

Based on our findings, Kroenke’s net worth is at least $20 billion, and this doesn’t even include all of his assets in real estate and land that aren’t publicly disclosed.

Stan Kroenke Net Worth: Early Life and Education

Enos Stanley Kroenke, better known as Stan Kroenke, was born on July 29, 1947, in Mora, Missouri, located 100 miles southeast of Kansas City. He grew up in an unincorporated community that counted around two dozen inhabitants. Kroenke’s father owned the Mora Lumber Company in their hometown.

As a child, Stan Kroenke helped his father at the lumber yard, sweeping the floors and keeping the company’s books. When he started high school at Cole Camp High School, he joined the baseball and basketball teams and even ran track, showing an early interest and passion for sports.

After his high school graduation, Kroenke enrolled at the University of Missouri. He worked as a busboy while he was studying at Mizzou (University of Missouri) to earn some extra cash and borrowed $1,500 from his father to buy into a local clothing shop, embarking on his life as an entrepreneur.

At the University of Missouri, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1989, and subsequently attended business school. The same year he earned his MBA in 1973, he met Ann Walton, his future wife.

Ann Walton is the daughter of Bud Walton, the co-founder of Walmart. She and Stan Kroenke met on a ski trip in Colorado and married three years later, in 1974. The couple share two children, Whitney and Josh.

Stan Kroenke Net Worth: From Busboy to Sports Industry Magnate

Kroenke started working as a child, helping out his father, and building a work habit from an early age. He then proceeded to work as a busboy and went on to invest in a business he believed in, showing his entrepreneurial spirit early on. Following his graduation, he was ready to found his first business, which was a major success, allowing him to start investing in his biggest passion – sports.

Kroenke’s Real Estate Career

In 1983, Kroenke founded the Kroenke Group, a real estate development firm that built apartment buildings and shopping centers.

In addition to this venture, Kroenke co-founded THF Realty with Michael Staenberg, a real estate development company that focused on suburban development. He has been the company’s chairman since 1991 when the business was founded. THF stands for “To Have Fun”.

THF Realty has proven to be a major success.

Back in 2012, the company’s portfolio counted over 100 projects and with a combined area of over 20 million square feet, mostly creating shopping centers. The portfolio of THF was valued at over $2 billion at this point.

However, the business wasn’t much fun for the founders at this time. After having spent the better part of two decades building a shopping center empire, the partners split and ended up in court. Kroenke filed three lawsuits against Staenberg in December 2012, followed by a legal battle after a nearly yearlong split, in which Kroenke bought out his partner’s interest for $110 million.

The reason for the lawsuit was that Staenberg reportedly pulled out of a deal at the last minute in which he agreed to pay Kroenke around $20 million to buy his stake in two shopping centers the company built. Kroenke also claimed that Staenberg closed off the THF computer system to him.

Finally, he attempted to block the repayment of a $1.2 million loan Staenberg gave to the company, which was supposed to be a seed investment.

The growth of this business is what gave Kroenke the basis to build his sports empire.

While we don’t know whether he spent more money to buy out his partner or got something out of the legal battles, Kroenke reportedly turned his focus away from this business after the problems, focusing on his wholly-owned business, The Kroenke Group.

Kroenke’s Sports Team Empire

The two companies we’ve mentioned aren’t the only businesses under Kroenke’s ownership. His most popular business to date is Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, through which he owns several teams.

In 2024, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is the holding company of the following sports teams:

• Arsenal F.C., English Premier League
• Arsenal W.F.C., Women’s Super League
• Los Angeles Rams, NFL
• Colorado Avalanche, NHL
• Denver Nuggets, NBA
• Colorado Rapids, Major League Soccer
• Colorado Mammoth, National Lacrosse League

He also owns two esports teams:

• Los Angeles Gladiators, Overwatch League

• Los Angeles Guerrillas, Call of Duty League

According to NFL ownership rules, a team owner can’t have teams in other markets, so the Avalanche and Nuggets franchises are held under the name of Ann Walton Kroenke, Stan’s wife.

Kroenke Sports Entertainment was founded in 1999 and also owns Ball Arena in Denver, the prestigious home field of the Nuggets, Avalanche, and Mammoth teams. In addition to this, Kroenke owns a part of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, which is the home of the Rapids. He used his Kroenke Group development company to build both these venues.

In addition to these assets, Kroenke’s business also owns Altitude, a regional sports network that is the official broadcaster for his teams on launch. Finally, he also established TicketHorse, a ticketing company for in-house sales for his teams. The name TicketHorse was recently changed to Altitude Tickets, done simultaneously with the launch of the new website altitudetickets.com.

In their categories, Kroenke’s teams have won five championships, with the Avalanche winning 2 Stanley Cup championships, the Rams winning 2 Super Bowls, and the Nuggets winning one NBA Championship (with likely many more to come).

He also led Mammoth to win 2 National Lacrosse League Championships and won an MLS Cup as the Rapids’ owner.

Los Angeles Rams

In April of 1995, Stan Kroenke purchased 30% of the Rams, helping Georgia Frontiere move the team to St. Louis.

In 2010, he refused to purchase the remaining interest in the team but, in August of that same year, he got full ownership of the Rams by unanimous consent of the NFL.

While we don’t know how much he spent for the 30% stake or the full purchase, it cost the LA Rams $29 million to relocate, plus the $17 million they had to pay from proceeds of personal seat licenses, so it was definitely in the range of millions.

To get approval from the NFL and abide by their rules, Kroenke turned over control of the Nuggets and Avalanche to his son Josh by the end of the year, eventually transferring his remaining ownership stake of the teams to his wife.

In 2015, the Kroenke Group was partnering with Stockbridge Capital Group to build a new NFL stadium in Inglewood, California, which threatened the future of the team in St. Louis.

This is why St. Louis proposed an open-air stadium with the National Car Rental Field, in the hope that they wouldn’t lose the Rams when Kroenke completed his stadium.

However, Kroenke believed that St. Louis wasn’t a viable market for the NFL franchise in his relocation proposal. Eventually, three teams left their old stadiums in St. Louis and relocated to Los Angeles for the 2016 NFL season.

The Rams’ application to relocate back to Los Angeles was approved in January 2016, which was followed by a lawsuit from the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. Eventually, the NFL agreed a $790 million dollar settlement, paid to the St. Louis parties by the end of 2021.

Today, the Rams are worth $6.9 billion and they are an extremely competitive team. These days, they play in the most expensive stadium in the world, the SoFi Stadium, worth $5.5 billion.

Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets

Stan Kroenke acquired two teams in 2000, Colorado Avalanche in the NHL and Denver Nuggets in the NBA, buying them both from Ascent Entertainment Group by Charlie Lyons.

He reportedly spent $450 million to acquire the Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and the Ball Arena in Denver.

In 2023, the franchise value of the Nuggets grew to $3.38 billion, an increase of 75% over the previous year when the team was worth $1.93 billion.

The Nuggets have been enormously successful recently, ever since the team acquired Nikola Jocić, who many analysts consider to be the best player in the world.

The valuation for Avalanche, the National Hockey League franchise, grew by 34% in 2023 over the previous year, marking an estimated value of $1.15 billion.

Colorado Crush

Two years after he spent half a billion on two sports teams and an arena, Kroenke decided to make another major acquisition.

This time, he partnered with Pat Bowlen, the Denver Broncos’ owner, and John Elway, former Bronco quarterback, and became a part-owner of Colorado Crush, the Arena Football League team. Kroenke shared:

When I bought the Avalanche, Nuggets, and Pepsi Center, we had imagined ways to more fully utilize this unique and wonderful building. The acquisitions of the Rapids and Mammoth, and the Crush partnership just seemed to make sense and came along at the right time.

The exact stake in this team or his investment hasn’t been disclosed. The team played in the Central Division of the American Conference, but the Arena Football League suspended operations in 2009, which is why this team is no longer in Kroenke’s portfolio.

Colorado Rapids and Colorado Mammoth

In 2004, Kroenke decided to expand his empire further, buying two more teams: soccer team Colorado Rapids and lacrosse team Colorado Mammoth from Phil Anschutz.

The Rapids were the lowest-valued franchise in Major League Soccer in 2023, worth around $350 million.

Arsenal FC

Kroenke owns Arsenal Holdings plc., the company that owns Arsenal F.C. of the English Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the English Women’s Super League. He initially bought a 9.9% stake in the business from Granada Ventures in 2007 and continued to buy further shares in the following months, boosting his total stake to 12.19%.

By June 2008, the board of the company allowed Kroenke to take over and that same year, he joined Arsenal’s board of directors. He controlled over 18,594 shares or 29.9% of the issued shares.

In 2011, he boosted his Arsenal stock portfolio to reach 62.89% when he bought the stakes of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and Danny Fiszman. He also made an offer for the remainder of the club’s stock at £11,750 per share, meaning that the team was valued at £731 million.

Finally, in August 2018, his offer for around £600 million was accepted, valuing the total shares of the company at £1.8 billion, bringing his ownership to 90%.

Arsenal is now worth $2.263 billion.

LA Gladiators and Geurillas

At this point, it was time for Kroenke Sports and Entertainment to join the eSports industry, so it developed a new franchise in the newly founded Overwatch League called the Gladiators.

Two years after it formed its first esports team, the company developed a second one, the LA Guerillas of the Call of Duty League.

Stan Kroenke Net Worth: Other Assets and Investments

Kroenke is the owner of the biggest sports conglomerate, but this is not the only industry he has operated in. He’s been involved with several other businesses, is a major real estate investor, and owns over 1.7 million acres of ranches in the US and Canada.

Businesses

In 2006, Kroenke partnered with Charles Banks, a money manager, to acquire a winery in Napa Valley called Screaming Eagle. He hasn’t been involved with this business since 2009.

Land Ownership

Kroenke is a major owner of ranches and land and reportedly owns over 1.6 million acres, making him one of the biggest landowners in the United States. One of his biggest purchases was in 2016 when he acquired the Waggoner Ranch in Texas for $725 million. His Broken O Ranch Montana Farm in Augusta is worth $132.5 million.

Real Estate

The businessman’s real estate portfolio is so massive that it’s impossible to keep track of what he owns or evaluate what everything is worth. He reportedly owns 60 million square feet of real estate, most of which is in shopping plazas located near Walmart stores, owned through his company.

As for his real estate, he reportedly lives on West Nifong Boulevard in Columbia, MO, in a home worth $2.5 million. Some other properties he owns include:

• California Beach House in Malibu worth $8.9 million
• Red Mountain Retreat in Aspen worth $20.75 million
• Aspen Mountain townhouse worth $6.2 million
• Multifamily Steamboat Springs Duplex worth $872,000

Yacht

Kroenke’s list of assets also includes his private yacht Seanna. The yacht was built in 2011 and designed by Natucci and can accommodate up to 12 people. Seanna is worth around $60 million.

What Can We Learn from Stan Kroenke’s Story?

Stan Kroenke’s journey from a small-town upbringing to becoming one of the wealthiest sports moguls in the world offers several valuable lessons. For starters, his success stems from his ability to diversify his investments.

He has focused his empire on sports but has expanded his portfolio to include real estate, land, businesses, and investments in other industries.

This teaches us the importance of diversifying one’s sources of wealth.

Kroenke has strategically formed partnerships and made acquisitions that helped him grow his empire.

Whether he was acquiring sports teams like the Rams and Nuggets or forming joint ventures like THF Realty, his business decisions have always been strategic and well-calculated, showing us that while taking chances is key to success in business, you must do this after you gather the data and form a smart strategy.

Kroenke’s investments reflect a long-term vision and commitment. He has demonstrated patience in developing his portfolio, focusing on opportunities that offer long-term growth potential rather than just quick returns.

Throughout his career, the businessman has shown adaptability and flexibility in responding to changing market dynamics and opportunities.