Stan Kroenke is as much of a hero as Georgia Frontiere
For two years I’ve noticed something that bugged me. Stan Kroenke. Not the man in the suit standing awkwardly at a podium monotonously addressing the media. This Stan Kroenke is a giant cardboard cutout of Kroenke’s head.
This bulbous Kroenke head was totted around the country for two years by a large group of Rams fans who wanted their team to return to Los Angeles. Wherever Bring Back
the Los Angeles Rams went, they took Kroenke with them. When the blue and yellow clad band of fans were watching the then St. Louis Rams in a Southern California sports bar, smiling Stan joined them. At bars fans queued up to pose next to the cut out of Stan who had eclipsed the stars on the field: Robert Quinn, James Laurinaitis, Chris Long, Aaron Donald, even Todd Gurley, none had their heads immortalized in cardboard. Smiling Stan is the star attraction.
On November 14, 2014 upwards of twenty-thousand Rams fans invaded Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to watch the Rams take on the Chargers. They were there to send a message to Kroenke, and the league Los Angeles wants its Rams back. The message was received, and of course the giant cardboard Smiling Stan was in the front row.
When Dallas Cowboys owner, and major supporter of the Rams relocation to Los Angeles, Jerry Jones invited Kroenke’s Rams to scrimmage with the Cowboys in Oxnard,
California during training
Rams fans awaiting training camp scrimmage with Cowboys in Oxnard, Ca.
camp the legion of Rams fans in Southern California cleared their calendars. Jerry Jones used the invitation as an opportunity to draw attention to the fervor for Rams football in the Los Angeles region. Again, Rams fans came out in the thousands and once again, Smiling Stan was at the center. Stan is a rockstar, a demigod he will forever be remembered for bringing the Rams to Los Angeles.
When the Rams held their L.A. introductory press conference on January 15, fans
filled the Forum in Inglewood. The ecstatic group didn’t yell out cries of their long lost team “L.A. RAMS! L.A. RAMS!” instead they proclaimed “We Love Stan!” “We Love Stan!”
After 21 years without a team, these fans wanted to celebrate. What they got was the
only thing that could cool the frenzy: the real Stan Kroenke, finally. A business owner, a real estate developer, a pragmatist. The colorless Kroenke took to the mic speaking about the opportunities available at a site as large as the Inglewood complex providing him the ability to develop 300 acres in a city like Los Angeles. The Rams moving into the new megastructure that will host future Super Bowls and NCAA Final Four appearances, felt like a footnote. Stan never addressed his commitment to building a winning team with the Los Angeles Rams. Sure, the stadium will be a winner, sure the land development project is huge. The relocation of the Rams will likely result in a net worth increase by about a billion dollars. The Rams currently rank 30th of 32 teams in team value the move to Inglewood will catapult the team into the NFL’s top three most valuable franchises.
Stan Kroenke should not be canonized. Stan Kroenke is as much a hero as
Georgia Frontiere was. Yes, this may sound like blasphemy in Los Angeles. Frontiere drove out superstars like Eric Dickerson, and depleted the team and its fan base in order to move the Rams to her hometown St. Louis. She made millions doing it. If you don’t know about Georgia Frontiere think of Rachel Phelps from the Major League movies, but add in the speculation of drowning her husband, Rams owner, Carroll Rosenbloom, and expeditiously firing Rosenbloom’s son Steve Rosenbloom as the team president. I hated Georgia Frontiere for destroying the Los Angeles Rams. I know my feelings about Georgia Frontiere are similar as St. Louisans feelings toward Kroenke.
Both Frontiere and Kroenke made decisions to widen their already filled pocket books.
Frontiere got a sweetheart deal in St. Louis that ultimately cost the city its team and left St. Louis in debt. The relocation agreement provided Stan Kroenke thirty-percent ownership of the Rams. Through the deal, the Rams were to play in a state-of-the-art facility equipped with luxury boxes and premium seats all paid for by tax payers. The Rams would also benefit from the sale of personal seat licenses (PSLs) to the tune of $70 million. Further, there was first tier clause in the lease of the later named Edward Jones Dome, that allowed to the team to revoke their lease with the city of St. Louis if the stadium fell out of the top 25% of NFL stadiums. It was this provision that allowed Stan Kroenke to walk away from a failing situation in St. Louis leaving the city without a professional football team and a debt over $100 million from the original construction of the Edward Jones Dome.
It was obvious to Kroenke a move to L.A. would mean a boost in the team value that could see the Rams surpass every NFL franchise but the Dallas Cowboys, according to Forbes the world’s most valuable sports franchise (the net worth of the Dallas Cowboys jumped with the construction of the $1.3 billion AT&T Stadium). Two things happened soon after Kroenke took over full ownership of the Rams that illuminated how economically beneficial the move to Southern California would be. First, TMZ released a tapped conversation with then Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and acquaintance-employee-mistress V. Stiviano. The recording exposed Donald Sterling as the racist and misogynist we knew him to be. The public release of the conversation led to a lifetime ban from the NBA for Sterling forcing him to sell the Clippers. The Clippers were sold to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. The Clippers, one of the worst run franchises in public sports, a team that drafted Michael Olawokandi with the number one overall draft pick ahead of Michael Bibby, Antawn Jameson, Vince Carter, and Dirk Nowitzki sold for $2 billion. I remember getting free tickets to see Clippers games in an empty LA Sports Arena. Sure, Ballmer can recoup some of that $2 billion when he negotiates a tv contract for the Clippers. The cross hall rival Lakers signed a $4 billion 20 year tv contract with Time Warner in 2011 and the Dodgers signed a contract reported to be near $8 billion with the same company. Kroenke won’t have the chance to negotiate an enormous television rights deal, because the NFL splits the revenue from their $27 billion league wide deal, but he knows a palatial structure in Los Angeles would bring instant revenue through the sale of private suites, PSLs, naming rights, and real estate development for the adjoining acreage obtained. The second illumination occurred rather serendipitously for Kroenke.
Knowing all that he needed was a site for development, a 60 acre parcel of land all but fell into his laps. The land was originally intended to be used for the construction of a super-sized Walmart store, but Inglewood city council members and Inglewood residents voted down a ballot initiative to bypass environmental impact studies and traffic reports. Kroenke bought the 60 acre parcel of land from Walmart. But what does that financial exchange look like when your wife is Ann Walton Kroenke, heiress of the Walmart fortune and Kroenke himself is a former Walmart board member? Kroenke parlayed his 60 acre parcel of land to a partnership with the owners of the nearly 300 acre Hollywood park site to construct a mixed use complex. The stadium would provide the quintessential centerpiece, and the Rams, tenants.
So, Rams fans, our team is back. We should be excited. Its been 21 painful years of
watching our team play its home games in an awful dome wearing those inappropriate navy and gold jerseys. For years we drove up to San Francisco and east to Phoenix to watch our beloved Rams play. They are back! Yes, Kroenke brought them back, and best of all, he’s financing the stadium himself, or most likely splitting the cost with the Chargers. That’s another story, San Diego, you may be mad at Dean Spanos, but it was Kroenke who provoked Spanos to finally make something in Los Angeles.
But I urge my fellow Rams fans to temper their excitement for Kroenke. Stan is a real estate developer; he’s a pragmatic business man. He made the move to LA not to relieve our nostalgic longing for the Rams, but to expand his development portfolio. If the Rams felt distant when they were in St. Louis how distant will they feel when PSLs at $15 thousand a seat become a reality. At least we won’t need NFL Sunday Ticket when watching games from our living room because nosebleed seats cost $200.
The State of Exception(al) Sports 