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Stan Kroenke, the media-shy, mustachioed owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, and the Pepsi Center, has long been trying to exercise his right to buy the St. Louis Rams, but the situation isn’t so simple. It isn’t about the money—he has plenty—but about the NFL rules that prohibit team owners from owning other professional sports teams in NFL markets so owners aren’t directly competing against each other.
The Denver Business Journal reported Wednesday that Kroenke is moving closer to his goal of getting full control of the St. Louis Rams, and that he’s trying to transfer ownership of the Nuggets and Avalanche to a family member.
The NFL already shot down a plan to have Kroenke’s wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, buy the Rams, but the other NFL owners have made it clear they’re trying to find a way to work a deal.
“Stan would be a great partner. I would like to see him in the room. We are trying to find a way for him to solve the problems,” says Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen tells the Business Journal that he has “no issues with Stan.”
Meanwhile, the London Times reported in late May that Kroenke and a Uzbek-born billionaire are trying to avoid a bidding war over the controlling interest in English soccer club Arsenal; Kroenke already owns slightly less than 30 percent of that team.