Background and career
Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire real estate magnate and sports team owner. Through his company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, he owns Arsenal F.C. of the English Premier League, Arsenal W.F.C. of the English Women's Super League, the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Los Angeles Angels of the MLB, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. The Nuggets and Avalanche franchises are held in the name of his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, to evade NFL rules that forbid a team owner from having teams in other markets. Ann is the daughter of Walmart co-founder James "Bud" Walton. Kroenke's holding company for sports teams has been controversial as in 2016, he moved the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, which later led to a lawsuit which incurred legal costs for the entire league. In 2021, Kroenke was involved in a failed effort to end the traditional European soccer system by creating a closed European Super League which would have included Arsenal and several other teams. In the five major U.S. sports, Kroenke's teams have won multiple championships under his ownership (either partial or full), with the Rams winning one Super Bowl, the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup twice, the Nuggets winning an NBA Championship, and the Rapids winning an MLS Cup. The Colorado Mammoth have also won two National Lacrosse League Championships while he was the owner. Kroenke has also found success in European football, as Arsenal won the Premier League in the 2025/2026 season and Arsenal W.F.C. won the UEFA Women's Champions League in the 2024/2025 season.
Kroenke grew up in Mora, Missouri, an unincorporated community with a population of about two dozen, where his father owned Mora Lumber Company. His first job was sweeping the floor at his father's lumber yard. At Cole Camp (Missouri) High School, he played baseball, basketball and ran track.
Kroenke married Ann Walton, a Walmart heiress, in 1974. In 1983, he founded the Kroenke Group, a real estate development firm which has built shopping centers and apartment buildings and has developed many of his plazas near Walmart stores. Kroenke is also the chairman of THF Realty, a real estate development company specializing in suburban development. He founded it in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1991. In 2016, THF's portfolio was valued at more than $2 billion, including more than 100 projects totaling 20 million square feet, primarily in retail shopping centers. Kroenke was already wealthy in his own right, but became even more so when Ann inherited a major stake in Walmart upon the death of her father, Walmart cofounder Bud Walton, in 1995. Kroenke is a major owner of working ranches, owning a total of 848,631 acres (343,429 ha) in 2015 when The Land Report magazine ranked him as the United States' ninth-largest landowner. In 2016, he acquired the Waggoner Ranch in Texas, the largest ranch within one fenceline. As of 2026, Kroenke is the largest private landowner in the U.S., owning over 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.
In 2006, Kroenke in partnership with the money manager Charles Banks, acquired Screaming Eagle, a winery in Napa Valley. In 2009, Banks said he was no longer involved with Screaming Eagle. In 2017, Kroenke came under fire for launching a British outdoor sports television channel that shows hunting programs that include killing elephants, lions, and other vulnerable African species.
Founded in 1999, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment owns Ball Arena in Denver, home of the Nuggets, Avalanche, and Mammoth, and co-owns Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, home of the Rapids. Both venues were built by his development company. In 2004, Kroenke launched a competitor to FSN Rocky Mountain (now known as AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain), Altitude, a regional sports network that became the official broadcaster for both of Kroenke's teams on launch. Kroenke also established TicketHorse, a ticket company that provides in-house sales for all his teams.
In 2000, Kroenke became full owner of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche, purchasing the teams from Charlie Lyons's Ascent Entertainment Group.
