Kroenke’s team in Major League Soccer, the defending champion Colorado Rapids, plays its games in a stadium on the site of the old Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Commerce City, Colo. His newest acquisition is a club founded in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, England, a club known around the world as the Gunners.
Kroenke, 63, who is married to a member of the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame, pushed his stake in Arsenal from 29.9 percent to 62.89 percent with the purchase of shares held by Danny Fiszman and Nina Bracewell-Smith, two of the club’s current directors. The deal puts Arsenal’s value at $1.2 billion. According to regulations, Kroenke Sports Enterprises must make a cash offer for the remaining shares. The Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who at one time tried to gain a controlling stake in Arsenal, controls 27 percent of the club’s parent company, Arsenal Holdings.
“We are excited about the opportunity to increase our involvement with and commitment to Arsenal,” Kroenke said in a statement. “Arsenal is a fantastic club with a special history and tradition and a wonderful manager in Arsène Wenger. We intend to build on this rich heritage and take the club to new success.
“The offer will not be funded by way of any debt finance (banks loans, payment in kind loans or other debt or quasi-debt interest bearing obligations) for which the payment of interest on, repayment of or security for any liability (contingent or otherwise) will depend on the business of Arsenal.”
The reference to debt finance is a particularly sensitive topic in English soccer, and particularly in the Premier League, because Manchester United’s American owners, the Malcolm Glazer family, has saddled the club with long-term debt. In addition to Manchester United, three other Premier League clubs are owned by Americans - Randy Lerner at Aston Villa, Ellis Short at Sunderland and John Henry at Liverpool. In addition, five other clubs (Chelsea, Manchester City, Fulham, Birmingham City and Blackburn) are controlled by foreigners.
There are other links between Kroenke, M.L.S. and Arsenal. Kroenke’s Rapids formed a partnership with Arsenal in 2007. The M.L.S. club has trained in London and its current coach, Gary Smith, has served as a scout for Arsenal. In addition, the former deputy commissioner of M.L.S., Ivan Gazidis, became Arsenal’s chief executive on Jan. 1, 2009.
There was no response to an e-mail sent to Gazidis seeking comment about the deal, but the club did post a video of Gazidis speaking about the transaction.
But in New York, M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber told The Associated Press that Kroenke is “a strong, silent type, and I think that’s not necessarily the worst thing when it comes to sports team owners. He’s very loyal. He’s a very quiet and a strategic thinker. He doesn’t make rash decisions.”
Arsenal is the fifth Premier League club owned by an American.In addition to the Rapids (and their stadium, Dicks Sporting Goods Park), and now Arsenal, K.S.E. owns the N.F.L. St. Louis Rams, the N.H.L. Colorado Avalanche, the N.B.A. Denver Nuggets and the arena they play in in Denver, the Pepsi Center.
Kroenke now takes control of a club that has not won the Premier League title since 2004 and is in second place in the Premier League, 7 points behind Manchester United.
Arsène Wenger has been the Gunners’ coach since 1996, but while other English and top European clubs have made annual pilgrimages to the United States in the summer, Arsenal has scrupulously avoided upsetting Wenger as he prepares his team for a new season. That could change with Kroenke at the helm.
Is Kroenke likely to agitate for changes not only in the board room, but in the manager’s office? Has Arsenal in recent years lost some cachet as it has avoided long but lucrative preseason tours to the United States and elsewhere?
The “partnership” between Arsenal and the Rapids has seemed to be more vaporware than substance up until now. Will this deal change that? And how? Players training in London? Loan deals for Arsenal players? Arsenal youth players going to Colorado?
Source: Jack Bell, The New York Times on 11 Apr 11
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