Official: Kroenke Purchases Rapids, New Stadium for 06

This is one of the best days in the history of the league.

Getting an investor/owner OR a stadium would have been a GREAT announcement. But getting BOTH on the same day? It's almost too good to be true.

Again, a simply great day for MLS.

What are the inside odds on which team get's to play in their new digs first: Rapids, Metros or Fire?

 

Agreed. We have Dallas' stadium opening in 2005 and possible stadia in Harrison and Colorado in 2006.

Things are looking up in MLS!

 

New investors, new stadiums - the league is really coming along, and all within the first decade. This is fantastic news and can only serve to show other investors that MLS is the wave of the future. Looks like they finally learned the lessons taught from the NASL days and realized that it can be done when you start from the ground up.

 

Wouldn't it be smart for some of the MLS guys to take Kroenke out to England to see what a real soccer stadium feels like? Just so he can get an idea of what it should be like. I wouldn't expect him to have ever experienced something like it, but it's just a thought.

These past couple of days have been amazing for MLS. The rhinos stadium, the proposed site in Chicago which seems to be a great spot, and the imminent arrival of Vergara, the league seems to be finally heading in the right direction. In a couple of years Columbus, LA, Dallas, Colorado, Chicago, and the Metros will probably have their own stadiums. That is huge. Hopefully that will swing us into the black so that we can focus on increasing the meager salaries of our players.

 

definitely a banner day to be a soccer fan. as for who gets into their new stadium first .......... well, it looks like they will all get in at the same time. wouldn't that be something? 3 new stadiums opened the same year!!

 

They didn't "finally" learn the lesson; this was the plan from day one.

More importantly, I wonder whether any of the smartalec sportswriters who were so happy to bury the WUSA will acknowledge that MLS is making strides.

 

It is an exciting day for Rapids fans! Stan is the Man!

 

This is great news. It's great to get a new operator/investor into the league. The stadium announcement is great too. By the next World Cup, MLS could be in much different shape.

The following teams could be playing in their own stadia by then:
LA, Columbus, Colorado, Dallas, Chicago, Metros.

That's over half the current league. Compare that to 1996. This could be a continuation of a very significant step in Pro Soccer in the US.

 

Good one!

 

it is definitely great news! hats off to mls, the rapids, and kroenke. amazing...if you had told me that the league would have 2 new investors (one of which from mexico), as well as 4 new stadiums, i would thought you were talking out of your ass. hopefully, this will boost the league's image.

 

Can Garber start getting some props now? Think of where MLS was when he joined, and think about it now (including SUM -- which I think is the real moneymaker waiting in the wings).

 

He also happens to be a BILLIONAIRE and his wife has 3 times MORE MONEY THAN HE DOES.

MLS in Alabama 2007, so his wife could have a team as well?

 

exactly. this is absolutely phenominal news.

It'll be interesting to see what this means in terms of other expansion, whether or not MLS would be more inclined to put a team or accept a bid from an area w/o the type of ownership that they had previously liked to see. Him as a new investor and Vearga coming on board ASAP is absolutely amazing. 5 different owners is definately better than 3. Im sure all the speculation from this will flush itself out soon enough but it's going to be very interesting to see what the ramifications of this are. I could see some of the following tangents happening...

- More diverse ownership makes MLS a safer investment.

- Investors stepping up willing to buy teams, build facilities probably speaks well towards MLS and profitability or future profitability. I don't expect it to be flood now but would expect that more people would be inclined to follow suit.

- More resources can mean more facilities, more teams, without nessicarily the Gazillionaire Saviors like Unclie Phil.
-- For example, Rochester with it's stadium deal in place but maybe not the type of ownership you'd want to see could be more easily absorbed if that was something that they wanted to do.
-- Makes it easier to expand if they wish to by having one Uncle Phil or Lamar invest in another team if they wished to. Just as Uncle Phil has done, taken over or startd a buisness, made it profitable then sold it. He could continue to be the venture capitalist for American soccer that he's been.

- Maybe even something like having more cash on hand to increase salaries, buy better players, everything.

I know I'm getting awfully ahead of myself here but this just strikes me as absolutely awesome news and the ramifications are mind boggling.

 

Might want to add NY w/ Harrison to that list.

KC, and the Revs in owner controlled facilities.

That leaves only two of their current teams in rented buildings. Who knows though DC could be knocked off that list pretty quick too if Major League Baseball will get off it's ass and figure out what they're doing with the Expos. After look at the list of teams that way though. And seeing that San Jose has horriable attendance and is least likely to get a new stadium or be in an owner controlled facility... I think if we're going on that extrapilation ya might be able to see the writing on the wall.

 

O Happy Day!

Incredible.

Brilliant.

Can't wait to visit Denver and sit my big ass down in that SSS.

Welcome Mr. Kroenke to MLS!!

 

I don't think the significance of this news can be overstated. I'd rate this among the 10 most significant events in MLS history. This is the first new investor in the league in five years. This is an investor that, from everything I've read, is not really a "soccer guy." He invested with his head and not his heart, for business reasons. He has no fealty to the game -- he sees it as a way to make money, and unlike Horowitz, Kroenke can afford to wait around awhile before his investment pays off.

The stadium discussion is icing on the cake. I wouldn't count on the stadium talk coming to fruition any time soon, as these things are plagued by all kinds of hiccups and detours. Kroenke's a real estate guy, though, so if anybody can get it done he's the man.

Here's a bunch of articles I found on the newest member of the MLS family:

Kroenke Sports announces Hispanic advisory committee

Denver's Kroenke Sports Enterprises is Sports Operator of Future


Media Release -- Kroenke Sports Enterprises and Gold Crown Foundation Team Up to Bring State of the Art Facility For Sports and Educational to Youth in Metro Denver and Colorado

Kroenke Sports buys Paramount Theatre

Kroenke Sports, Colorado Ballet team up

Kroenke's wife retains part of sports interests

Brown: Inside or out, Pepsi Center packs 'em in

Sports, arts embark on a marriage of convenience

Stanley Kroenke and Michael Staenberg of THF Realty

Bio -- E. Stanley Kroenke

This guy appears to be on the cutting edge of the marriage between sports, entertainment, and venue ownership. MLS fans should be, in a word, stoked.

 

Hmmmm... Look at that first sentence:

"Major League Soccer (MLS) Commissioner and Soccer United Marketing (SUM) Chief Executive Officer Don Garber announced today that Kroenke Sports Enterprises today purchased Denver’s Major League Soccer club, the Colorado Rapids, and announced that the team will play in a new stadium to be tentatively built by 2006."

Note the use of the term "purchased". No use of "investor/operator" or anything like that. While it goes on to say that they've joined the "investor group", could this just be a mis-statement or a change in MLS policy? Am I missing something here?

 

I'm not sure what you're driving at, but the press release also mentioned he invested in SUM.

I imagine SUM has become a big selling point for potential I/Os.

 

Yes, Garber deserves some credit for all the great developments recently. But I wonder how many of those successes he was really involved in other than SUM.

One of Garber's main jobs is to grow the league via expansion. But although there's been plenty of talk and speculation, not one expansion team has been added since 1998.

Wasn't 2003 supposed to be an expansion year? Now the league says 2005 (or perhaps 2004 for San Diego Chivas). Hopefully that happens, but don't be surprised if Garber ends up delaying expansion yet again to 2006 or beyond.

 

And don't forget that Televisa (America) is seriously considering an investment in San Jose, California or Houston.

Greater days for MLS we hadn't seen in quite some time...

And I think that all BIGSOCCER posters are also due some merit in keeping the faith, the passion and, yes, the "verbal debate" alive...

 

While I'm sure he invested in MLS in part for financial reasons, and that soccer is not his primary passion, let's remember this guy is a certificable sports nut, who's cornering the market in Denver on sports acquisitions, save for the Broncos.

I think he wants to own everything in Denver, and the Rapids just happened to be there. The fact that the MLS/SUM business model is looking brighter and brighter just made it that much more a delectable investement.

I could be totally wrong of course.

 

I think you're right on the mark here, FlashMan. And from what I've read, while the Rapids are a nice acquisition, it's the Colorado Rockies that Kroenke's really lusting for.

Stan apparently wants to set up a Colorado sports network that airs coverage of Kroenke teams all the time, all year round. He's got the fall, winter, and spring covered with the Avs and Nuggets, and while the Rapids help out in the summer, he'd still have holes in his programming that time of year unless he's able to pick up the Rockies too.

 

That's true. I didn't mean to imply that he's a real life incarnation of Monty Burns. Still, I think it's pretty significant that even a general "sports guy" -- as opposed to a true soccer believer -- saw enough promise in MLS to invest. I wonder if we'll ever know how much he paid for the Rapids. I

 

I asked this on another thread, but do we know what Kroenke paid for the Rapids? I'm curious to know what an MLS team goes for these days.