Arsenal is proud to be owned by one of the owners with the strongest financial potential in the Premier League, but sadly, the Gunners have had to spend a very long time immersed in failure. Only when coach Mikel Arteta arrived more than 3 years ago did the team’s improvements in quality on the field go hand in hand with heavy spending from their American owner.
For more than a decade, in the Premier League, after the owner of Man City, Sheikh Mansour, and the former owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, the owner of Arsenal, billionaire Stan Kroenke, has the strongest financial potential. According to Forbes in 2022, this person owns assets of more than 8.1 billion pounds (10.7 billion USD). But if Man City (7) and Chelsea (2) have won 9 Premier League titles in the last 12 seasons, then Arsenal continuously slipped, they were even outside the top 4 for 6 consecutive seasons before returning. again last season.
Football is the ultimate team sport. But if you look at the Premier League rankings, the main factor behind which team competes for the title and which team does not, or who is fighting to avoid relegation… is not the player or the coach but the club’s owner. there. They are the ones who play the biggest role in determining the club’s long-term success and failure through their will and desire to invest to guide the club toward high ambitions.
After first buying a part of Arsenal in 2007, Stan Kroenke accumulated shares over the years through his Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) group, becoming majority owner in 2011, and now owns the entire club. For a long time, the Kroenke family – including son Josh on the board of directors – was largely unpopular with Arsenal fans. Protests regularly took place after the club, instead of showing its ambition to win the title, decided to join the establishment of the breakaway European Super League in 2022.
But the situation has somewhat improved following positive performances on the field. The Gunners came very close to winning their first Premier League title in 19 years, but unfortunately only finished second behind Man City last season because of a sudden decline in form at the end of the season. The Kroenkes began to replace the waves of criticism of years past with excitement and optimism after each summer. The amount of money they spent in the summer of 2021 was about 150 million pounds, last season it was nearly 170 million pounds for 2 transfer periods. And so far in the summer of 2023, there have been more than 200 million pounds invested in contracts such as Jurrien Timber, Kai Havertz and especially making midfielder Declan Rice the second most expensive player in the history of the tournament. for £105 million.
Stan Kroenke, 75 years old, grew up in the Midwestern state of Missouri and officially entered the ranks of the global super-rich in 1974 after marrying Ann Walton – a member of the richest family in America. Ann inherited her father’s shares in retail giant Walmart in 1995, with an estimated net worth of more than £12 billion. Stan Kroenke has also invested in commercial real estate across the US, building shopping centers and apartment buildings, and founded THF Realty – a company with a portfolio worth 1.44 billion British pounds ($2 billion). He also owned large farms across the United States, and became one of the largest “landlords” in the country.
In addition to Arsenal, the Kroenke family also owns a series of sports club teams in the US including the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL (Football), the Colorado Rapids of MLS (Soccer) and the Denver Nuggets, the team that won the NBA championship. (Basketball) first this year.
