Stan Kroenke owns the St. Louis Rams. And the English soccer club Arsenal. He also owns, through family members, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.
But he doesn’t own a baseball team. Yet.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kroenke has “explored” the possibility of joining the bidding for the L.A. Dodgers.
Though the process, with more than 10 candidates to purchase the team from Frank McCourt, is far from complete, a successful effort by Kroenke to buy the Dodgers could be regarded as the first tangible step toward moving the Rams to Los Angeles.
And here’s where things get even more interesting. If Kroenke owns the Dodgers and another team moves to Los Angeles, how would the NFL’s cross-ownership rules apply? Currently, an owner of an NFL team can own a non-football team in another market as long as there’s no NFL team in that market. If Kroenke buys a baseball team in Los Angeles, which would be permissible, and then an NFL team other than the one owned by Kroenke moves there, the situation could get dicey, to say the least.
We’ve asked the league for clarification of the manner in which the cross-ownership rules would apply in this situation.
It may be that Kroenke would merely be required at that point to transfer the paperwork of the Dodgers to another family member. Regardless, it would be hard not to view a purchase of the Dodgers as a potential precursor to moving the Rams to the same town.