Missouri Supreme Court upholds ruling requiring Stan Kroenke, others to turn over financial information

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Unlike the football team he owns, Stan Kroenke can’t buy a W. And the latest L could soon start costing him some money.

Via Ben Fredrickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the ruling requiring Kroenke, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and various other owners must disclose personal financial information in the Rams relocation lawsuit. Fines of $1,000 per day per person will commence next week, if they fail to comply with the order.

An extreme Hail Mary pass could be attempted in the U.S. Supreme Court, which likely won’t intervene. The top court in the nation previously upheld a ruling preventing the league from forcing the case to arbitration.

The trial judge found in July that sufficient evidence exists to find that Kroenke and the others engaged in fraud, allowing a potential award of punitive damages. No award of punitive damages properly can be determined without knowing the amount of money the defendant has.

The case against the league arising from the relocation of the Rams is due to go to trial in January. Absent a settlement, the case has cleared any legal hurdles that would keep it from playing out in open court, with a jury of average persons poised to issue a decision as to whether the Rams and the league violated the rights of various St. Louis entities when moving the team in 2016.

43 responses to “Missouri Supreme Court upholds ruling requiring Stan Kroenke, others to turn over financial information

  1. No wonder Stan wanted to move his team. This city seems like a real joy to work with. I side with the NFL on this one. Nice work finding a city that the Rams can prosper in with LA.

  2. I anticipate the owners & Goddell will settle “soon” with very favorable terms to the city. Perhaps a promise of another two (2) teams expansion for St. Louis and another location….Toronto, Mexico City, Portland, or Birmingham???

    Kroenke and a few owners tried playing “fast & loose” with the relocation rules and they got caught.

  3. Good. Kroenke knew the deal when he bought the team. Stanley should have looked in his couch for the $$ to build his own stadium. This picking up a franchise and moving it because you have not gotten the taxpayers to fund your stadium etc. shouldn’t be allowed IMO. Not without suitable concessions.

  4. Considering the tax avoidance schemes used by the uber-rich, this could also lead to a lengthy discussion with the IRS.

  5. Fines of $1,000 a day per person? The billionaire owners could literally ignore those fines for decades and not notice.

  6. Was 50Stars written by a low level league PR guy? Billionaires don’t have to open their finances very often for a reason. If he couldn’t find a way to worm himself outta this spot, it must be really bad.

  7. What a joke….and Frump never had to turn over his financials, despite 143 lawsuits, two impeachment’s, and countless other illegal activities.

    Tell them to pack sand Stan.

  8. “Fines of $1,000 per day per person will commence next week, if they fail to comply with the order.”

    So in theory, they could just never comply. This is pennies to them.

  9. This could get interesting. The NFL has been historically determined at all costs to not have to reveal its secrets. This will be a test to see how determined. They may opt to just settle and pay rather than hand over such information. 👀

  10. Should we fire up a Go Fund Me page for the owners? A grand a day fines! How will they survive without our help?

  11. $365,000 per year to keep a billionaires financial record secret seems extremely cheap. No way he complies.

  12. If you are feeling sorry for Stan, maybe the fact that his wife(Ann Walton) is a Walmart heir might dry your tears.

  13. Wouldn’t they just pay the fine? It’s $365k/yr, which isn’t much for them given their net worth.

  14. Hi, I am a billionaire build me a stadium with taxpayer dollars. Oh that is correct you already built me a stadium with taxpayer dollars, now I want another stadium or else I am leaving!

  15. Probably the one time in his life he’ll be actually, legally, held partially responsible for the litany of fraud he’s committed throughout his business dealings.

  16. St. Louis bent over backwards to work with Kroenke and the Rams to provide a better venue. The Rams and the NFL pretended to play along, all the while moving forward with moving to LA. They lied to the people in St. Louis and strung them along. The Rams and the NFL will get creamed in a trial in St. Louis. Sadly, St. Louis will probably blow any money they get on graft and other nonsense.

  17. Wow, this is big. Can’t wait to see how it proceeds. Kroenke has the money to pay anything off but to see Goodell and other owners squirm to divulge their financial information would be delicious in a viewer’s perspective.

  18. Uh OH looks like the NFL has been had! A judge who lost his season tickets or just maybe the real thing is working

  19. Good! Pretty incredible how shady the NFL has been about so many things for so long and they get pass after pass.

  20. I’m glad the Rams at back in LA where they belong, but I also hope they stick it Kroenke and the NFL. To heck with all these teams moving.

  21. This is a pure dumpster fire. Stan will find a way to wiggle out of this. The extremely wealthy always do.

  22. Although a Billionaire can easily shell out $1k a day, if that is not moving them the court will up the ante. They can start coming in ways a billionaire does care about. The Billionaire would of course hire all kinds of lawyers. But it can hit the point where just settling the case, even if it means settling high, is the easier way to avoid revealing those records. I think its pretty likely that to hand over their records is simply not an option in their eyes so a decision to settle would come before that. But first they will probably have the lawyers bang on it some more to see if there is any chance there, and pay the $1k/day.

  23. So a city is mad their NFL left to build their own stadium in another city refusing your tax dollars? STL citizens should be happy they didn’t have to fork over a $1.5 billion in funds for him. Yeah he could have built it in STL but the return on investment (ROI) was not there, where it was in LA. La had the Rams for 49 yearsd, STL for 21 and Cleveland for 9. they belong to know one, it is afee market country. STL, LA< Cleveland all got screwed at one point. But do remember STL stole the Cardinals from Chicago and the rams from LA, shady shady shady.

  24. Anyone notice how the Saints played in Jacksonville and trained at TCU all while STL has a fine dome and NFL practice facility being unused? Not smart to mess with the NFL, STIL will NEVER get another team. Short term win for long term lose.

  25. To footballinla it is my understanding from reading the court transcripts and the depositions taken that moving the Rams is NOT the issue. The issue is the manner in which it was done which violated their own rules. The league, the commissioner and Kroenke/his personnel all knowingly lied. You will note that Buffalo, which is wanting a new stadium, is out in the open with their desires and is not hiding anything. Kroenke did not do this but hid his intentions because he had no desire to stay in St Louis.

  26. There will be a settlement with none of the details made public. But rest assured Kroenke will be paying HUGE money to avoid having to disclose his info.

  27. RobfromAmarillo says:
    September 22, 2021 at 3:45 pm
    Good. Kroenke knew the deal when he bought the team. Stanley should have looked in his couch for the $$ to build his own stadium. This picking up a franchise and moving it because you have not gotten the taxpayers to fund your stadium etc. shouldn’t be allowed IMO. Not without suitable concessions.
    ——-

    You didn’t really pay attention to the saga in St. Louis, did you?

    Kroenke jumped in at the last second and used his right of first refusal to purchase the team (as Shad Khan was closing in on ownership.) Kroenke negotiated in bad faith with the city and county of St. Louis. St. Louis (and Missouri) were the only city/state that was willing to build a new stadium out of the three teams looking to relocate.

    Kroenke bought the land the new stadium is on almost two years before the Rams left town.

    Kroenke built his own stadium in Los Angeles, if he wanted to stay in St. Louis, he could have done the same thing.

    The NFL is going to have to pay big on this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if they not only offered a future expansion team, but also half the money (or even all of it) to build a new stadium in St. Louis.

  28. Time to turn those lawyers toward the NFL. Sorry, those texts and phone calls and back room meetings weren’t recorded.

  29. Here is the deal. St Louis sold out Rams games for multiple years in a row. Then all of a sudden we had the worst franchise in NFL history for a 10 year period. Stan bought property in LA and they said nothing to fear. It’s obvious they lied and the lied to several cities for decades. St Louis and Missouri was the ONLY city to offer ANY money… LA didn’t offer a dime to anyone. Oakland didn’t offer a dime and neither did San Diego and yet St Louis lost its team. The reason why St Louis lost its team is clear… out of the three owners trying to move to LA only ONE had the MONEY to build the stadium. It was a foregone conclusion … the NFL would loved to send the Raiders to LA if the owner had the money to build a stadium. Two of the poorest owners in the NFL are the owners of the Raiders and Chargers while one of the richest is Kroenke. Yes St Louis got screwed. What hurt the most was Kroenke kicking St Louis out the door that wasn’t necessary and to rub salt in the wounds he sued to take ownership of the practice facility. One of the richest people on planet earth didn’t need that practice facility, he didn’t need to kick St Louis in the nuts out the door, and now its going to come back to haunt him for BILLIONS of dollars. Kroenke deserves every square inch of this lawsuit. With all that being said morons like Randy Karaker needs to STOP talking for St Louis the guy is clearly braindead. St Louis should settle for what is best for St Louis LONG TERM… getting an NFL team is best for St Louis. People keep companies in a city, or bring companies to cities based on quality of life. People can claim how great the baseball cardinals are but c’mon NFL brings WORLD WIDE attention to your city. What benefit does your city gain from appearing in a playoff game not to mention the Super Bowl. St Louis city officials would get this money and blow it like they do everything… settlement should be the following: GOLDEN TICKET for an expansion team so St Louis could pick its own owner and sign a 100 year lease. Furthermore we should ask for $300 million towards a new stadium and the payoff off the dome bonds. Done! We’ll also take the Chargers… give the Chargers a free relocation fee, (in other words they save $650 million from moving to LA), give the Chargers $300 million towards a new stadium. Lastly, St Louis will greatly benefit from a WORLD CLASS INDOOR stadium which can be used to attract major events, while hosting a Super Bowl. St Louis wins all around the board while the NFL players win because they’ll get over 100 new players (2 new teams St Louis and ???), NFL gets more TV games, St Louis gets the #1 sport back in town, and St Louis gets a brand new venue to compete with other cities like Indy, Atlanta, etc for events.

  30. So St. Louis signed a contract with the rams guaranteeing a world class top of the line stadium. They are foolish for signing a contract with such ambiguous terms. I think any verdict will be overturned on appeal – but not without causing pain and discomfort for the nfl

  31. Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep. What’s that sound I hear? Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep It’s the sound of Brinks’ trucks backing up to the loading dock at NFL Central office.

  32. What a kangaroo court. And the Saints played in Jacksonville because their stadium was ready to go and because of the available locales that was the hardest for Green Bay fans to get to. But yeah, St. Louis will never get close enough to smell another team.

  33. The bigger picture.
    The NFL amended their charter in the 80s to set out guidelines by which a team can move. This was a result of the loss of the Al Davis lawsuit and was designed to avoid antitrust issues. Since, they have simply ignored these guidelines to blackmail city after city.
    Well, these lawyers have given cities the blueprint to end the NFL’s extortion. Win or lose, it’s going to be a long time before we see a team move or blackmail another city.
    You are welcome Buffalo and Jax.

  34. St. Louis is out for blood. I don’t think they settle unless it is for an ungodly amount of money and possibly a revenue stream. (Think 10 billion plus a % stake in the cut of media rights from the Rams, media stake voided if St. Louis ever gets another team).

    Most people in St. Louis want this to go to trial, and watch Kroenke, Demoff, Goodell, Jerry Jones, and everybody else testify and squirm when they get caught lying under oath about negotiating with the city in good faith about following the NFL relocation guidelines.

    Kroenke had every right to move the Rams. It’s the manner in which he did it that is at the heart of the issue. The city attempted to keep the team and spent money and effort to put forth a funding plan for a new taxpayer funded stadium, and attempted to meet with team personnel about the future of the team in STL. Kroenke never showed up to any meetings and never met the then mayor.

    (For reference, Chargers ownership had multiple stadium initiatives/ballots shot down by voters and Spanos met with local leaders about trying to get funding for a stadium. The city of Oakland told Davis that he wasn’t getting any public money for a new stadium despite a lot of local fan support)

    At this point, the city is done with the NFL, and I don’t think they want an expansion team after being jerked around by Kroenke and the league. The main goal is to make the NFL look bad and make sure that other cities (RE: Buffalo) don’t get screwed the way STL did.

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