Could there be light at the end of the tunnel regarding the ownership of our club by the Kroenke family? by ken1945
I have been reading several articles regarding The Los Angeles Rams and Walmart, both of whom are being investigated for numerous irregularities in the USA.
Forbes are reporting that the Kroenke family have been ordered to hand over years of emails and phone records, following a lawsuit by The Saint Louis Rams. It follows the move from St. Louis itself to LA. and will be heard in a courtroom based in St Louis itself.
It seems that the Kroenke family have already agreed to pay $31.2million following an agreement on two lawsuits, with others still to be decided.
Meanwhile, Walmart have agreed to pay yet a further $160 million, following on from a corruption lawsuit that saw them already agreeing to pay another $282 million fine.
While Silent Stan and his wife Ann Walton Kroenke are not involved with the running of Walmart, they are obviously affected by these on-going fines and lawsuits.
Of course, The Kroenke family are billionaires in their own right, but if the kind of penalties, as detailed above continue, they might just decide to use the sale of The Arsenal as a means to claw back these tremendous losses…although their combined worth (Wikipedia April 2019) is estimated at $15.8 billion.
Could it possibly happen, or am I just clutching at straws?
ken1945
**Read this in-depth report on how the Kroenke Legacy is helping to destroy Arsenal**
Couldn’t happen to better pack of b’s, as their business practices have been an anathema for years. However, with regard to repercussions to their ownership of Arsenal FC, I think ken, you are clutching at straws unfortunately.
Definitely clutching at straws, we are stuck with kronke and we are not going to get rid of him that easily.
Those are some hefty fines but, even if they added up and Kroenke needed to sell, does anyone know a billionaire with a spare $2bn, a desire for trophies that outweighs his/her desire to make money and finally a willingness to go the extra mile and risk personal finances for our collective entertainment? I believe, unless we can find an Arab billionaire/country, whichever owner we get will be more or less the same as Kroenke.
Yes ………… Alisher Usmanov !
AJ, wasn’t there also a Nigerian (?) businessman, who was reported to have offered kronkie a one off deal to buy the club outright?
That was about a year ago, if my memory serves me well.
As you say, Usmanov still hasn’t invested in another club, as far as I am aware.
@Ken1945
I am familiar with the Nigerian tycoon, Dangote, and he is just as ruthless as Kroenke. He is in the business to make money and will be no better than the American
@AJ
Usmanov? The greedy snake that sold out and allowed Kroenke to take full control? If he truly loved Arsenal he would have said no to the offer and stayed or even counter offered Kroenke.
QD, thanks for the information on Dangote and your appraisal of the man – out of the frying pan and into the fire then?!?!?
Your thoughts on Usmanov: I believe he did offer to buy out kronkie’s shares, but was turned down.
My recollections of kronkie obtaining the Bracewell Smiths shares are that they were done in secret and when the deal was done, she stated that she would never have sold to the russian anyway – later moaning about the price she got for her shares!!!
As Usmanov was not allowed onto the board and there was no real chance of him obtaining any more shares, was there really anything more he could have hoped to achieve?
There have been some real “traitors” within our board, but the fact is, the real rot set in when David Dein, of all people, introduced kronkie to the club…downhill at a rapid pace from then onwards.
One difference is that dangote is a die hard arsenal fan. He will want to make money, no billionaire will just want to hemorrhage money into a lost cause but he will be smart enough to know that getting arsenal to footballs elite and back to their former glory will be the way to make that’s money. Not this current model
@Ken1945 don’t thank @QuanticDream for saying what is wrong. Please when writing about people let’s do a little research before we put out whatever it is we want to about them. Now back to the Nigerian Tycoon Dangote. He is not the same as Kroenke. His businesses do not cover sports as that of Kroenke. He doesn’t even have plans to diversify into sports. Instead he has recently diversified into oil and gas. His refinery is well underway in Nigeria. I was shocked when I heard of the name Dangote wanting to buy Arsenal so I had to do my little research on the man and the business which he runs. Dangote is a life long arsenal fan who has been following arsenal way before We get and Graham. He has nothing but pure love for the club. He said what pushed him to wanting to buy arsenal was one major thing and that was because we had stopped winning trophies. He publicly said he would sack Wenger once he had bought the club because he had failed to deliver silverware and that Wenger’s time had passed. He also said he did not like the way the club was being run. After repeating these a number of times Kroenke said he had no plans of selling arsenal.
Now did Dangote make an offer to back up his words? No, but that may be because he knew Kroenke wasn’t willing to sell. But does he look like a man who is just willing to come here and make profit? No. I personally think his intentions were true though he too at some point would seek profit. But he was clear that it was trophies first.
That was him being ruthless when he wanted the great Wenger out. At a time when the Wenger Out Brigade had no voice yet. A man who complained about the way the club was being run. That is the kind of owner we need.
Please let’s do our research well before be spoil someone’s image in public.
QD, You make a bald statement on DANGOTE but provide NO ACTUAL EVIDENCE to back up your mere PERSONAL opinion. Without facts and facts that all can agree upon , your opinion is merely, well, just your opinion. If you HAVE such evidence, then pray do tell, failing which your post can only ever be regarded as your opinion. You are of course entitled to your opinion, just as I am entitled to reject it as false. I was interested to note that KEN thanks you for giving your opinion and seems to think you MUST be right, merely because you stated it. I differ on this entirely!
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I DO NOT REGARD DANGOTE AND ALL BILLIONAIRES AS RUTHLESS. IMMENSELY RICH PEOPLE USUALLY ARE RUTHLESS, BUT THEY MAY ALSO LOVE ARSENAL . THEY ARE NOT NECESSARITY OPPOSITES OR INCOMPATIBLE, DESPITE THE EXAMPLE OF KROENKE, WHO CARES NOTHING FOR THE CLUB AT ALL, SAVE FOR ITS INVESTMENT VALUE TO HIM.
@jon fox. I’m glad you also observed what I did. Normally I just read the comments and pass by but on this occasion I just had to reply because he clearly has misled Ken who ignorantly thanked him. QD I am an advocate of freedom of speech so I respect your opinion as “just your opinion”. But as Jon fox said to me it is false. The audacity with which you stated your false fact makes me wonder, may be, just may be that it wasn’t an opinion but an attack on the Nigerian business mogul.
Chapo, you are quite correct and I should have done my own research on the man before replying – not very clever of me and I apologise.
It would be interesting to read QD’s comments on your overall picture compared to his.
The fact that he is a diehard Arsenal fan is certainly an improvement on the current owner, that’s for sure.
Thank you for the information and I am now going away to do my own detective work on the man – it looks as if he did buy out kronkie, we already have another split within the fanbase!!!!
Thank you, Ken. There is a glimmer of hope, albeit just a little one!!
One day……🙏
If anything, it’ll just mean even less spending at Arsenal.
That, of course, is the other scenario TMJW, but theonly downside to that is the sponsorship deals and what they currently expect and what they would be willing to offer if, for example, we finished in the bottom half – or even worse, relegated.
Would kronkie take a chance on losing all that revenue?
As I said, clutching at straws maybe, but while there’s hope…
Ken, I applaud your apology to Chapo about Dangote and its obvious sincerity. I feel that you and I are both, possibly because of our generation, prone to not believing much of what we hear without evidence, as I asked QD. I know only a very little of Dangote and even that which I have gleaned is only second hand info from business associates, with whom I was friendly, though far from friends. One was African, not even sure which country, but had some experience of having met Dangote and had a decent opinion of him as a man. This is vague, a distant associate of mine who had met Dangote but just in passing so to speak. If this is even info it is now third hand and possibly completely worthless. I just do not know. But I did gain the strong impression that Dangote is a real fan; not something anyone can truthfully say about Kroenke or even Josh(whatever they claim). We have a decade plus of the obviouslack of care of Kroenke Senior, after all.
Now, being worldly wise we both know that any multi billionaire who just MAY, much further down the track, buy Arsenal from Kroenke is not going to be cuddly and act like a social worker! That is flying pig land I’d suggest! But he (or she, which is unlikely) is likely to be an improvement on Kroenke and it is for sure, in my view, that while Kroenke owns us , we are not going to ever again win the title.I am THAT pessimistic, though I call it realism!
To close , I much agree with your final “clutching at straws line….. ” in your last post above. What else can we do!!
Jon, when one makes a mistake, even when not meaning too, the easiest thing to do is apologise.
The silly thing is, as you well know, I check MY facts and can’t explain why I didn’t say that to QD in my reply – as you know, he and I have had many arguments about “reported” claims.
As yet I have not gone into Dangote, busy watching football, but I will. As
a further add on to my original story…it seems that the kronkie family look as if they are going to settle out of court with regards to the St. Louia story.
The reasons being reported are that they want to avoid the court case and the publicity that this will bring…google being the platform of this latest development.
I have no idea what the out of court settlement might involve, but these are certainly not good times for them…just as it isn’t for The Arsenal!!!
Never going to happen, this B#st#rd never sells, he has barn full of used wigs which he could donate to The Society of Bald Beavers, but he likes to spend time looking at them to reminice when his syrups were young looking !.
Only chance is if he ever suffocates in his sleep by misadventure by his rug slipping over his face and hoping that his son was not as stubborn and sells………………….we need a sort of Shakespearian tragedy………….Toupee or not Toupee, that is the question !
Le Coq… call it an inspired hunch, but I have gained the strong impression that you and Kroenke are not best buddies! If you can , truthfully, convince me that I am wrong I will gladly donate £1000 to any charity of your choice. I’d love one of your best witty replies, anyway!