Stan Kroenke, a billionaire sport entrepeneur whose holdings include a majority stake in English Premier League side Arsenal, was unanimously approved Wednesday to take over the St. Louis Rams.
National Football League owners backed the proposal for the 63-year-old American to take control of the struggling Rams provided he turned over control of NBA and National Hockey League teams to his son.
Kroenke owned 40 percent of the Rams, who won the 2000 Super Bowl, and he has exercised an option to purchase the reamining 60 percent of the club from the Rosenbloom family for 750 million dollars, according to reports.
That would give him the NFL Rams, NBA Denver Nuggets, National Hockey League Colorado Avalanche, Major League Soccer Colorado Rapids, a pro indoor lacrosse team as well as Arsenal, one of the elite teams in English football.
The NFL has rules against owners having top-level sports teams in NFL markets other than their own, rules the Nuggets and Avalanche would violate.
Kroenke must surrender operational and financial control of the Nuggets and Avalanche to his 30-year-old son Josh by the end of this year and give up his majority stake in those clubs by December of 2014.
"He has been a terrific owner in the NFL and we're confident he will continue to be a great owner," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.
The Rams were an NFL-worst 1-15 last season and have been a woeful 6-42 over the past three seasons.
Copyright 2010 AFP American Edition
