Stan Kroenke is not done collecting sports franchises. The Los Angeles Rams owner has purchased the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno, adding a Major League Baseball club to a portfolio that already includes the Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, Arsenal, and the Colorado Rapids.
This is the kind of move that reshapes an entire region. Moreno has been trying to sell the Angels on and off for years, and Kroenke is the buyer who finally got it done.
Angels fans should feel relief mixed with skepticism. Moreno’s ownership was a running frustration for anyone paying attention. Mike Trout wasted the best years of his career on a team that could not build around him. Shohei Ohtani walked to the Dodgers in free agency and immediately started stacking rings. Anthony Rendon collected checks and stayed on the injured list.
Kroenke inherits a franchise that needs a full teardown. The farm system is thin. The payroll is bloated with dead money. The front office has been criticized for years. New ownership does not fix any of that overnight.
What Kroenke does bring is a track record of hiring smart people and getting out of their way. The Rams won a Super Bowl in the 2021 season with a roster built by Les Snead and a coaching staff led by Sean McVay. Kroenke wrote the checks and let his football people cook. That model, if applied to the Angels, would represent a massive upgrade over what Moreno was running.
The concern is Kroenke’s Colorado record. The Nuggets won a title with Nikola Jokic, so that box gets checked. But the Rapids and Avalanche have been up and down, and Rams fans in St. Louis are still furious about the relocation to Los Angeles a decade ago. Kroenke has been called cheap, disengaged, and calculating by different fan bases at different times.
For the Angels, none of that matters as much as the checkbook. Los Angeles is a big market. The Dodgers are printing money and winning championships. Kroenke needs to spend like the market demands and hire like the sport requires.
The immediate question is what happens with the front office. Perry Minasian was fired earlier this year after another miserable season. Whoever Kroenke hires next will set the direction for the next five years.
There is also a stadium question. Angel Stadium is aging, and Anaheim has been resistant to a public financing deal. Kroenke built SoFi Stadium largely on his own dime, so he knows how to get a project done. Angels fans should prepare for conversations about a new ballpark in the coming years.
The Dodgers still control this market, and that is not changing anytime soon. But an owner who actually wants to win, and has the resources to make it happen, is a big step forward for a franchise that has been drifting for a long time.
Kroenke owns three championship trophies across the NBA, MLS, and NFL. Baseball is the missing piece. Angels fans should hope he treats this like a challenge worth winning, not another asset to manage.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
