Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams and England’s Arsenal FC, made headlines recently when the NFL agreed to allow Kroenke to move the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles after the Rams and St. Louis could not agree on a public/private partnership to build a new stadium.
Instead, Kroenke’s Rams will move to Inglewood, California to play in a privately financed $1.8 billion stadium, built on land that Kroenke bought in 2014.
But the 60 acres that Kroenke owns in Inglewood pales in comparison to his latest purchase.
According to multiple reports, including Bloomberg, Kroenke is set to buy Texas’ Waggoner Ranch, which checks in at more than 500,000 acres.
3 interesting points:
1. The Waggoner Ranch was listed for sale last year, with a price tag of $725 million, although Kroenke’s purchase price was not disclosed.
2. The Waggoner Ranch is the largest ranch in the U.S. within one fence, checking at 520,527 acres.
3. The Waggoner Ranch stretches across six counties and is larger than New York City and Los Angeles combined.
From Bloomberg:
The asking price was more than four times the biggest publicly known sum fetched by a U.S. ranch, $175 million for a Colorado spread in 2007. With 6,800 head of cattle, the Waggoner is also one of the 20 largest cattle ranches in the U.S. and is known worldwide for its quarter horses, which number 500. The ranch also has 1,000 oil wells, 30,000 acres of cropland, and an abundance of deer, quail, feral hogs, water fowl and other wildlife.
The Bloomberg article also includes a statement from Kroenke, who also owns ranches in Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, and British Columbia.
From Bloomberg again:
"This is an incredible opportunity and an even greater responsibility," Kroenke said in a statement released by the Waggoner family and its representatives. "We are honored to assume ownership of the Waggoner—a true Texas and American landmark."
