On Wednesday the NFL approved a deal that allowed Stan Kroenke to transfer ownership of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche to his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke. The news was originally reported by The Los Angeles Times.
The transfer of ownership was necessary for Kroenke, who also owns the Los Angeles Rams because the league does not allow its owners to own non-NFL franchises in cities other than their NFL franchise. This is, essentially, so that they are not competing against other owners for sponsorship dollars. In essence, they don’t want Stan Kroenke picking Pat Bowlen’s pocket.
(We’ll save our thoughts on how silly it is that Kroenke can’t own the team but is wife can for another day.)
What’s interesting to us is that the Nuggets and Avs are now officially owned by a member of the Walton family. Bud Walton, Ann’s father, was a business partner with Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart.
The mega-discount mega-retailer is the largest company in the world by revenue and operates more than 11,000 stores in 28 countries, according to a Forbes 2014 report.
Walmart flies under the corporate banner “Save Money. Live Better,” which is a slogan we think new owner Ann Walton Kroenke should carry over when considering how to care for her new teams’ respective fan bases.
As such, we’ve devised a few plays straight from the Walmart playbook so that the newest big league owner in Denver can accomplish just that. Enjoy!
