There aren’t many more controversial sporting figures than the Kroenkes.
The American multi-billionaire family have fingers in a lot of pies including in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and the Premier League, and for differing reasons, he’s been disliked by his own fanbases for years.
Arsenal fans aren’t fond of the American due to a lack of investment, while Rams supporters were understandably far from happy with is decision to leave St Louis a few years ago.
However, while that decision remains controversial, from a sporting standpoint it has finally been justified as the Rams won the Superbowl over the weekend.
This was the Kroenkes first real taste of major success in any of their sporting endeavours.
Indeed, their Arsenal team have never been Premier League champions under their ownership, the Denver Nuggets haven’t won the Larry O’Brien trophy in the Kroenke era, and while he can boast one Stanley Cup win with the Colorado Avalanche, his foot was barely in the door back in 2001.
This weekend’s Superbowl win was the first time a Kroenke-backed long-term project has truly worked out, and you could see after the game just how much it meant to the family.
The owners got such a buzz from the Rams’ victory, and there’s reason to believe they could continue chasing these highs.
Indeed, winning has previously been compared to a powerful drug, and once you’re addicted, you want to keep going.
“Winning is such a powerful drug that once you feel it, you keep searching for it,” Ayrton Senna once said.
“Sometimes, on my bad days, I ask myself why I ever even tried it; why I even took one hit of it.”
“But the moment I win, it all comes back to me in a rush. – This is why I’m addicted!”
Senna may have been speaking about the rush of winning as a sportsman, but the reality is that in this day and age, owners, general managers, sporting directors and chairmen are equally as important as any participant.
The Kroenkes now know what building a project and tasting success feels like, and there’s reason to believe they may want to emulate that with Arsenal. After all, what the Kroenkes know as ‘soccer’ is a vastly more popular sport than American Football, and if they can replicate their success with the Rams with Arsenal, they could earn global acclaim.
The Kroenkes certainly have the financial might to make a real go at making Arsenal a super-power once again, and after tasting success in the NFL, they may be tempted to put everything they can into making Arsenal champions.
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