Arrogant

[norfolk white]

Even though I?m obviously not an arsenal fan I still want them to beat spurs Saturday for Leeds benefit

[WTF11]

I like to believe that many of the FA clubs do have owners that care about there supporters and the sport. Especially in the lower divisions. Candidly, I think that the 49's are much better than many of the prem owners. I've seen that over the years with the 49's as much as they can be benevolent.

Kroenke exhibits none of those traits ever. Any chance he gets to exert more power he does. Does the same with walmart. If you'd like a case study of his scum bag nature just look up St Louis football cardinals. It's one of his higher visibility screw jobs. Walmart also makes some interesting reading. of course, He had nothing to do with building that. Just slept with the right person to get his share of the company.

I'll grant you that the team inset has some good people. However, there are good people in every organization that are owned by wretched people.

Aston Villa is owned by V Sports, a holding company jointly owned by Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris and American billionaire Wes Edens.

AFC Bournemouth is owned by American businessman Bill Foley,

Matthew Benham is the owner of Premier League club Brentford, having taken full control in 2012 and overseen their rise from the third tier to the top flight. A former professional gambler and founder of Smartodds,

Brighton & Hove Albion FC is primarily owned and chaired by English businessman, poker player, and sports gambler Tony Bloom,

Burnley FC is owned by American investment firm ALK Capital through its sports investment arm, Velocity Sports Partners.

Chelsea FC is owned by the BlueCo consortium, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital,

As of July 2025, American businessman and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson became the largest shareholder of Crystal Palace

The Friedkin Group (TFG), led by American billionaire Dan Friedkin, is the owner of Everton FC

Shahid Khan is the owner and chairman of Fulham Football Club, having purchased the club from Mohamed Al Fayed in July 2013.

Liverpool Football Club is owned by Fenway Sports Group (FSG), an American sports investment company led by principal owner John
W. Henry.

Manchester City is primarily owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and Vice President of the UAE

In Feb 2024, following a sale to the head of Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe, The Glazer family, retained a majority stake in the club but Ratcliffe's Ineos Group took control of football operations.

Newcastle United is owned by an investment group composed of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) (holding 80% - 85%) and RB Sports & Media (holding 15% - 20%), which represents the Reuben Brothers.

Nottingham Forest is owned by Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis,

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is the majority owner and chairman of Sunderland AFC, having taken control of the club in February 2021 **

Tottenham is owned by ENIC Group, which purchased the club in 2001.

West Ham United is primarily owned by David Sullivan (38.8%), Czech businessman Daniel Křet?*nský via 1890s holdings a.s (27%), and Vanessa Gold representing the25.1% stake of the late David Gold's family trust. American investor J. Albert "Tripp" Smith holds an 8% stake

Wolverhampton Wanderers FC is owned by the Chinese investment conglomerate Fosun International,

All the owners mentioned (groups or individuals) have invested in order to make money, one way or another, irrespective of the impact on the supporter groups. Pretending otherwise is both foolish and naieve.

You think that Kroenkes work with the LA Rams and the demise of the St Louis Cardinals is some kind of failure (sportswise or financially?) You really want to put that up as a “higher visibility screw job”? Taking the Rams back to Los Angeles where they belonged, instead of the f**k up that their previous owner, Georgia Frontiere and her heirs had overseen, prior to Kroenke acquiring the franchise, including the StLouis stadium being regarded by Sports Illustrated in 2008 as “the worst of any NFL stadium with particularly low marks for tailgating, affordability and atmosphere”, give me a break.

As for your comment about Kroenke and the benefit to his empire of the marriage to Ann, they have been married for 50 years, and as someone who was married for 44 year before cancer took my wife I regard your comment about “sleeping with the right person” truly disgusting and shameful.

[spaldy]

I find your hero worship of this guy rather fascinating. He epitomizes the excesses of American excesses of croney capitalism. Unlike Trump who is actually liked by many of his employees, Kroenke is loathed. No one shares any of his ?success?. It all goes to him

He is the architect of the dissolution of the old Walmart which was built By Sam and modeled on rural stores selling American made products while giving employees stock ownership. Many ended up very wealthy and spent there entire working career there.

Now it?s a horrific sweat shop selling cheap Chinese junk by employees working long hours making minimum wage hoping to make assstant nanagement and getting a few shares a year. His most brilliant exec move was to implement a program teaching employees how to file for food stamps and getting Medicaid from the government. Kroenke and his exec team skim all the profits that Sam used to share with associates.

The only reason the vermin is still married to his wife is because his pre nup stipulates he loses his share upon the divorce.

I am sorry for your loss.

[WTF11]

I find your hero worship of this guy rather fascinating. He epitomizes the excesses of American excesses of croney capitalism. Unlike Trump who is actually liked by many of his employees, Kroenke is loathed. No one shares any of his ?success?. It all goes to him

He is the architect of the dissolution of the old Walmart which was built By Sam and modeled on rural stores selling American made products while giving employees stock ownership. Many ended up very wealthy and spent there entire working career there.

Now it?s a horrific sweat shop selling cheap Chinese junk by employees working long hours making minimum wage hoping to make assstant nanagement and getting a few shares a year. His most brilliant exec move was to implement a program teaching employees how to file for food stamps and getting Medicaid from the government. Kroenke and his exec team skim all the profits that Sam used to share with associates.

The only reason the vermin is still married to his wife is because his pre nup stipulates he loses his share upon the divorce.

I am sorry for your loss.

I find your ability to dodge the issues you yourself raise to be pathetic.

I don't "hero worship" the man, I only know his name because of the original comment on this thread and having done some digging. He is no better or worse than ANY of the PL owners, including the 49-ers Enterprises. You seek to criticise him for being an arch capitalist, living in the country that breeds arch capitalists, and votes them into positions of power at every opportunity. What do you expect when the whole ethos of the USA is to climb to the top of the pile irrespective of who you trample underfoot?

I suggest you have a look at the fan pages of the LA Rams and his other US-based sports franchises and you will see a great deal of approval, FROM FANS Arsenal etc, and that approval is now being reflected in the attitude from previously sceptical Gooners, have a look if you don't believe me. And Trumps employees liking him, are you completely delusional. When the mid-terms come round just watch for his acolytes running for cover (and beginning their challenge for his place next time round). Vance and Rubio will fight like cats and dogs to replace him given the opportunity.

You think Walmart is any different to the rest of the WESTERN WORLDS retail landscape, underpaid workers being paid minimum wages to work long hours for the benefit of their lords and masters? Wake up! Bezos is good to those who work for Amazon, Zukkerberg is good for those who work for instagram, whatsapp etc developing algorithms to enslave the youth of today while enriching their lords and masters? Wake Up, You think Musk gives a sh1t about how hard the workers at Tesla or SpaceX etc have to work, as long as he get richer by the day? WAKE UP. All are either US citizens of have their main business centres in the US. YOU have voted for the structures that THEY exploit, no-one and nothing else. You want to see who is responsible for a system where the likes of Kroenke and others can do what they do? Look in the mirror.

Your observation on the reason he and Ann remain married is as shameful and uninformed as the previous one, there is no public information or specific details regarding a prenuptial agreement between Stan Kroenke and Ann Walton Kroenke.

I don't accept your expression of sympathy for my loss, and neither would my wife. You really should be ashamed of yourself.

[norfolk white]

It was never my intention to start a war of words, just the observation that when arsenal don?t get the results they want they kick off blaming all and sundry, I look at our humble manager who is gracious in defeat, I agree arsenal are a very good side but like mr Ferguson at Man Utd was they want it all their own way.

[WTF11]

It was never my intention to start a war of words, just the observation that when arsenal don?t get the results they want they kick off blaming all and sundry, I look at our humble manager who is gracious in defeat, I agree arsenal are a very good side but like mr Ferguson at Man Utd was they want it all their own way.

Perhaps being gracious in defeat comes with practice?😉

[spaldy]

Remind me how many times you've shopped at walmart? How many employees or city officials you've talked to here in the US. You really have no ****ing clue what goes on here in the US other than your limited visits here interacting with people that make well above average wages, live in urban areas and have pensions and health insurance. Something most of us don't have. It's kind of like making judgements about the UK using the prism of London as the basis of the whole UK acts and thinks.

Of course, no one here stateside wants to go to walmart but when they've bought or run everyone out of town at some point you don't really have a choice in a lot of areas. They use government welfare programs to give benefits to Walmart employees in these areas to fund the destruction of the local retail and wholesale operations that actually pay good enough that they can't qualify for welfare.

And no Walmart wasn't the same as every other western world store when Sam was alive. I understand that all of us die so he wasn't going to be able to run it his way forever but this loathsome form or reptilian humanity sped up the degeneration much quicker than it likely would have happened. Other companies followed suit and the rest is history.

And no... nobody here other than rams fans think anything of the rams or this asshat. Second largest city in the US and they don't even sell out all of their games. They are plastic fan mecca of pro sports in the US

If it makes you feel better I retract my prayer for your wife and your pain at your loss and reflect on the shame of wishing a fellow human beings support on his loss.

[WTF11]

Remind me how many times you've shopped at walmart? How many employees or city officials you've talked to here in the US. You really have no ****ing clue what goes on here in the US other than your limited visits here interacting with people that make well above average wages, live in urban areas and have pensions and health insurance. Something most of us don't have. It's kind of like making judgements about the UK using the prism of London as the basis of the whole UK acts and thinks.

Of course, no one here stateside wants to go to walmart but when they've bought or run everyone out of town at some point you don't really have a choice in a lot of areas. They use government welfare programs to give benefits to Walmart employees in these areas to fund the destruction of the local retail and wholesale operations that actually pay good enough that they can't qualify for welfare.

And no Walmart wasn't the same as every other western world store when Sam was alive. I understand that all of us die so he wasn't going to be able to run it his way forever but this loathsome form or reptilian humanity sped up the degeneration much quicker than it likely would have happened. Other companies followed suit and the rest is history.

And no... nobody here other than rams fans think anything of the rams or this asshat. Second largest city in the US and they don't even sell out all of their games. They are plastic fan mecca of pro sports in the US

If it makes you feel better I retract my prayer for your wife and your pain at your loss and reflect on the shame of wishing a fellow human beings support on his loss.

Answer to your questions;

During the several YEARS I spent LIVING in (not “visiting”) the USA, I suspect I have shopped at Walmart dozens of times, in various locations on the north east coast (New York), west coast (Sacramento mainly), and southern east coast (various locations in Florida), although I’m not sure how that is relevant, other than that it allows me to compare that experience with shopping at ASDA here in the UK, which was owned by Walmart up to 2021 and from memory would appear to work along similar lines when you refer to employees and the working environment.

I had a great deal of liaison with US city officials whilst living in the USA, particularly when the new ticketing systems for the Florida scheme were introduced. Again I fail to see what the relevance of the query is, other than it being driven by your continued incapacity to accept that I wasn’t “visiting” the USA.

As for not having a clue, I suggest you look in the mirror. Have you ever worked on railroad systems and services? Some of the poorest paid in the US do, and I have had the pleasure, and I use that word advisedly, of working alongside the staff who regularly had to face irate commuters who hadn’t bothered to make sure they had a valid ticket, or who felt that they weren’t being “adequately treated” by station staff simply trying to keep the railroad functioning. I suggest it is you have no clue, particularly as to my working experience and those I have worked with, in the US and elsewhere.

As for Walmarts “tactics”, who allowed those tactics to be employed? State and Federal laws would have to facilitate such actions, and who voted for the legislators, YOU and your fellow Americans. If you want change to that environment then campaign, do something about it instead of venting your spleen with no result whatsoever

I say again, Kroenke and others in positions of power in just about any sphere of business activity will do what the laws of the land allow (and sometimes more than that), and if you think Trump is some kind of consumer champion then you are more deluded than I thought. He will do whatever he likes, irrespective of the consequences, to anyone and everyone, as long as he thinks it will be advantageous to Donald J Trump.

And the Rams? I don’t care much about them either, but the evidence (and I mean EVIDENCE) of what preceded his takeover of the franchise would suggest they are in a better place than they would have been had they stayed in St Louis, and they have after all won a Super Bowl since he relocated them.

And your retraction? Doesn’t affect me one way or another. Your debased remarks about the Kroenkes marriage illustrate just how degraded your thinking is, so how could an expression of sympathy from such a person be of any worth?

[spaldy]

I"ll be direct in my answer since that seems to be one of your sticking points.

My uncle worked 33 years for the IL central railroad and retired. I insure railroads.

11% of private sector workers in the US have a pension. A chunk of Trumps employees have pensions. 0% of walmart employees have pensions. Of course, I'm sure that the municipal employees you interacted with had nothing but good to say about what Walmart did to their community. Take Walmart to court for an issue and you are legally destroyed.

Of course, don't worry. 90%+ of federal employees have pensions. All are fully funded by the serfs that don't have a pension.

You've convinced me. Kroenke is a great guy and one that everyone wishes they could work for or have their favorite team owned by him. He represents the best of the work ethic and capitalism that the US offers.

[whitestomper45]

Hey Spaldy, dont let that jerk work you up? Kroenke ? isn?t he the guy who wanted a sports channel that included shooting/killing Elephants? And as you mention at the heart of breakaway league.. MOT