Josh Kroenke
Josh Walton Kroenke is an American heir to the Walmart family inheritance and to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, his father's sports-media conglomerate. He is involved in running the Denver Nuggets basketball franchise, the Colorado Avalanche ice hockey franchise, the Colorado Rapids, and English football club Arsenal. The company co-owns Elitch Gardens Theme Park as well.
Early life
Josh Kroenke was born on May 7, 1980. His father is Stan Kroenke and his mother, Ann Walton Kroenke. Through his mother, he is a member of the Walton family, one of the richest families in the world, who founded Walmart and still own a controlling interest. He has a sister, Whitney Ann Kroenke. He grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and attended Rock Bridge High School and New Hampton School.He graduated from the University of Missouri, where he received a full basketball scholarship. While in college, Kroenke found himself involved in a scandal which led to the resignation of Larry Eustachy, the coach of the Iowa State basketball team. In 2003, Eustachy, a friend of Josh's father, attended a student party with Josh in Columbia, Missouri. Photos of Eustachy drinking with college students at the party later surfaced and led to his resignation from his position at Iowa State.
Career
Kroenke serves as the President of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche as well as the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.In 2013, he was appointed by his father, the majority shareholder, to the board of English football club Arsenal as a non-executive director. As directors of Arsenal, the Kroenkes have garnered significant antipathy from supporters, who feel that they have no ambition and are merely using the club for their own profit at the expense of the team's competitiveness.
In April 2021, Arsenal were announced as a founding member of the European Super League, a closed competition without relegation or promotion, as in American professional-sports leagues. Arsenal and the other five English clubs involved backed out within days after a "fierce" backlash by fans and commentators. Following the "debacle," Arsenal fans called for the Kroenke family to sell the club, to which Kroenke responded that his "family have no intention of selling."