ST. LOUIS — Rams owner Stanley Kroenke doesn’t want the public to know just how much he’s really worth.
The multibillionaire businessman and NFL football team owner has petitioned the Missouri Supreme Court to stop a St. Louis judge’s order that he produce a slew of records detailing his net worth so that a jury can assess punitive damages at next January’s trial over the Rams’ 2016 move to California.
“Absent this Court’s intervention, Mr. Kroenke’s wife and multiple private entities — including other sports franchises, management groups, a winery, and several other businesses — will be required to disclose sensitive financial information, even though they were not involved in the Rams’ relocation and there is no scenario in which punitive damages could be awarded against them,” Kroenke’s petition Thursday to the Missouri Supreme Court said.
The sports and real estate mogul’s petition said Kroenke will produce his financial statements for the past three years as ordered and a confirmation of his net worth but that he shouldn’t have to disclose specific documents on his wife’s fortune or his other enterprises.
“Plaintiffs have no conceivable need for this invasive discovery,” Kroenke’s petition said. “Plaintiffs should not be able to obtain discovery of confidential and sensitive financial information of non-party entities and family members when the only relevant information regarding Mr. Kroenke’s net worth will be obtained through other means.”
Kroenke’s wife is Ann Walton Kroenke, an heir to the Walmart fortune, and is also worth billions.
Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh in July ruled that plaintiffs in the 4-year-old relocation lawsuit may obtain financial records on the National Football League, Rams, team owner Kroenke and five other league executives in advance of the January 2022 trial. Missouri law allows the admission of civil defendants’ financial assets only after plaintiffs provide “clear and convincing evidence” that they were “intentionally harmed.”
Kroenke’s petition claims McGraugh’s order allows “sweeping, intrusive, and unnecessary discovery into the confidential financial affairs of strangers to this litigation” and asks the state’s highest court to halt the order to produce financial statements of “any entity owned in whole or in part or directly or indirectly” by Mr. Kroenke other than the Rams and the federal income tax returns that Mr. Kroenke jointly filed with his wife.”
A similar petition Kroenke filed Aug. 24 with the Missouri Court of Appeals at St. Louis was immediately rejected a day later.
Kroenke’s sports domain includes the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association and Arsenal soccer team of the English Premier League. Forbes.com says Kroenke is worth $10.7 billion.
The 2017 lawsuit in St. Louis claims the NFL broke the league’s relocation rules by allowing the Rams to leave St. Louis while misleading the public about staying here. The plaintiffs claimed the Rams’ departure cost the city millions in amusement, ticket and earnings tax revenue.
The judge rejected a move by Kroenke, the Rams and the NFL to move the trial away from St. Louis because of what they cited as unfair pretrial publicity.
The judge has yet to rule on the NFL, Rams and Kroenke’s motion to dismiss the case, which they argued on Aug. 11.
