Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has big decision to make as rival billionaire threatens £362m investment

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Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has at times flirted with the multi-club model, but the Gunners’ relationship with KSE-owned Colorado Rapids has never been particularly integrated.

Arsenal met the MLS side in a friendly in 2019 and have traded players a handful of times – Auston Trusty joined the Gunners from the Rapids in 2022, while Rob Holding went the other way three years later.

But in a world where Red Bull and City Football Group have made multi-club ownership the go-to model for elite clubs, Arsenal have, in characteristic Stan Kroenke fashion, been more conservative.

That is despite Mikel Arteta hinting that he’d like to see KSE buy another club to help the North London club with youth development, recruitment pathways and commercial scale.

In the Premier League, 15 clubs operate within a multi-club network of some description.

If you count those clubs with minority shareholders with multi-club interests, only Fulham, Tottenham and Wolves don’t fit the multi-club criteria.

So why are Arsenal so reticent to make use of the Colorado Rapids link?

The MLS is booming. Some ‘franchises’, as they are known on that side of the Atlantic, now boast £1bn valuations. The Lionel Messi effect is in full flow, and the World Cup is in the United States next summer.

However, Kroenke himself doesn’t seem particularly engaged with the MLS club he bought for a song over two decades ago.

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Stan Kroenke sends mixed signals on Colorado Rapids as MLS faces major new challenger

Kroenke’s Rapids, who were MLS champions in 2010, regularly rank rock-bottom in listicles of the worst-run American soccer clubs.

Rapids fans cite a perceived lack of investment in both the playing squad and infrastructure.

Elsewhere in the MLS, owners are pumping in hundreds of millions. Per Forbes latest valuation, the Rapids were the least-valuable franchise across the Eastern and Western Conferences at £362m.

The cynic’s point of view is that because, unlike Arsenal and their Premier League peers, MLS clubs are profitable regardless of sporting performance, Kroenke isn’t motivated to get them to the next level.

But the league as a whole is now at something of an inflection point.

As well as deliberating on whether to change its calendar to align with the European football season, a challenger in the USL Championship is gaining momentum.

The United Soccer League this week secured a major strategic investment from Kewsong Lee’s BellTower Partners.

Lee, who was previously CEO of one of the world’s most prestigious private equity houses in the Carlyle Group, has been named vice chair of the USL as part of the investment.

The partnership has ruffled feathers in the MLS.

It begs the question, if a cold war between the two competing powers in American soccer breaks out, is Kroenke up for the fight?

Could boardroom shakeup pre-empt Arsenal multi-club model?

Arsenal have had a major overhaul at board level, unless you hadn’t noticed.

Tim Lewis has stepped down as executive vice chairman, a position he held for two years. Lewis was on the board for five years, but he has advised Kroenke for over two decades.

In his time at the club, Arsenal have returned to the upper echelons of the Premier League table and the later stages of the Champions League, while commercial and matchday revenue has exploded.

Richard Garlick, formerly managing director, has been made CEO. Perhaps more significantly, KSE stalwarts Kelly Balaha, Otto Maly and David Steiner will also join the board.

Why most significantly? Because more new KSE faces at board level signals that Kroenke wants to integrate Arsenal more into the wider KSE network.

As well as the Rapids, Kroenke owns the NFL’s LA Rams franchise, NBA side Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and a host of other smaller teams.

KSE set up a centralised commercial division earlier this year to sell sponsorships on behalf of the group’s various outposts, and this latest development suggests a deeper relationship between the network.

If Kroenke is now seeing the benefits of a global strategy, could a more conventional multi-club structure or a more active link with the Rapids be next?