Josh Kroenke (born May 7, 1980) is an American heir to the Walmart family inheritance and to

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as Kroenke Sports Enterprises, it was started in 1999 by businessman Stan Kroenke to be the parent company ...

, his father's sports-media conglomerate. He is involved in running the Denver Nuggets basketball franchise, the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The Avalanche play thei ...

ice hockey franchise, the

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, lat ...

and English football club, Arsenal. The company co-owns

Elitch Gardens Theme Park Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park is an amusement park in Denver, Colorado. It is owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and operated by Premier Parks, LLC. Distinctive for being located in a downtown area, it is open April through October. H ...

as well.

Early life

Josh Kroenke was born on May 7, 1980. His father is

Stan Kroenke Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the WSL, the Los ...

and his mother, Ann Walton Kroenke.Benjamin Hochman
Josh Kroenke building a legacy on his own
''

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'', April 17, 2011Jeremy Wilson
Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke is in it for the long haul, says son and heir Josh
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', October 1, 2011 Through his mother, he is a member of the

Walton family The Walton family is an American family whose collective fortune derived from Walmart makes them the richest family in the United States of America. Overview The three most prominent living members (Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton) have consist ...

, one of the richest families in the world, who founded

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and still own a controlling interest. He has a sister, Whitney Kroenke Burditt. He grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and attended

Rock Bridge High School Rock Bridge High School is a public high school located in southern Columbia, Missouri, United States. The school serves grades 9 through 12 and is one of four High Schools in Columbia Public Schools. It is located next to the Columbia Area Care ...

.He attended New Hampton Prep School in New Hampton,Nh for one year
Pepsi Center
/ref> He graduated from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, 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.Patrick Hruby
I come to praise Larry ...
''

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including ...

'', May 1, 2003 Photos of Eustachy drinking with college students at the party later surfacedTom Witosky
Iowa State's Eustachy apologizes; future with school uncertain
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'', May 1, 2003 and led to his resignationAssociated Press
Embattled Eustachy resigns
''

Lawrence Journal-World The ''Lawrence Journal-World'' is a daily newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, by Ogden Newspapers. History Though the ''Journal-World'' title came into existence in 1911, the paper dates itself to 1858, according to the v ...

'', May 6, 2003 from his position at Iowa State.

Career

He now serves as the President of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. In 2013, he was appointed by his father, the majority shareholder, to the board of English association 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, which would have effectively ended the pyramid system of European football and placed Arsenal in a closed league without prospects for meritocratic relegation and promotion. Arsenal and the five other English clubs involved backed out within two days after a strong backlash. After the aborted attempt to end the European football system, Arsenal fans protested and called for the Kroenke family to sell the club. The Kroenke family released a statement saying they would not sell the club.

Personal life

Kroenke resides in Denver, Colorado. Kroenke purchased an 1,885-square foot condo for $1.4 million in 2007. Prior to his move to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Kroenke lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He and his sister, Whitney Kroenke Burditt, purchased a 1,735-square-foot condominium, with a 400-square-foot roof deck, a small balcony and views of the Empire State Building for $2.7 million in 2005.Elizabeth A. Harris
Wal-Mart Heirs Sell Chelsea Condo
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', August 10, 2010 They sold it in 2007 for $2.45 million—below both the initial listed price of $2.995 million and their final asking price of $2.55 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroenke, Josh 1980 births Living people American real estate businesspeople Arsenal F.C. directors and chairmen Businesspeople from Columbia, Missouri Colorado Avalanche executives Denver Nuggets executives Kroenke Sports & Entertainment National Hockey League executives People from Columbia, Missouri Rock Bridge High School alumni University of Missouri alumni Walton family Los Angeles Gladiators