Arya News - Stan Kroenke now has a hand in nearly every professional sports league.
The Los Angeles Angels are the latest professional sports team to be sold in 2026. The Angels have been purchased by Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, his company announced Tuesday.
The deal is expected to close early in 2027. Kroenke"s company — Kroenke Sports & Entertainment — did not divulge how much Kroenke paid to take over the Angels. The team was valued at $2.8 billion by Forbes in March.
Early reports suggest the team was purchased for an MLB record. The San Diego Padres, which sold earlier in 2026, hold the current record at $3.9 billion.
The move sends yet another shockwave through the Los Angeles sports landscape, coming just weeks after Mark Walter sold the Los Angeles Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
In addition to those two teams, the Padres, Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks have all changed ownership in 2026.
The Arte Moreno era is over in Los Angeles
The decision to sell ends a mostly disappointing ownership tenure by Moreno — the first Latino owner in the sport. Moreno, 80, took over the Angels in 2003, when he purchased the franchise from the Walt Disney Company for $180 million.
Things started out positively, as the Angels — fresh off a World Series title — made the playoffs in five of the first seven years of Moreno"s ownership. After a four-year drought, the team reached the postseason again in 2014, getting swept in the first round. The Angels haven"t made the playoffs since then, the longest current postseason drought in the sport.
While Moreno always showed a willingness to spend, his penchant for buying stars often backfired. Vladimir Guerrero — who the team signed ahead of the 2004 MLB season — had a successful second-half of his career with the franchise. But future free-agent splurges — like Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Anthony Rendon — failed to live up to their former luster, often leaving the franchise in a rough financial spot.
All of those signings happened to overlap with perhaps the biggest win — and failure — of Moreno"s ownership tenure. The Angels drafted Mike Trout in 2009, promoted him to the majors in 2011 and proceeded to receive eight-straight seasons in which he was arguably the best player in the majors. Despite Trout"s excellence, the team made the postseason just once during his stardom, when it was swept in 2014.
As Trout started to slow down, the team managed to convince two-way star Shohei Ohtani to sign with it. Despite the presence of both players, the Angels never made the postseason with the pair. Moreno ultimately couldn"t re-sign Ohtani in 2023, paving the way for him to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he immediately won two straight World Series.
Stan Kroenke continues to buy sports teams
The name Stan Kroenke should sound pretty familiar in the professional sports realm. On top of owning the Rams, Kroenke also holds ownership stakes in the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Rapids and Colorado Mammoth — a professional lacrosse team.
He"s had plenty of success with those franchises, winning two Super Bowls with the Rams, two Stanley Cups with the Avalanche, one NBA championship with the Nuggets and an MLS Cup with the Rapids.
This story will be updated.