With their club sitting dead last in MLS, fans of the Colorado Rapids have trained their ire towards owner Stan Kroenke.
Kroenke is the founder of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), which in addition to the Rapids, also owns Arsenal FC, the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche.
Barely over a week after the Rapids fired head coach Robin Fraser, the club’s biggest independent supporters group, Centennial 38, released a scathing statement on X (formerly Twitter) in which they accused KSE of failing to invest in the club and its facilities, saying their stadium Dick’s Sporting Goods Park has fallen into disrepair, and that the Rapids are “nothing more than an afterthought of ownership.”
“The common denominator of the Rapids’ many problems is Kroenke Sports & Entertainment,” read the statement. “Winning seasons are infrequent, and the few good years are followed by multiple consecutive years of poor results. The organization’s record off the field also speaks for itself: talking down to fans and providing no meaningful connection to the club outside of token press releases; persistent issues with security and stadium staff; raising season ticket prices while the stadium experience and team underperform; general mistreatment of press and bloggers covering the team, among many, many others.”
It continues: “These are the results of an ownership group that has failed to properly invest in this club. KSE seems perfectly comfortable investing in their other endeavors yet proportionally less so with our Rapids. Stan and Josh can count on their four hands the number of games they’ve been to. [Team president] Padraig Smith claims they are ‘categorically’ involved, even though there is scant evidence of this over the 19 years they have owned this club.
“Our club is given minimal resources, and the resources it does have been used ineffectively as evidenced by the results on the field.”
The badge, the players, and the fans deserve better.#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/DtCbm4Syz7
— Centennial 38 (@C38sg) September 14, 2023
The statement did not go as far as to call on KSE to sell the team, but instead concluded that “this indifference from ownership must stop.”
“The Colorado Rapids, and the fanbase, are nothing more than an afterthought of ownership. KSE seems more concerned with other ventures, and taking advantage of a loyal fanbase, over producing a Rapids product that could be considered even average compared to other teams in Colorado and across MLS. The way the club has been handled is an utter embarrassment and a total abandonment of its fiduciary duty to the badge and the paying fans,” the statement said.
Rapids fans are hardly the only supporters to have expressed their discontent with KSE recently, with Arsenal fans protesting their club’s owners two years ago amid the failed European Super League project.
In response to Centennial 38, Stan Kroenke’s son Josh released a statement of his own detailing the club’s desire to improve on and off the field, which included planned improvements to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, as well as plans for several open forums with supporters.
“We respect our supporters and are grateful for the passion they demonstrate for the club, while also acknowledging and understanding their frustrations,” Kroenke’s statement said. “We are committed to the Rapids’ long-term success within the core principles of the club and to being a club that our fans and all Coloradans can be proud of.”
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