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Off topic: Screw Stan Kroenke


Bonner89

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19 minutes ago, Adman said:

Agree this won't go to trial. Disagree on the settlement amount for two reasons:

- STL is asking for $1B+ which is not an exaggeration. The actual amount of damages may be closer to $2-3B which includes part of the appreciation of the Rams' value since leaving STL. This has been allowed by the circuit court judge. And this is all before punitive damages. If the jury believes the damage has been particularly egregious, it could be multiplied 5-10X.  Yes, it would be appealed. But STL has way more leverage than $250-500M.

- If the ESPN reporting of the other day is correct (and I have no reason to believe it is not,) there already has been an offer made by the defendants to settle at numbers considerably above your guess -- at just under $1B and over $1B. And while Team STL is not commenting on this, it is obvious they've turned it down.

 

As to whether Kroenke will have enough liquidity to pay (if we win,) and what he'd have to sell, there's an open issue as to exactly what costs he agreed to indemnify for his cartel partners. Is it legal costs only? (ESPN reported it to be 8 figures currently. Given 5 years of legal expenses and about 65 defendants, good guess would be $50-75M+.)  Or is it legal costs PLUS actual and punitive damages (likely $1B+.)  If legal costs only, he's plenty liquid -- though he's obviously trying to weasel out of it. If it's ALL costs, yes, he'd have a problem on his hands. As I read the ESPN story, I believe it is legal costs only. But I welcome attorneys on the board to weigh in on this -- and whether my ballpark estimate is in the neighborhood.

I would have to question how liquid he would be. What are his assets? Sport Teams. Real Estate. A Winery . Shopping Centers. I doubt he has access to his wife's Walmart Stock ,even if he did the cap gains would be ridiculous. Without selling his only avenue might be to borrow against some of this collateral . 

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39 minutes ago, Adman said:

 

As to whether Kroenke will have enough liquidity to pay (if we win,) and what he'd have to sell, there's an open issue as to exactly what costs he agreed to indemnify for his cartel partners. Is it legal costs only? (ESPN reported it to be 8 figures currently. Given 5 years of legal expenses and about 65 defendants, good guess would be $50-75M+.)  Or is it legal costs PLUS actual and punitive damages (likely $1B+.)  If legal costs only, he's plenty liquid -- though he's obviously trying to weasel out of it. If it's ALL costs, yes, he'd have a problem on his hands. As I read the ESPN story, I believe it is legal costs only. But I welcome attorneys on the board to weigh in on this -- and whether my ballpark estimate is in the neighborhood.

It would depend on the actual language in the agreement, but I would generally expect that “indemnification” means to cover any costs arising out of the litigation, which would include legal costs and satisfying any judgments that are rendered from the litigation. With that said, the NFL and owners don’t get to play around with Kroenke’s money. They can’t decide independently of Kroenke to offer something as settlement and then send him the bill. 

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39 minutes ago, Adman said:

 

As to whether Kroenke will have enough liquidity to pay (if we win,) and what he'd have to sell, there's an open issue as to exactly what costs he agreed to indemnify for his cartel partners. Is it legal costs only? (ESPN reported it to be 8 figures currently. Given 5 years of legal expenses and about 65 defendants, good guess would be $50-75M+.)  Or is it legal costs PLUS actual and punitive damages (likely $1B+.)  If legal costs only, he's plenty liquid -- though he's obviously trying to weasel out of it. If it's ALL costs, yes, he'd have a problem on his hands. As I read the ESPN story, I believe it is legal costs only. But I welcome attorneys on the board to weigh in on this -- and whether my ballpark estimate is in the neighborhood.

It would depend on the actual language in the agreement, but I would generally expect that “indemnification” means to cover any costs arising out of the litigation, which would include legal costs and satisfying any judgments that are rendered from the litigation. With that said, the NFL and owners don’t get to play around with Kroenke’s money. They can’t decide independently of Kroenke to offer something as settlement and then send him the bill. 

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28 minutes ago, gister said:

Looks like there is a settlement.  I hope it is large, but I'm not optimistic.

Yeah, I saw that. Sounds like all cash. Hope not. Also hope settlement is large… agree, not optimistic. Happening too fast. More leverage close to start of trial. But let’s see…

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Just now, slufan13 said:

I'm a big NFL fan but I have zero desire in a NFL team. But if the city settles for anything less than 2B, then their lawyers failed 

I have a feeling the people of St. Louis are going to be disappointed. I just can’t see the NFL settling for anything that ends in a B. Plus, the lawyers want their money. If it went to trial it could be 10 years until the lawyers get paid. 

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3 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

I'm a big NFL fan but I have zero desire in a NFL team. But if the city settles for anything less than 2B, then their lawyers failed 

Agree. Especially knowing the city/county will just piss the money away. I can’t wait to see a pimped out loop trolly and all our elected officials rolling around in gold plated Bentleys. 

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8 minutes ago, Westy03 said:

I have a feeling the people of St. Louis are going to be disappointed. I just can’t see the NFL settling for anything that ends in a B. Plus, the lawyers want their money. If it went to trial it could be 10 years until the lawyers get paid. 

I fear you are correct 

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4 minutes ago, brianstl said:

I wonder if this settlement is with every party in the lawsuit or just Kroenke.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Kroenke cut a deal just for himself and agreed to cooperate in the lawsuit against the league.

That’s the best case scenario.

Get paid now and take the NFL out later on.

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18 minutes ago, jonny karate said:

If this settles, Kroenke won. He will laugh at st louis while the politicians make fools of themselves over how to spend the money. 

I believe the city is still sitting on the $500 million they received from the American Rescue Plan.  Did they ever say how that was going to be spent?

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I think a lot of the comments regarding the settlement are wrong. Let's make a few things clear:

A law suit involving multiple defendants and multiple plaintiffs is a complex situation with multiple defense and plaintiff teams involved. It is not a bad strategy for any one of the defendants to settle ahead of the others, this leaves the remaining defendants holding up the bag, and frees the defendant that settled.

A guy like Kroenke does the things he does because he really can afford to pay $500 M or more to walk free. Non disclosure conditions may be involved in the early settlement. Kroenke wins, in the sense that he does not have to worry  any more, but has to kiss a lot of money off.

The early settlement provides the plaintiff lawyers with a full war chest to be used in continuing the suit against the rest of the defendants, possibly extracting more out of the rest of the defendants as the process evolves.

This requires for the plaintiffs to maintain a united front. If the plaintiff teams dissolve into fighting as to who gets what out of the initial settlement the whole process may be hurt seriously by their idiocy and greed.

Last thing, nobody in a process like this is ever pleased with the result of the process, they think they paid too much, or got too little, or that they were betrayed by the other members of the plaintiff or defendant parties. As the time passes, their expectations increase and their despair increases. An early settlement indicates that the unity of the defendant group is broken and someone wants out regardless. Their reasons to do so are their own reasons. Kroenke can afford to walk out and apparently wants to do so.

Finally if this process ever goes to trial and the trial results in a huge award (multibillion dollar level), the defendants left holding the bag will have to prolong the process by appealing the judgement at every level possible. If Kroenke wants to settle, let him do it but the plaintiff groups should avoid fighting one another as to who gets how much of the early settlement.

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