From the Gridiron to the Grasslands: Stan Kroenke Tops the Nation’s Landowner List

The original story by Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily.

Stan Kroenke already owned a lot of land – especially in Wyoming – but now he owns more private land than anyone else in the country.

The billionaire sports mogul, best known as the owner of the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Nuggets, became the largest private landowner in the US after buying more than 937,000 acres of ranchland in New Mexico last month. That deal pushed his total land holdings to roughly 2.7 million acres spread across the American West and Canada.

And a big chunk of that is right here in Wyoming.

About 20% of Kroenke’s vast land empire – roughly 560,000 acres – sits in Wyoming, mostly in Carbon County. That makes him the state’s second-largest landowner, even though he now ranks first nationally.

Kroenke, 78, owns the massive Q Creek Ranch in south-central Wyoming. The working cattle ranch and recreation property includes just over 11,000 deeded acres, with the rest made up of private and public grazing leases. Despite the smaller deeded footprint, Q Creek is often described as the largest contiguous ranch in the Rocky Mountains, stretching roughly 50 miles east to west and 35 miles north to south.

Most of the land is used for agriculture, according to longtime Wyoming realtor Bob Brockman.

“The people who lease the ranch use it for grazing,” Brockman said. “They’re all Wyoming people.”

The ranch also offers guided hunting and fishing and hosts long-range rifle courses, though calls to the property were not returned before publication.

Large ranches that blend private land with public leases can be a good thing for Wyoming, said Charlie Powers of Powers Land Brokerage in Sheridan.

“The best stewards of the land are grazing tenants,” Powers said.

He added that large, undeveloped ranches help preserve open space and support wildlife habitat.

“With irrigation and proper stewardship, these ranches have brought about more habitat for wildlife – on both deeded and public lands,” he said. “All it’s doing is improving the quality of public land, in my opinion.”

Kroenke held the title of Wyoming’s largest landowner until recently, when Utah businessman Chris Robinson purchased the massive 916,000-acre Pathfinder Ranches. That property includes nearly 100,000 deeded acres, far more than Q Creek’s deeded land.

Still, in sheer scale and continuity, Q Creek remains a standout.

Kroenke began investing in real estate back in the 1970s. In addition to Wyoming and New Mexico, he owns large ranches in Texas, Nevada and Montana, as well as land in Canada. Before the New Mexico purchase, his ranch holdings were valued at about $3.9 billion. The price of the New Mexico deal hasn’t been disclosed.

Those who know him in Wyoming say he’s a good neighbor.

“He’s a good landowner,” Brockman said. “The neighbors speak highly of him. If fences need fixed, they’re fixed.”

The New Mexico acquisition was the largest land purchase in the US in more than a decade and spanned four counties, according to LandReport.com.

With 2.7 million acres, Kroenke now tops the Emmerson family of California, which owns about 2.4 million acres of timberland. Liberty Media’s John Malone ranks third with 2.2 million acres, followed by CNN founder Ted Turner at around 2 million.

Along with his sprawling land portfolio, Kroenke owns the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Rams and the Colorado Rapids soccer club. He’s also married to Ann Walton Kroenke, an heir to the Walmart fortune.

From Super Bowls to sagebrush, Kroenke’s footprint keeps getting bigger – and Wyoming remains a major part of it.