A $4 Billion Deal Just Made MLB History, and It Wasn't Even the Team's Best Season
Keypoints:
- Stan Kroenke agreed to buy the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno for north of $4 billion
- The price makes it the most expensive sale in Major League Baseball history
- Kroenke already owns the Rams, Nuggets, Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, and Arsenal FC
- Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 for $183.5 million
- The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending MLB approval
Stan Kroenke agreed to buy the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno for north of $4 billion. That price makes it the most expensive sale in Major League Baseball history, topping the San Diego Padres' record $3.9 billion sale earlier this year and crushing Steve Cohen's $2.4 billion purchase of the Mets.
Kroenke already owns an unusually large sports portfolio. He's the principal owner of the NFL's Rams, the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, MLS's Colorado Rapids, and the Premier League's Arsenal FC. The Angels become his sixth major franchise across five different sports and five different countries' top leagues, an ownership footprint that puts him in a category of his own among American sports magnates.
Kroenke isn't buying the entire franchise outright either. He's purchasing Moreno's majority stake, with other minority owners staying involved in the group, and it's not yet clear whether Kroenke intends to buy them out over time.
Moreno's 23-year run tells the other half of the story. He bought the team in 2003 for $183.5 million, the year after its lone World Series title, and watched its value climb more than twentyfold since.
That growth happened despite a rough on-field stretch, the Angels are tied for the worst record in the American League this year and on track to miss the playoffs for the 12th season running, a run marked by disastrous contracts for aging stars like Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon, a farm system that never fully developed, and constant front-office turnover. It's a reminder that in modern sports ownership, market size and media rights can drive a franchise's price tag independent of how the team actually performs on the field.