Stalking Stan Kroenke.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: E. Stanley Kroenke.

CLAUDE LEBEL WAS THE NAME OF THE INDEFATIGABLE FRENCH detective who hunted down the would-be assassin of French president Charles de Gaulle in Frederick Forsyth's gripping 1971 novel, "The Day of the Jackal."

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Lebel combined obsession, street smarts and psychology to track his prey. In the novel's culminating moment, when Lebel finally guns down The Jackal with a submachine gun, there is the merest whiff of disappointment detectable, as if the detective realizes the quest that gave life purpose suddenly has expired.

I think I know what the good detective felt like.

A few weeks ago, I was face to face with E. Stanley Kroenke.

Explanation: In June, I wrote for ColoradoBiz a lengthy profile of Kroenke, who, through a press representative, had declined numerous interview requests, as is his custom.

Saying Stan Kroenke is elusive to the press is like saying Patrick Roy played a decent goalie. Kroenke descends into town like a whisper and vanishes like an apparition. It is a testament to Kroenke's reclusiveness to say that Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen--not exactly a guy you see frequently standing in the self-checkout line at King Soopers--is a relative spotlight vamp compared with the boss of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche.

Thus, attempting to define the persona of the most powerful man in Colorado's sports industry meant probing from the fringes--talking with associates and former employees, scouring for past written profiles, researching family history and chatting up sports columnists who had at least brushed up on occasion against the tall, thin Missouri billionaire.

So when word came across that Kroenke himself would be appearing in person to announce the naming-rights partner for his Major League Soccer stadium and adjacent youth-field complex in Commerce City, I felt my inner Claude Lebel stir.

Managing to meet the owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises was no simple affair. First, it meant rejiggering schedules, and second, navigating a hellishly blockaded stretch of Quebec Street north of Interstate 70, where a gauntlet of construction workers and lumbering trucks rose up as demons put forth to imperil my quest to get to the soccer stadium where Kroenke's 10 a.m. appearance was promised.

But perseverance was a must. This was no ordinary KSE press conference. This one would feature the real deal. The lanky legend. The Wal-Mart wizard. Stan the Man.

Finally there, I watched closely from the bleachers as a...