Stan Kroenke's British invasion.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: SPORTS BIZ - Kroenke Sports Enterprises

The Colorado Avalanche is trying to regain its sellout luster and the Denver Nuggets are Carmello-ing their way through the NBA grind. It's just another autumn at Pepsi Center, aka the House that Stanley Built. (Err, bought.)

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But while business-as-usual transpires locally, there's a delicious drama going on in E. Stanley Kroenke's expanding sports empire far away from LoDo. It swirls around a shadowy Russian billionaire, an estranged former board member of a beloved British football team and the Colorado sports maven himself.

To appreciate the story fully, you have to understand the emotional bonds that tether millions of fans to Arsenal F.C., the English football club that racks up championships like the New York Yankees collect pennants. Brandishing a red-and-white logo that features a stern-looking cannon, Arsenal for more than a century has maintained a grip on the English sports psyche that would impress even the most spirited of Denver Broncomaniacs. Fans call themselves "Gooners" (think "Gunners" but with a froth-enhanced British accent), despise the rival Tottenham Hotspur team, and worship at the altar of Arsene Wenger, who loyalists regard not so much as coach but artist, a field marshal whose accomplishments include a flawless, 49-0 record in 2003-04.

The statistic, though, that is likely most compelling to Kroenke, the unassuming Missouri billionaire who owns the Avalanche, Nuggets, Colorado Rapids and assorted buildings that house them, is this one: 27 million. That's the estimated global fan base for Arsenal, as divined by the U.K. sports licensing and merchandising firm Granada Ventures, one of the minority investors in the club, in a 2005 report. The team's popularity has been fortified by satellite television, which beams Arsenal games and coverage into millions of homes in Europe, Africa, Australia and North America.

That sort of global appeal had to be keen on Kroenke's mind in April of this year when his Kroenke Sports Enterprises acquired a 12 percent stake in Arsenal. Kroenke told the U.K. Telegraph his interest came about partly because of KSE's growing appreciation for the popularity of football (or soccer, stateside), manifested locally by KSE's Colorado Rapids and the pristine new stadium near Quebec Street where the team plays.

But Kroenke's investment in a hallowed British team met with steely British reserve. Or worse. Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood issued a brusque dismissal, claiming...