Monday Cannon Fodder: champions

The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last night. They beat the two-time defending champions Tampa Bay Lightning, who were looking for a three-peat and to cement themselves as one of the greatest teams of all-time. In case you weren’t aware, Enos Stanley Kroenke owns the Avalanche.

He also owns the L.A. Rams, who won the most recent Super Bowl. And he owns the Colorado Mammoth, a pro box lacrosse team that won the National Lacrosse League. I’m not sure he knows that he owns the Mammoth, but he does, and they won a title.

It’s easy to project narratives and create connections between those teams winning and the increased spending on Arsenal. We want to believe it. To think that Stan has discovered that he savors the taste of winning titles and wants to go for more. I’d caution against getting too into the wish-casting.

I think a much more plausible explanation for the renewed spending on Arsenal is that the Kroenkes’ have realized that in football, you have to spend money to make money. That the Gunners need to be in the Champions League to be the profitable investment vehicle they bought into all those years back.

Then again, I could be the one who is off-base here. Maybe they have decided they like winning and want to win more. I feel comfortable with my assessment of them that they view their sports properties as smart, safe places to park money much more than Jerry Jones-esque vanity projects, but I shouldn’t totally rule out the ego side of it, either. Owning a winning team brings prestige and bragging rights. The Kroenkes have got or can get pretty much anything else with their bags and bags of money, so perhaps they are in a bit of a title-chasing phase.