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September 1, 2026

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Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has reached what it called “a definitive agreement” to buy the Angels from Arte Moreno. The deal, set to close in early 2027, will see Stan Kroenke become the first team owner in all four of the major U.S. men’s pro sports leagues, with his sports holdings reaching well beyond that.

—Eric Fisher

First Up

Exclusive: Trey Wingo is reuniting with his former ESPN colleagues for a new show called The OG Football Crew.
First at FOS: The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is looking into Bill Simmons’s recent admission that he had his daughter’s boyfriend place bets for him.
Tony Romo seemed to indicate he will eventually return to broadcasting at CBS in a statement Tuesday about his recent OWI arrest in Wisconsin.
PGA of America CEO Terry Clark tells FOS it will take time for the organization’s young Frisco campus to find elite status among golf’s major championships.

Stan Kroenke Has Deal to Buy Angels From Arte Moreno

REUTERS/Phil Noble

More large-scale changes are coming to MLB team ownership.

The Stan Kroenke–led Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has reached what it called “a definitive agreement” to buy the Angels from Arte Moreno.

The deal, set to close in early 2027, will see Kroenke become the first team owner in all four of the major U.S. men’s pro sports leagues, with his sports holdings going well beyond that. Kroenke, the largest private landowner in the U.S., also controls the NFL’s Rams, NBA’s Nuggets, NHL’s Avalanche, the Rapids of Major League Soccer, NLL’s Mammoth, and the Premier League’s Arsenal—all of which have won league titles under his ownership.

Kroenke has also developed SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., which has already hosted one Super Bowl and part of the FIFA men’s World Cup, and is set to have a second NFL title game with Super Bowl LXI in February. SoFi will also be a key venue for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Financial terms of the Angels deal were not announced, but multiple reports and industry sources pointed to a $4 billion valuation, setting an MLB record and surpassing the recently closed $3.9 billion pact for the Padres.

Moreno, who has owned the Angels since 2003, has openly flirted with selling the club before, and previously had the franchise on the market before abandoning those efforts in early 2023.

The ripples from this deal will be significant. Among them:

MLB sees its second sale of a controlling team interest in less than a year following the Padres sale to José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones.
The Los Angeles sports market sees another major change after the recent, $12.5 billion shift of the Lakers from Mark Walter to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger.
The Angels could have a more competitive future under the KSE ownership. Under Moreno, the club has posted 10 consecutive losing seasons, is already assured of an 11th this season, has not reached the postseason since 2014, and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2009. That run of losing has happened despite having star outfielder and future Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Trout for his entire career, and two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani for the first part of his career in the U.S.
MLB management will gain a notable new voice in the room as it continues a fractious labor negotiation with the MLB Players Association. The closing of the purchase is slated to closely follow the Dec. 1 expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, at which point owners are expected to impose a lockout.

“The Angels are a storied franchise in a great market,” Kroenke said in a typically understated statement. “We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organization.”

Kroenke, 79, is only one year younger than the outgoing Moreno, but he has shown far more vigor in the operation of his other teams, and has at his disposal the sprawling KSE organization that includes his son and company vice chairman Josh Kroenke, and KSE president of team and media operations Kevin Demoff, also the president of the Rams.

Franchise Matters

It will bear close watching how Kroenke seeks to rebuild the Angels competitively. Amid another ugly season, Moreno recently turned baseball operations over to consultant and former Cardinals executive John Mozeliak, who has been given free rein to reshape the front office, coaching staff, and overall approach.

In the meantime, Kroenke will also inherit a long-troubled real estate situation between Moreno and the city of Anaheim to redevelop the Angel Stadium area. Moreno previously sought to acquire the city-owned ballpark, the league’s fourth oldest, as part of a larger redevelopment plan, but an agreement to do that collapsed four years ago amid a corruption investigation of then–Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu.

A subsequent Angel Stadium lease extension signed last year between the city and Moreno, extending as far as 2038, essentially punted the issue of a larger redevelopment effort.

In the meantime, there continue to be ongoing political efforts seeking to encourage the Angels to drop their Los Angeles geographic signifier and return to their prior Anaheim one, and that will almost certainly be an early question for Kroenke after the sale closes.

If Kroenke attempts any sort of redevelopment, however, it would add to OCVibe, a similar project taking shape around the Honda Center, the home arena of the NHL’s Ducks that neighbors Angel Stadium.

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ONE BIG FIG

Back in Action

Ken Ruinard – GREENVILLE NEWS-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

$600,000

That’s how much Clemson wide receiver Tristan Smith could earn in NIL this season, according to court documents. Smith was deemed eligible for the 2026–27 season after winning an injunction against the NCAA allowing him one more year to play college football.

Smith, one of hundreds of college athletes who has sued the NCAA for another year of eligibility, sued over the NCAA’s handling of players who transferred from junior college. Many other cases are challenging the NCAA’s new “age-based” eligibility policy.

On winning the injunction, Smith told Front Office Sports, “It felt like a second chance at life—for real.”

LOUD AND CLEAR

AI at Arthur Ashe

Simon Bruty/USTA

“For me, he’s a trailblazer.”

—Naomi Osaka on NBA legend Allen Iverson, who inspired the look she wore during her first-round tennis match at the 2026 US Open against Anastasia Zakharova. Osaka donned an all-black outfit, reminiscent of the black uniforms the 76ers wore during their 2001 playoff run. She rounded out the look with her hair in cornrows, and for part of the match wore a black sleeve on her right arm and red sweatbands.

In explaining her inspiration, Osaka said Iverson is “someone I look up to a lot because he’s kind of done a lot in fashion, whether it’s on purpose or not. But he’s shifted the way NBA players dress. I also think the whole conversation around clothes in sports, and also just expressing yourself through style—he’s someone I look up to in that regard.”

STATUS REPORT

Two Up, One Down, One Push

Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Chicago Sky ⬆⬇ Seven-time All-Star Skylar Diggins will miss the rest of the 2026 season due to a knee injury, the team announced Tuesday. After starting the first 19 games of the year, Diggins, 36, was expected to come off the bench for the first time in her career on July 7. But she was ruled out before the game with a knee injury and has not played since. Diggins signed a two-year, $1.86 million deal with Chicago in the 2026 offseason.

DAZN ⬆ The London-based company signed an exclusive local media-rights deal with the Cavaliers, adding to a stable of NBA teams that already includes the Knicks, Nets, Timberwolves, and Pacers. The pact also adds to a fast-growing U.S. expansion that also includes the recent acquisition of EverPass Media and a separate purchase of streaming technology developer ViewLift. As part of the DAZN deal, the Cavaliers will handle game production in-house through its Rock Entertainment Sports Network. DAZN is also expected to complete similarly exclusive deals with the Spurs and Grizzlies in the coming weeks.

Youth on Course ⬆ The golf-focused nonprofit has struck new retail deals with Golf Galaxy and Dick’s Sporting Goods that will include free lessons and $5 simulator rentals at the sports stores for young golfers who are part of the nationwide program. The pact comes after Golf Galaxy and Dick’s last week were among the retailers to pull Good Good Golf merchandise off their shelves amid the YouTube group’s Callaway driver ad controversy.

UCLA ⬇ The Bruins parted ways with AD Martin Jarmond on Monday night, announcing former Los Angeles Lakers executive Tim Harris would replace him. Jarmond helped the program navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw the transition into the Big Ten Conference. But in a letter to the UCLA community, chancellor Julio Frenk appeared to criticize Jarmond’s financial policies, saying the athletic department currently carries a “significant financial deficit” that he called “unsustainable.” Meanwhile, the Bruins will pay Jarmond a $5.6 million buyout.