The Missouri Supreme Court upheld a state judge’s decision last week that requires Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke and five other NFL officials to release their tax returns if a jury rules in favor of the plaintiffs.
The NFL appealed St. Louis Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh’s July decision that forces them to turn over their financial records so that a jury can consider punitive damages in the event the NFL loses during a trial, which is set to start in January.
“It's pretty interesting that every time the NFL or Stan Kroenke have gone to the Missouri Supreme Court, they have lost,” said Randy Karraker, 101 ESPN Radio morning host. “When they went to the United States Supreme Court because they wanted this case heard in arbitration, the United States Supreme Court denied it. What that tells me is that what Judge McGraugh is doing here in St. Louis in the Missouri Court is the right thing.”
The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, the City of St. Louis, and the County of St. Louis sued the Rams and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke in 2017 alleging the defendants failed to comply with relocation rules established by the NFL when they fled to Los Angeles, leaving St. Louis city and county officials on the hook for a new stadium that was never built.
“Stan Kroenke has said that he was willing to provide his financial information for the last three years, which I assume would include tax records and his own personal records but he specifically didn't want information about his other sports teams, the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets, and the Arsenal Soccer Club, or his wife’s, Ann Walton, who is one of the Walmart heirs,” Karraker told the St. Louis Record. “He didn't want that information provided to the court and for use by the plaintiffs and now it appears that the information will be available to them.”
Access to the league's financial records would be precedential.
“The only real access we've had to NFL finances is the Green Bay Packers because they're publicly held and they have to provide that information to their shareholders but otherwise all the other 31 teams are privately held and the league doesn't turn out any financial information,” Karraker added. “For whatever reason, they really don't want that information out there.”