Jan. 13--Stan Kroenke emerged from a white jet at Van Nuys Airport a few minutes before noon Wednesday as he returned to California for the first time as owner of the Los Angeles Rams.
Less than 24 hours earlier in Houston, National Football League owners voted to allow Kroenke to move the Rams from St. Louis to L.A. for the 2016 season.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Times -- Kroenke's first since his plan for a multi-billion-dollar stadium in Inglewood became public more than a year ago -- the owner discussed his final pitch to the league's team owners, the emotional relocation process and his ambitious vision for the site of the defunct Hollywood Park racetrack.
"If we didn't have the perspective of 40 years of doing this, I don't think any reasonable, rational person would ever do this," said Kroenke, a billionaire real estate developer and sports mogul. "But because we look at it a certain way, we've been through so many of these projects, and we're long-term investors. That's why we did what we did and stuck our neck out that far."
Kroenke, 68, cracked jokes, slapped his knees in excitement and teared up at one point in the interview. He appeared relieved to put the drawn-out relocation process behind him and focus on returning the Rams to the city they left following the 1994 season.
Kroenke believed that detailed renderings of the sleek, low-slung stadium project and surrounding mixed-use development helped sway owners in Houston to overwhelmingly support his vision over a rival stadium project in Carson.
"One of the most important things that nailed it (Tuesday) is that we just kept showing them pictures," Kroenke said. "People love pictures. And what those pictures showed was the thought and the development and the plan, and the depth of the thought."
He said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell found the pictures "very compelling."
Kroenke noted Seattle Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen support of the project. After not attending an NFL meeting in four years, Allen appeared at the Houston gathering to back Kroenke. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by other owners.
"When I started working on this two years ago, I took Paul through the whole thing," Kroenke said. "I said, 'This is what I think we can do here. I'm not sure we can do it all, but here's what we're working on.' He was always interested. Then once we got to certain point, he definitely got it. He got how good it was."
Kevin Demoff, the Rams' top executive who helped make the presentation at the meeting, kept his event credential and room key as mementos of the historic occasion.
Kroenke said he had no badge and he left his room key in the hotel.
"But we got something much more important," he told The Times. "We got L.A."
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Twitter: @nathanfenno
