Billionaire NFL Owner Suing Over Billboards Near His LA Stadium
Stan Kroenke, the billionaire owner of the National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams, has taken a stand against billboards that he says threaten the prosperity of his $5.5 billion sports and entertainment complex in the nation’s second-largest metropolis.
Kroenke alleged in a lawsuit that by allowing digital billboards to go up near his SoFi Stadium, the city of Inglewood, California is violating its agreement with him and will siphon consumer spending from the home of the Rams and site of this year’s World Cup games, the 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympic events.
The advertising would undercut exclusive sponsorships and enable “ambush marketing” around some of the world’s biggest sporting events, according to lawyers for Kroenke, whose net worth is almost $27 billion.
Inglewood’s lawyers say Kroenke is being greedy — and that if he gets his way, he will deprive the public of revenue. The city argues that the advertising restrictions Kroenke says were violated stem from a development agreement that is unenforceable.
While the billboards have not been erected yet, the dispute has escalated into a broader fight over who controls lucrative advertising rights near the venues.
“Billionaires are not above the law,” the city said in a filing Friday in response to the suit Kroenke filed in July in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Kroenke developed the 300-acre site known as Hollywood Park — which sits about four miles east of the Los Angeles International Airport — without public financing, rare for such a massive sports facility. Anchored by the stadium, it also features the YouTube Theater, as well as office, retail and residential buildings.
Hollywood Park neighbors the Intuit Dome, a $2 billion arena developed by the emeritus Microsoft chief, Steve Ballmer, that has been the home of his Los Angeles Clippers basketball team since 2024. The opulent venues, along with the Kia Forum that formerly hosted the Los Angeles Lakers, have earned Inglewood the nickname “City of Champions.” Ballmer’s companies are also suing Inglewood over the billboards.
In April, Inglewood approved a contract with WOW Media to install as many as 60 digital billboards around Hollywood Park that would share ad revenue with the city. Kroenke’s complaint alleges the deal violates terms of his 2015 development agreement that prohibits billboards near his property and that it diverts money away from his investment while taking advantage of traffic to his venues.
“The city has pulled the rug out from under Hollywood Park,” his lawyers wrote.
Inglewood counters that the development agreement for Kroenke’s stadium is invalid, because it was approved through a citizen-led referendum rather than direct negotiations. The city contends there should be no restrictions on nearby advertising.
“We have every right to use public land for what we want to do,” Inglewood Mayor James Butts said in an interview. “I don’t see any legal arguments that would give them control over what we do on city land.”
Kroenke’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the city’s latest court filing.
Kroenke has a history of playing hardball with his teams’ cities. He moved the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, prompting years of litigation that ended with a $790 million settlement. The Rams face the Carolina Panthers in a wild card playoff game Saturday.
The case is Pincay Re LLC v. City of Inglewood, 25TRCV04256, Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Top photo: Stan Kroenke at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2025. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.