In December, Stan Kroenke completed the single-largest land purchase in the US in more than a decade — more than 937,000 deeded acres of ranchland in New Mexico belonging to the heirs of Teledyne founder Henry Singleton (1916-1999). The mega sale vaulted the Missouri native from fourth-largest landowner on the 2025 Land Report 100 to the top slot on this year’s list ahead of California’s Emmersons at No. 2 with 2.44 million acres, Liberty Media chairman emeritus John Malone at No. 3 with 2.2 million acres, and CNN founder Ted Turner at No. 4 with 2 million acres.

No details related to the off-market transaction were made available by either the seller’s broker, Republic Ranches, or the buyer’s broker, Hall and Hall.

The Singleton Ranches transaction is almost double the size of Kroenke’s 2016 acquisition of the historic 535,000-acre Waggoner Ranch, a sale that marked the first time the Texas landmark had changed hands since its founding in 1849 by Dan Waggoner. The acquisition of Singleton Ranches ranks a close second to the mother of all sales in this century: John Malone’s purchase of 1 million acres of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire from GMO Renewables in 2011.

Kroenke’s ever-expanding empire of grazing ground encompasses much of the American West and extends into
Canada. In Wyoming, he owns the largest single ranch in the Rocky Mountains, the 560,000-acre Q Creek Ranch.

In Montana, Kroenke acquired the 124,000-acre Broken O Ranch in 2012 from the heirs of Bill Moore, the founder of the nation’s largest privately owned paint company, Kelly-Moore. At the time of the sale, the Broken O ranked as the state’s largest private water-rights owner.

In 2016, Kroenke purchased the W.T. Waggoner Estate Ranch in North Texas — the largest ranch in Texas under one fence.

In 2019, Kroenke bought Nevada’s Winecup Gamble Ranch from former Reebok International chairman Paul Fireman. According to listing broker C. Patrick Bates of Bates Land Consortium, the Winecup Gamble’s 247,500 deeded acres and 558,080 acres of leased federal land combined to make it one of the most historic large-scale ranches in the nation.

Kroenke Ranches also includes a stand-out holding north of the border. In 2003, Kroenke bought Douglas Lake Ranch
in British Columbia, a storied ranch with a checkered past. Five years earlier, WorldCom chairman Bernie Ebbers paid the Woodward family $100 million Canadian dollars (USD $73 million) for Canada’s largest producer of beef cattle. Then he pledged Douglas Lake as collateral to WorldCom for a $400 million loan. Ebbers never repaid the loan. Instead, he spent the rest of his life in prison.

In 2002, an internal investigation revealed that the company had misstated billions in assets on his watch. WorldCom went bankrupt, Ebbers went to jail, and Douglas Lake went to Kroenke.