Denver's Top 25: The Establishment

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 3, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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The Establishment

Welcome to the newest addition to our annual accounting of the metro area's most influential people in arts and culture. The Establishment includes those so significant locally and nationally that they play at a level, year in and year out, that will always make them important.

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Phil Anschutz CEO, Anschutz Entertainment Group

* Why he ranks: Enough already! Besides everything he owns in Colorado (including AEG Live being the promoter behind the Mile High Music Festival), the guy built the arena in London where Led Zeppelin had its reunion concert last December. The Regal Cinema chain, Walden Media, Bristol Bay Productions, the Staples Center in L.A., bringing Clint Eastwood to Denver to receive the Medal of Honor -the list is endless. We get it, he wins. Game, set, match.

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Stan Kroenke

Owner, Kroenke Sports Enterprises (Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, Colorado Crush, Colorado Mammoth, Pepsi Center, Paramount Theatre, Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Altitude Sports & Entertainment, TicketHorse)

* Why he ranks: TV watchers around the world spent a week inside Kroenke's Pepsi Center during the Democratic National Convention. Even without that exposure, the Pepsi Center is enjoying perhaps its best year ever, with upcoming blockbuster shows from Madonna, AC/DC, Metallica, Coldplay, Celine Dion, Neil Diamond and Widespread Panic. Dick's Sporting Goods Park hosted 90,000 fans during July at the first Mile High Music Festival (the nation's fourth-highest-grossing concert in '08), plus 300,000 for Rapids games. In July, TicketHorse will begin ticketing all Pepsi events, in addition to programs already being sold for the Paramount and Dick's.

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Joyce Meskis

Owner, Tattered Cover book stores

* Why she ranks: In the 34 years since she opened a hole-in-the-wall store in Cherry Creek, Meskis has remained a businesswoman as much as a book person - and that's made all the difference. In tough economic times and through countless challenges (chains, online bookselling, the economic downturn after 9/11, the ever-growing visual media), she has remained flexible and savvy. To wit, she added two new locations, shrewdly targeting the soccer mom market in Highlands Ranch, and made the difficult decision to abandon her beloved flagship store in Cherry Creek when the lease became prohibitive, trading it for the more cozy but by all accounts thriving Colfax venue. Through it all, she has continued to draw a stellar lineup of important authors, maintain her status nationally as a First Amendment stalwart, and, yes, even sell books.

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