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Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast Business Wars, and in our new season,
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We're listening to the Men in Blazers media network, suboptimal radio.
It's Roch, and I'm joined by agent with more jobs in any mere mortal couldjuggle, entrepreneur,
golfer, vinder, rancher, Air Force captain, father to four children, self-made billionaire.
He's known around the world as a gen-to-bought major league sports and major league glory
to that oasis in the desert, Las Vegas, with your Stanley Cup winning Vegas Golden Knights.
And now, because he wasn't busy enough apparently, he's the owner, and chairman, and data-driven
brain behind Bournemouth FC.
It's in honour to say up the cherries to Mr. Bill Foley.
Thank you, rise.
It's great to be here, and thanks for inviting me, it's a really looking forward to the conversation.
Bill, I am too, because I am fascinated by your ownership of Bournemouth, how you entered
football, what your vertigo inducing ambitions are with that club, but in order to understand
all that.
I think we need to set the stage with what brought you here.
You were born in Austin, Texas in 1944, became a captain in the Air Force, in which you
negotiated $100 million defense contracts, became a lawyer in 1984, so an opportunity brought
out one of your clients, a then small insurance firm in Phoenix, Arizona, that company was
Fidelity National, 20 years, and over 80 acquisitions later, it became the biggest title insurer
in the nation.
Take us back to when you were first looking to take over Fidelity.
What was your life like?
What did you think was possible?
What were your dreams back then?
Well, I was a lawyer, a solicitor, and I was doing a lot of mergers in acquisition work,
and I was, frankly, my clients were making a lot of money, and I was an hourly worker,
and I was charging a fair wage back in the early 80s, $400 an hour or so, but I decided
I should probably, probably get in business myself, because I've always been interested
in tax, I've always been interested in business, and I had a theory on how to run Fidelity
national title differently than the other title companies, and actually it actually really
worked out that there was a terrific, terrific story over the last 30 years or so.
What do you really think was possible at the very beginning?
You're like, I'm going to the mood to assume you've been there, and I'll loan a Premier League
football club, even though the Premier League didn't exist back then, or you're like, you
know what?
I can just make a little juice it.
Well, I saw with the title business that the other companies were not paying attention
to their real customer.
The real customer was the realtor.
It's not the home buyer, it's not the lender, and so we changed the whole business model,
incentivized our salespeople, incentivized our escrow officers, and we garnered market
share.
We started out as the 92nd largest title company in the country, and today we have almost
50% of the direct business in the country, and we started out with 0.6% of the business.
I'm seeing themes in your life here, take over something that is underrated, think differently
and create a new pathway, and since stepping down as chairman of Fidelity in 2016, you
have branched out, and I've got to say, Bill, into a seemingly unending list of ventures,
some of which are more like slash pastimes that you've made, extremely lucrative.
Bill, I've got to tell you, I love your life.
You've got a luxury wine label, ranch land, golf courses, ski resorts, restaurants,
and now sports.
I'm curious, what binds all of your businesses together, what's the thread that ties all
of those interests?
Is the one?
You know, we try and cross market everything.
We try and cross sell all of our business enterprises, so the golden nights at a team
mobile arena, we're selling our wine, and we're also promoting our hospitality assets,
our hotel assets, and so on, and our restaurants.
And when we go to a winery, the first thing you see is a golden night's flag and an army
flag flying in front of the winery building, and so the tie-in really works, and we're
fortunate that we have some beautiful assets that we can market to our customers, to our
season ticket holders, to our wine club members, to our visitors who stayed at our hotels,
and it works.
The cross marketing works, we try and pay attention to the customer at all times.
Starting Mark Stone to Bournemouth rumours, even as we speak, but you grew up far away
from all of this into a family of ranchers, mostly in Texas.
But your father was in the United States Air Force, you moved a ton as a kid.
I think it was while living in Ottawa, Canada, the picked up a love of Shinny Hockey, a
love that grew and grew and grew, to that moment in 2017, when you launched the Vegas
golden night, cracking open a sports market in Vegas to the befuddled, honestly scared
off major league sports execs for decades.
What drew you to sports and sports ownership, Bill, was it just a case of those chilly
Ottawa nights out on the pond during your back in?
Well, the hockey side was that historical, I was in Ottawa, Canada, in the second, third
and fourth grade, so just a little kid, but of course I was so far behind the Canadian
hockey players at that point, though I'm my friends in the neighborhood.
In the first year, I wanted to play hockey with them, and they said, OK, let's see, you
skate.
Of course, I couldn't skate.
They said, no, you're not playing this year, but you can come and practice with this
and watch this and skate, and then I made kind of a local little team in third grade.
Second grade, I wasn't good enough, but third grade, I made it.
So I've had a love of hockey, since I was a kid, and I moved away from it because we
traveled, and I started playing lacrosse, which is really hockey on grass, and I had the
chance to get involved with a, you know, an expansion franchise in Las Vegas, and everyone
said I was crazy, why would you do that, hockey in the desert, or are you going to skate
on sand, and all that does is just commit me to making something happen, so my own worst
enemy.
But in terms of the act of sports ownership, I mean, it needs a particular constitution
to want to take that on Bill.
So what's it in everything you've achieved, you thought, you know, the next thing for
Bill Foley to focus his ambitions on, it is the act of sports ownership.
Well, I love the opportunity to create culture, a culture in a sports team with my hockey
players, and we've done that with the Golden Knights, and we're going to do it with Bournemouth's
as well.
But the creation of a team and a group of individuals working together and being dedicated to a common
goal, that's a challenge for me.
I love it.
I've done it my businesses, and I want to try it in sports, and hockey was the first opportunity
that we had, and I mean, it's been successful, and I've loved it, I've loved every minute
of it.
It's true, because you Golden Knights, they took the NHL by eye still.
You made the playoffs the first four seasons in a row, and this last year won the Stanley
Cup.
It's been a really fulfilling, a bold prediction that you built Foley made before a puck had
ever even been slapped in anger.
You said you'd win the Stanley Cup in side six years, and a lot of people go forward when
you said that, who is this man?
What does he know?
What is this city?
It has no place for the Stanley Cup within its culture, but we've got a reputation as
a data wizard employing your black belt in numbers to build a team that will leverage
any potential market advantage to win.
Can you describe this data approach, Ethos, because to me, from the outside, it's everything?
Yeah, well, we knew that we would have a different type of draft when we started the team, that
we would have a little more advantage, a few more advantages than the traditional teams,
and that was true, but I had a genius in my general manager and George McPhee in the
existing GM at that time, Kelly McCrimmon, and we spent a year doing mock drafts, understanding
what each team wanted to keep, what their vulnerabilities were, and the result was we did
a draft, but we didn't just draft the 30 players.
We ended up with draft picks, two players from various teams, and we just were better,
frankly, in terms of the way the draft worked, than our opposing teams.
They didn't take it seriously, and we took it very seriously, and in Florida, for example,
we picked up Jonathan Marsha Show and Riley Smith.
They wanted to get rid of Marsha Show's contract, and they threw in Riley, okay, and Marsha
was the number one goal scored the year before with the Panthers, and so we got two of
the original misfits and that one transaction, and that pretty much happened throughout
the league.
We drafted Mark Andre Flurry, but the taking, they also gave us a second round draft pick,
so we ended up with draft picks, galore, and multiple players, and these were players
that had been rejected, and frankly, I played on that, they were rejected from their previous
team, that they were given up by their previous team to go to an expansion team, and what
chance did we have, and my players were committed, they knew they could win, and they did.
If you were to describe what you saw that others didn't see Bill, how would you end Senate?
I bet we went through 20 mock drafts, where everyone was in the room, and we were going
through every team, analyzing what their vulnerabilities were, who they wanted to keep, who they
might give up, and then working the whole roster to figure out who we could get from
that particular team, and it worked.
We outworked people, it wasn't luck, we worked hard, and my scouting staff was terrific.
I said in all the meetings, so a little bit different than a lot of owners, and so I was
completely involved with every mock draft, I'm still sitting in with all the pro scouts
and amateur scouts, and we go through our annual amateur draft, and also we're doing free
agency, and we analyze every team, and who's available, and who could fit, and who could
help us, and what we need.
And it works, I love it, it's a chess game, and so I love playing chess, and this is
just a chess game on a bigger scale.
Yeah, if lacrosse is hockey on grass, then hockey is really just chess, played by people
with slightly less teeth, and you cracked it so quickly, living in Vegas, you began
looking around for the next thing, and after flirting with minority owners here, and some
football clubs, and potentially being in an MLS team to Vegas, you started to look abroad.
We'll get to Bournemouth in a moment, but first thing first, what was it about the sport
of football for you built in general, soccer, and then the Premier League specifically
that made you want made that leap?
Well, this is the most popular sport in the world.
It's watched by every Saturday, it's watched by more people than watched the Super Bowl.
It's fascinating.
The finest league in the world is the Premier League.
It's really where the action is, and it's where the fun is, and so I thought, if I'm
going to get involved in football, I want to be in the Premier League, that's where I
want to spend my time and have fun.
I love the South Coast of England, and it just so happened that Bournemouth was available,
and after some starts and stops on other teams, I migrated back to Bournemouth, and it
had been for sale for a while, and they had been relegated, and they've got promoted,
and everyone thought we would be relegated, of course, because that's what generally
happens to teams that have been promoted, but I knew we wouldn't be relegated.
I knew we had the makings of a really good team, and I'm really anxious to see what happens
this year with the players that we've brought in during this transfer window.
We've really focused the same way we focused in hockey on getting the right players to
fit the right spot on the team, and I've learned a lot about football in the last year or
so.
I have to imagine, and I want to hear about that journey, because you brought Bournemouth
December 22, from previous owner, Russian Maxim Denim, for a reported $147.6 million,
who was December 22, Bournemouth are a magical footballing story, a tiny team in a cosy seaside
town that had been struggling in the fourth tier just over a decade ago.
Most Americans couldn't point to it on a map.
Most Brits too, let's be honest, they play in a stadium.
It's a dual box, tiny dual box, holds just the 11,307.
Can I share this Bill?
How much did you know about football before you took over, and about the journey, the learning
journey that you've been on?
Who are you speaking to?
You know, so prior to really getting involved with Bournemouth, I had been studying the sport.
I've been trying to understand the sport and understand how I could be influential and
be an agent of change.
And frankly, Bournemouth, I thought, was a terrific opportunity.
It wasn't overly expensive, it was affordable, that was the most important thing.
It was also for sale, and we could buy 100% of the team.
Now we took some risks, because as you said, we have a very, very small stadium, and
it's inadequate for our ultimate goals.
They had an adequate training facility, and so we've already taken action and we're
building an entirely new training facility.
The indoor pitch is just being finished as we speak.
The casans are in for the changing rooms and for the film rooms and so on.
So we'll be opening about a year, 14 months from now.
And once we do that, then we can move on to the stadium, because the training facility
we currently have is where the new stadium would go, it would be part of the new stadium.
So opportunity, opportunity to be an agent of change, I guess, was what I was most attracted
by.
And opportunity to learn about a different sport, the most popular sport in the world, and
to understand it.
And I have a terrific technical staff that's supporting the team, a small scouting group
and a small analytics group, but they're very, very good.
And we uncover, then I have been uncovering players that other people have passed over,
which, of course, that's a terrific advantage if you can find those players.
This is a mad leap, you're 78 years young, you're Tim Reams age.
I've got to say, if I reach that age, I hope to be in my robe and slippers just sipping
something out of a large coconut with a straw attached, but no, you billfully have just
said, I'm going to leap into international football, I'm going to expand my horizons.
I'm fascinated to know what motivates you, but what's the biggest, the most profound
difference that's surprised you from what you know, say in the NHL?
Oh, completely different transfer market, the way you acquire players, you're really
dealing with three entities, the agents, the player and the other team.
And anyone can kibosh a transaction.
And in the NHL, really, you're, we're also not paying for players, you acquire players
by either giving them draft picks or giving up another player.
And you assume a contract, so you're dealing directly with the team, usually a deal you're
talking to the agent to make sure the player wants to come to the location, come to Las Vegas.
But we've been successful in that regard, all the hockey players that we talk to want
to be in Vegas, they love it, they love it.
They love the weather, which I think is too hot, but they leave in the summer, so they
don't care.
And they think the winners are mild, and I think they're kind of actually chilly.
Anyway, the whole football side, the way you acquire players is completely different.
But the skin, it's a chess game.
You're looking at players that you want, you're looking at the positions, you're trying
to fill Tyler Adams's, our defensive midfielder.
And that's, that was a big, that was a big, a big get for us.
He's still recovering from a hamstring injury, but he'll be back, he'll be back, and he
wants to play.
He's, he is a dedicated footballer.
He's a great friend of the show, but are you, so are you talking to other American owners?
I mean, this, if this is a world of difference for you from the NHL, it is a chess game, but
a very different set of rules to the other chess, which you are familiar in, in which you've
won.
Are you dialing up, you're Liverpool owners, you're, you're Arsenal owners, you're probably
not the Chelsea owners, but are you calling them up and, and, and feel like guys, just give
us a little insight, what, what are your learnings, who are you speaking to?
Well, the, really, it, it just isn't hockey, I'm not kind of in that click, the ownership
click.
I've always felt like a, the really the enemy, I'm trying to beat them every game, trying
to understand how to win.
And so I'd say the only owner that I've really spent some time with his West Eden, at, at
Villa, and he's a terrific guy, he was, he was grew up in Montana, which is, again,
a lot of ranch.
So he and I have a lot, a lot in common, I, I really admire him, I admire the success he's
had.
And so he's helped me, just in terms of the transfer market and, and how to manage the team
and so on.
But other than that, I'd really haven't spoken to, uh, other owners, I, it's, you know,
I just have to figure it out myself.
This is amazing.
I love this.
What if our nation's best ranchers became football owners, but when you talk over, the stakes
were so bloody high for you, essentially saying, I learned by doing, but when you talk
over, Bournemouth, first season back in the Premier League, Scott Parker, had led them
out of the championship, then got torn apart early on, nine, they lost the Liverpool.
So when you came aboard, there wasn't even a full time manager, Garry O'Neill, into
emboss.
And you were suddenly chairman of a team that were, I think, three points off the relegation
zone.
And we don't have relegation in American sports.
So your first day on the job bill, what was the plan?
Just even the immediate next steps, do you recall the mindset?
Well, I, I do because, you know, it took about three or four months to actually get the,
get the transaction approved.
So I'd gone over in, in October and spent about 10 days or so and really met the football,
the people on the football side, the business side, I knew we could handle fairly easily.
I, we, we'd already done it with the Vegas Golden Knights.
We started from nothing, and I brought in a key guy to run the business side for me who
had worked for me at the Golden Knights.
And so he's built his organization out.
Well, you know, we like guys, let's run those mock drafts.
They didn't do it, they don't do it quite like that, but they, you know, it's, it's analytics.
It's looking at players in different parts of the world that maybe people have overlooked.
You know, first, first transfer window in January, we picked up a, you know, a, a great
center back from Ukraine.
Now, who would be thinking about Ukraine in the middle of a war?
And my, my staff started thinking about that.
And so we picked up some really solid players that got us out of relegation, so I wasn't
happy with the last four games of the season because we lost all four, and I felt we should
have won a couple of them.
But, you know, we were well out of relegation, we beat Leeds for one, about four or five
weeks before the end of the season.
So we were out of relegation, we survived, but I knew we wouldn't be relegated.
I wouldn't have talked about that.
But anyway, thank you.
Thank you for letting Everton beat you on the last day of the season.
I do want to thank you for that.
Even though your team played bloody hard, they had nothing to play for.
And they played bloody hard, and it was vaguely terrifying.
But I have spoken to a couple of people in football, Bill.
And I've got to say a lot of them marvel at just how quickly and how deeply involved
you became in almost every step of the process.
This isn't some kind of absentee landlord situation.
You've described yourself and these are your words, Bill, to the BBC.
When you arrived, you gave us what kind of lead you were.
And you said, this is your quote, a dictator, another phrase of yours, captain of the ship.
And again, this is your word, not mine.
He said, anal, another great Bill Foley quote, there's nothing more limited than being
a limited partner of Bill Foley.
So why is it like to have Bill Foley as a boss in your own words?
What kind of owner are you?
You know, I'm a, I'm a benevolent dictator.
And I'm a team, I'm a team builder.
And I've, I learned many years ago, I learned in the service that if you accept
mediocrity, you're going to be mediocre.
So I don't accept mediocrity.
And I'm pretty diligent and even ruthless in terms of trying to get the right team
put together that they all work together and think, sink together.
And I was fortunate in that the footballers on at Bournemouth, they're a good
group of people.
And they, they embraced my leadership in terms of the way I deal with people.
And I've loved being part of their, part of their team.
And you know, we have a made changes on the, on the football side, other than
obviously that head coach.
But on terms of the internal staff, it's the same as it was when I got there.
But they're freed up.
They're, I've allowed them to be much more innovative and much more entrepreneurial.
And that's part of our, that's going to be a good part of our success.
I want to talk more about some of the, the manager thing, certainly the data
thing. But you know, I would do knowing to acknowledge talking of your limited
partners, one of Bournemouth's minority investors is Michael B. Jordan,
better known as a donus creed, Eric Kilmunger or Vince Howard from Friday
night lights.
And arguably the best Michael Jordan, since Michael A Jordan.
How does his involvement happen?
Was he just like a big chalk kill, Jordan, they found either these
connections occur.
Tell us the story of how you met.
Yeah, he was actually introduced to me by a friend by a friend, Peter Sudowski,
who is my chief legal officer and he and Nula soccer actually introduced us.
And they were interested in Bournemouth.
And I thought, you know, what could be better than having, I mean, a really good
guy in, in MBJ is a solid guy.
He's very down to earth.
He's a common guy.
And I thought, well, he can help us market.
He can, he can be involved in our international marketing plans and,
the projects we have underway.
And he's been, he's been fantastic.
And we're working on a documentary right now that he'll be, he'll be involved
with, which will be a lot of fun.
So we're in the middle of that of doing the finishing this sizzle reel.
And we're going to, it's going to be the story of, the story of the little guy
who actually was, actually, is successful against all odds.
And it should be several seasons because I feel like we're going to be moving
up in the table, not down in the table.
Is this you breaking news and Michael B Jordan is going to be playing
Tyler Adams in the forthcoming biopic?
I just guess it's a documentary.
So I think you'll be playing himself.
I have heard rumors.
I don't want to put you on the spot that the Ryan family who are part of the
ownership group of the ineligible greatest football team in America, the Chicago
Bears. But that Ryan family are either investing or have just invested in the club
that Ryan sports ventures are.
What can you tell us about, about news of the imminent Chicago bear cherries?
Yeah, I'm really pleased to have a family like the Ryan family.
Commit us and make an, make an investment because there, there's such great
people from, I mean, the whole family is just really their fantastic people.
They have a good analytics group that we want to get involved with that we were
anxious to have them help us get better.
And I'm pleased that they're making it.
It's a, it's a modest investment, but they're going to be part of black
night football club, which is fantastic.
I believe you know, you're ultimately judged by the people you associate with.
And I love being associated with the Ryan family.
They're really good people.
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And for a one to re plus.
Here's the gist of the conversation you take over the club.
One of your companies is the data firm you've just mentioned black night
financial. You famously dig into the data of any potential takeover.
You're poking for for market opportunities and inefficiencies.
You brought a similar approach to the NHL.
So when you take over this club, despite their precarious position,
you declare to the British press, which was a crazy moment, Bill Foley.
I'm going to be candid from the outside.
You said to the British press who are known for those who don't know,
not for being the most generous and they remember everything and they can't
wait to fling it back in your face.
You said we will not be relegated this season.
Was was that just you talking or was that the data?
That's all I don't know.
I always like to imagine that you Bill Foley had like data in your pocket.
You already knew the outcome because of this data.
If it was, what did you see that led you to make that incredible statement?
I knew that the players we were bringing in in the transfer window would
significantly improve our play and our offensive capabilities.
And they did.
And we really went on a good win streak, beginning really in March.
And we stumbled in January and in February,
but we got it going in March and these players started performing and they
started believing in themselves.
So every time I saw them and talked to a player, I just said,
you've got to believe in yourself.
We have a unique situation.
We can do it.
And I was convinced we could do it.
And I didn't make it.
It was a silly statement because I'd been interviewed by five or six
different people back to back to back to back to back.
And everyone said, well, you're going to be relegated.
What are you going to do then?
And I finally got sick and tired.
I said, we will not be relegated.
I guarantee it.
So I love this.
By the way, for the next two months, every article about ball,
you were tied into it.
It was just a owner, Bill Foley has promised that they wouldn't be relegated.
So if I'm, if I'm compressing your answer accurately, you started off by telling
me why you were convinced in your gut, the acquisitions and all that, which I love.
But essentially, you were just saying it because they, you were pissed off for
the British press, given all about relegation all the time.
It's just like the Irish, isn't it?
Well, I was irritated.
But I knew the quality of our team.
And I knew I knew how dedicated they were.
I mean, I'd spent time with them.
I'd talk to them when I was over there to the various, a lot of different players.
And I knew that they had a will to win.
And I just, I just knew we were not going to be relegated.
I love you, Bill Foley.
I really did.
I thought Bill knew from data projections.
Well, no, you were just pissed off with the pressure like, sorry, we're not getting relegated.
Shut up.
Next question, but you also made another declaration.
You said European qualification within the next five years.
This is a man who said, remember listeners, Vegas Golden Knights will win the Stanley Cup
within six and he beat that projection.
But the reality is football success in England is very different to American success
where you kind of have the draft and the super draft and the, you know, rev share
and gesture towards equality.
Football success in England is so closely correlated to wage bills, the rich teams win.
And as you dig into a whole new pool of data, XG, XA, shots per 90, whatever else the quants
talk about these days, what have you seen that will help you gain this system, Bill?
This is one I really want to understand.
No one else is watching this.
You can tell us straight up.
Well, I just know, I know our system and I know what we're doing to find players and
develop players.
And I had decided along with Richard Hughes and Neil Blake that when we had the opportunity
to make a coaching change, it wasn't about not liking Gary O'Neill because I like him
as an individual and I thought he did a good job in keeping us up.
But I felt that if we're going to have a chance to win some big games and against tough
competition, our style of play needed to need to be modified.
We needed to change.
And so we had a chance to, there's really happened chance, had an opportunity to hire
Andoni.
And he is, he's changing our style of play.
The players are still picking up on it.
The other thing that a lot of people don't realize is that when we started the season,
we had seven starters for it.
So we were really struggling just trying to get people on the pitch.
And now these players are coming back with the exception of Tyler and Alex Scott, though
I'll be back.
And that'll be a different team.
That's a, that's a quick team that will be competitive, especially with Andoni's style
of play.
I'm actually looking forward.
I don't know how we got a schedule like we got.
I mean, someone didn't like us.
That's all I can say.
It was most certainly you had a front-loaded heavyweight gauntlet to get through in the
opening part of the season.
And I know that because every Bournemouth fan has sent me the league adjusted for the
weight of the opponent, just telling me to calm down that Bournemouth will rise again.
But we have Billy Bean on our show on the regs.
And he talks about how following the numbers removes emotion from decision-making.
And you talk about the decision to relieve Gary O'Neill from that full-time role.
The team ended up delivering on your promise, they finished 15th, five points above the
drop.
At the time, some were even saying Gary O'Neill as a fireman should be in the conversation
for manager of the season.
It was a bold decision to part ways with him as a startling one.
In many quarters, you bring in Raya Veya, Cano's coveted young and Doniura Ola.
But you said to me in 2002 that I think applies here.
You said we're always looking over our shoulder.
So when things are good, that's the time to prepare.
What's just a clinical numbers decision?
Is that what drew your decision?
It just wasn't clinical numbers.
It was really a style of play that we were engaging in.
We were really a counter-attacking team.
And I felt we needed to be on the offense.
We needed to be aggressive.
We needed to attack.
And that's Andoni's style.
He's a be also student and fast-paced.
And when we had the opportunity and came to us from Richard Hughes, I think you call him
a technical director or a sporting director.
And he came to myself and to Neil Blake, the CEO.
And then we started talking about it.
And I said, if we don't do this now, we may never have a chance to do it again.
So we just need to be aggressive and we need to be willing to make change.
If you don't make change, then you're not going to be successful.
Let's talk about Erola.
I mean, about taking me through your search process, who's involved in that?
How do you narrow down the names?
What did the interview process look like?
I mean, you've talked about Erola, the aggressive, the buckineering football.
What was it about him that made you believe he in particular was the man that could take
your club to the next level?
Well, I first listened to Richard Hughes and to Simon Francis, who is one of his top assistants.
And they were intrigued by Andoni.
And they convinced Neil Blake that this was a move that really we have a chance to do.
We have a chance to make.
And if we don't make this move, we're going to regret it in the future.
And that's really all they had to tell me.
And I did a little research on Andoni.
And I was satisfied that he would be an agent of change.
And that's what I always look for.
How can we change and be more effective and improve, constantly improve?
And I believe he's going to, I believe he's going to do it.
And when people said, well, you may have made a mistake.
And I said, you're right, but if I made a mistake, it's on me, you know, I'll take responsibility
because I was involved in the decision-making process.
A great friend of this show, talking about agents of change, Tyler Adams, fantastic
human being.
You signed him from Leeds on August the 20th, five year deal.
The United States captain, you triggered his 25.5 million dollar release clause.
And he said, when he signed, he said that you bill Foley, played an integral part in
his decision to join the cherries, fascinated.
Was the data shown you about Tyler, is currently out with a hamstring injury?
We wish you a speedy return, Tyler mate.
But can you give us Bill a sense of when he will be back and the role that you see for
him in this squad that you identified with the data?
He is going to be a key player in terms of being this defensive midfield of the number
six that Andoni needs.
And Doni needs that player.
When I got there in the last January, our cupboard was bare.
We had to bring in some players.
And we had to do it again this summer to bring in more players to supplement the, a lot
of those really good players that we already had in place.
And because we were on that relegation bubble, we lost a couple good players that moved
on, which is really, it's too bad because we can, we can, we can use the lurma again.
But Tyler is going to be, he's going to take, take that role along.
He wants to win.
If you talk to Tyler and spend a time with him at all, he is wants to win.
And that's what I look for.
I look for a guy of players, hockey, football, do they have the desire, will they overcome
some inadequacies they may have in terms of their physical ability and with winning?
And I'll give you a good example of that.
A guy who really is not a great skater, who's our captain of our hockey team, Mark Stone.
He wants to win.
And he, he overcomes maybe not perfect physical attributes in terms of his skating ability
with desire.
Mentality.
Mentality.
Smart.
So I'm looking for players that have football sense, that I know had that will to win and
you know, they'll perform on the pitch and they won't, they won't be intimidated.
And I believe he picked up a couple of really, really good ones in this transfer window.
I like, I'm, I want you to keep an eye on, on Dango Otara.
He is, he is going to be something and he's coming back, you know, he had a high ankle
ring.
Normally that's, that's eight, ten weeks out.
He's coming back in about five and a half, six weeks, he wants to win.
He wants to be on the pitch and I'm proud of him.
And I haven't really spoken to him because he speaks French, I can speak French, but I just
know the quality of individual that he is.
So that's an example of the type of people that we're bringing into Bournemouth's.
Tyler Adams, Premier League, Mark Stone.
He had say he's more skilled in terms of his football attributes than Mark is in terms
of his skating, but Mark, of course he's got a great shot.
He never gives up and he never gives in.
He's just, he's a, he's a terrific guy.
He's a good friend, you know, and he's a shy guy.
He doesn't say much to get something out of him.
It's really, really hard.
But he has a will to win and that locker room, respecting and that, that's the one thing
we had this year in the hockey side that I thought we had lost after the first couple
of years.
I thought the locker room wasn't quite right.
And so we made some changes and we got some people moved on that we all felt were maybe
not the best in the locker room.
And we had the best, we had the locker room equivalent to the first year's team.
It was a great locker room.
Bill, British clubs have been historically very parochial.
They are local to the point of being myopic at times.
That's shifting now that we have these global brands, your Manchester's, you know, he didn't
city, your arsenals, your Liverpool's, your Chelsea's, you know, rexham have sort of
position themselves as everyone's second club with a Hulu show.
Welcome to rexham, Ron Reynolds, he's hard to compete with.
Even for someone as dashing as Bill Foley, but let's wait and see why he looks like in
his 70s, shall we?
Well, what exactly do you see as the market opening for the cherries?
What role could Bournemouth play or what will people think when they hear the name Bournemouth
in the coming years?
They're going to appreciate a team that has really evolved and developed and has become
its own personality and is a team that wins.
And my expectations are not, they're not outlandish for Bournemouth.
I want to move up a few places in the table every year for the next several years and become
established as a number nine or 18 in the league and maybe 17 and then maybe Europe.
So that's really what I am focused on and trying to improve the team and every position
in the team needs to be better every year.
We need to keep on working on that.
It's going to be expensive and we have to be careful about financial fair play, but
we're fine for the time being, but we understand we've got to also plan for the future, but
we need to improve, constantly improve, constantly get better.
That's why I'm committed to new facilities.
I want the players to have the very best.
But I tell my hockey players and I tell them, I'm telling the footballers, your job is
to win.
My job is to make sure that's all you have to think about.
You don't have to think about who your doctor, who your family doctor should be.
We take care of it.
We get you referred in.
You don't have to worry about when you have an injury and we've improved our medical
staff significantly by bringing in a new director, new medical director, a new physio director.
If you need a car, we need to help you lease the car or buy the car.
If you need a house, we need to help you find the house and we need to take care of getting
your AV equipment installed.
You don't have to worry about anything, others in winning.
If I can instill that attitude in Bournemouth, we will win and we will play in Europe, I'm
convinced of it.
God, European nights and the vitality, American fans are saying, do get down there.
It is just a fascinatingly memorable night to see a team play truly, truly literally
embedded in the community that surrounds it.
But Bournemouth and your only investment, you brought a 33% of Liga and Club Luriant.
You've been quite open, but plan to do a similar deal for a club in Belgium, create a multi-club
model.
Can you paint us a picture, Bill?
Where ultimately do you want to go with the whole group and what will it take to get
that?
Yeah.
We're not going to be Man City.
Obviously, they've got 12 teams or 13 teams around the world.
But I believe if we have a Belgian club, we're going to own a 100% of the league one club
in a few years.
It's sort of set up on a phase basis.
I'm fascinated by this Scottish Premier League.
They play hard, scotch or tough.
They play a tough brand of football.
I believe there are opportunities to make one of the number four, five or six SPL team
to get them to number three and they play in Europe.
I believe we can pull that off with not a gigantic investment and be a minority investor
to be supportive of that club.
Then work on sponsorship together because we have a whole sponsorship team, I know we can
help an SPL team.
So we're working toward that goal right now with a particular team.
Then we have our sites set on some other clubs and I believe if we can end up with four
or five economic interests in various clubs, that we will have the system in place for
players to advance and to move on to the next club, to move on to the next club.
We will have similar analytic staff in place and technical directors that will look for
the right type of players that they know can play ultimately for AFC Bournemouth.
You just heard here, Bill Foley is going to buy hearts or hips from Logan Roy.
Six years ago, you predicted the Golden Knights would win the Stanley Cup and last year,
you predicted Bournemouth would avoid relegation.
You've clearly got a much more reliable eight ball than I do.
What's your ball prediction for this year?
What should I better be believing?
I believe we'll be end up 12th or so in the league.
That's a modest goal based upon the players we have in place and if we don't get there,
if we end up being 13th or 14th, I won't be completely unhappy.
But I believe we need to make progress.
We need to advance.
If you're not advancing, you're retreating.
So always advance.
I've got to say, buy your arm off for 12, 13, 14, any of those.
But make the case, Bill, to American fans watching this.
Why Bournemouth?
What singular experience will they get out of a lifetime watching the cherries?
Americans love an underdog and we're an underdog.
And Americans will love supporting Bournemouth as the underdog.
The little engine that could, you know, they could make it up that mountain.
Americans still have to get to know Bournemouth.
They have to understand what we're doing.
They have to really follow the team and understand the progress that we're making and what we're doing.
A lot of the fans in Bournemouth are starting to understand.
My goal is not to change the way English football fans feel or act.
I want to maintain tradition and maintain the thought process of English football fans.
But I want them to also embrace change and understand that we're going to be aggressive.
We're going to keep on changing.
Last question, Bill, because your story is amazing.
It's fascinating.
Some journey from the ranchers outside Austin, Texas to a dual box of a stadium
a stones throw from the English channel is mind blowing.
But what's the most important piece of advice you glean
as a life lesson from that journey that propelled your success that you would tell our young audience?
What I really say is you never give up and you never give in.
You always advance and you keep your eye on the ball and understand that you've got to be flexible.
I was told when I was in the service that I was the best crisis commander that ever seen.
And I'm a crisis manager.
I can deal with the toughest and the worst situations and develop decision making process that actually we come out ahead.
So I would just advise people that are coming up through the business world or through the sporting world
to never give up and never give in.
Be Winston Churchill.
One of my great heroes.
God, I've got to say I love that.
So the relegation zone has no fear for crisis commander.
We're not afraid of relegation.
We have a good team.
If we were to be relegated, if we were to be relegated, it would just be bad luck.
Because we have a good team.
And people will start seeing that as we move through.
All we have now is Arsenal next year next year next year.
And that's after that's after Liverpool taught them.
Bradford.
That's why you need a crisis commander as the owner of your team.
I gotta say Bill Foley.
Thank you so much for your time.
I know you've got about 18 jobs to get to.
So I'm immensely grateful that you come on and share that journey.
And they're really more than a journey.
Your way of looking at the world.
All the best this season.
Thank you, Roger.
Just great being with you.
I appreciate the time you've been.
Thank you, Bill.
Carried.
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