Maxim Demin was in office for 11 years. BournemouthWe are heading into a new era in ownership.
Bill Foley, an American billionaire and majority owner of the company, is the largest shareholder. National Hockey League’s (NHL) Vegas Golden Knights, is heading a consortium now In exclusive discussions to purchase the Premier League club.
Foley is a person? Who is Foley? And what does an owner of a Las Vegas team want with Bournemouth, little old Bournemouth?!
Allow The Athletic to answer all those burning questions and more…
Who is Bill Foley?”
Foley is well-known for his ability to bring joy to others. The first major professional sports franchise in Las VegasWhen the Golden Knights were created as an expansion team in 2017,
Foley, who graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1966, negotiated multimillion-dollar defense contracts with Boeing as a second lieutenant in US Air Force. After that, he transitioned to corporate law in the 1970s. Foley then bought and restructured Fidelity National Financial which was then in financial trouble. He is still the chairman of the board.
Now aged 77, the Texas native runs, owns and invests in many companies across the US. These include insurance, data analysis, wineries, and golf courses.
Foley at a Golden Knights fan fest in Las Vegas, 2018 (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images).
Is he a good owner?
Foley is known for being a very ambitious owner. In the NHL, the annual salary cap is $81.5million (£71.4m), which means teams are only allowed to spend money on player wages within that limit. Foley, however, has spent the entire league’s annual salary cap to acquire high-priced players with big contracts in an effort to make the Golden Knights competitive immediately against teams that have been around for decades.
The team sometimes placed players on long term injury reserve to make it possible to spend more money. Foley’s commitment to putting the best players on the ice has been clear for all to see.
But there are some downsides to Foley’s aggressive methods as his patience levels do not seem very high. Two promising head coaches have been fired by the Golden Knights, Gerard Gallant (left) and Peter DeBoer (right), in their five seasons. Bruce Cassidy, however, is highly respected in this sport.
Few, though, can question the level of Foley’s investment. There is a strong feeling among those who know Foley that he won’t come to Bournemouth looking to cut costs or make a profit.
Foley is a Las Vegas resident, so it’s unlikely that he will be as involved with Bournemouth than he was with the Golden Knights. He is an extremely visible figure.
Foley with fans prior to the 2017 NHL Awards. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images).
Foley not only attends every Golden Knights game but is also at training almost every day. Foley even built his own viewing space just above their homerink. From there, he and Kelly McCrimmon watch the practice sessions. Foley also takes the time to visit the changing rooms after every game and talk with the players.
Is he compatible with Bournemouth
Foley would be the owner of the majority of the shares. Premier League’s current 20 clubs are fully or partly owned by Americans — a development that has been both Both applauded as well as criticisedIn some quarters. Foley has dealt before with similar gatekeeping.
Only seven of the NHL’s 32 teams are based in Canada, where the league was founded in 1917. Rest are in the US. Canadian-supporting pundits and hockey fans aren’t thrilled to learn more about the sport that they invented and popularized.
When the Golden Knights entered the league and started winning straight away — they got to the Stanley Cup Final, the best-of-seven series which decides each season’s NHL champions, in their very first season — those Canadian markets were more upset than anyone else.
Las Vegas is a city that enjoys warm weather, literally in a desert. There are temperatures up to 41C (106F) with palm trees and streets. Canadians grew up playing ice hockey on frozen lakes. There was a feeling that initial long-term suffering was a necessary part of paying one’s dues as an expansion team and the fact that Foley’s men virtually skipped that step rubbed many up the wrong way.
So, in a sense, he is relatively well-equipped to deal with English football’s scrutiny of US ownership.
Bournemouth fans may not be keen to see their club become American owned. Be prepared for a businessman that seems to enjoy the glamour of the city he resides in.
Before each Golden Knights home game, there is a grandiose introduction where the starting line-ups are announced with a smoke show and a pre-recorded video played on the arena’s big screen.
Foley was interested in being a part of the pregame show. Foley was dressed in all army gear and flew a helicopter while triumphant music played in the background.
This is Demin’s stark contrast.
Russian-born businessman, Foley, does not attend games. In his 11 years of Bournemouth ownership, he has only made two statements public. These were both in response to high-profile managerial firings. Adjusting to Foley’s bombastic character could be quite the culture shock.
Who are the Golden Knights, you ask?
There were 30 NHL teams not too long ago.
The Golden Knights became the 31st for the 2017-18 season, but first Black Knight Sports and Entertainment — a consortium in which Foley is the lead investor — had to prove there was enough supporter interest in the gambling and tourist mecca of Las Vegas to make placing an expansion team there work.
Foley and his business partners managed promotions that tried to persuade people into buying season tickets for teams that didn’t exist yet. The results? The result?
This feat is made even more remarkable by the fact that there was never a major professional sports team in Las Vegas before the Golden Knights.
Because of the importance of gambling in the city there were concerns about how it would work and the leagues didn’t want to be involved. But Foley saw this as an opportunity to give Las Vegas a chance, rather than a deterrent — and it has worked out very well.
The Golden Knights have sold out every home game, and in the wake of Foley’s initial success, the NFL’s Raiders moved from Oakland in California to Vegas two years ago. The team also has a home in the WNBA, top-flight women’s basketball, with the San Antonio Stars coming to town in 2018 and renaming themselves the Las Vegas Aces. They beat Connecticut Sun 3-1 in a best of five series to win the WNBA.
The NBALeBron Jam, the largest name in basketball, is now also looking to expand his business.
Foley’s accomplishments are more than just ice hockey. He showed the world that Las Vegas can host other sports events than boxing and UFC and others seem to be following his lead.
Foley’s success with the Golden Knights has been amazing.
Foley, who only created the team in 2017, had a very difficult job. But he and his staff made the Golden Knights one the most successful expansion teams in US sports history.
When a new team join the NHL, the league holds an expansion draft — the new franchise gets to pick one player from every other team. Thirty teams means 30 players to make up the newcomers’ initial 23-man squad, but the draft rules allowed those existing franchises to protect their best players from being selected, so the Golden Knights had to sift through what was left.
Foley and George McPhee, then-general manager of the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images).
George McPhee, the Golden Knights’ general manager at the time and a man with over 20 years’ experience in the NHL, recruited well, bringing in out-of-favour players who ended up playing much better in Vegas’ colours than many expected.
But after a positive first four years that also saw them reach the semi-finals twice, the Knights have started losing more matches — and trading away their most popular players. The fan sentiment has started to turn sour.
Last season was the first time that the team failed to reach the championship play-offs. This has only increased the negative and critical scrutiny.
Didn’t Foley try to set up an MLS team, too?
Yes. In 2019, he was keen to bring Major League Soccer to Vegas.
The United Soccer League (USL) is one rung below MLS in the US football pyramid. The USL expanded team Las Vegas Lights was granted to Vegas, which will begin play in 2018. Their owner Brett Lashbrook wanted to prove that Vegas loved football enough for MLS to allow the Lights to join the top flight.
Foley was the only problem. He ended up competing against Lashbrook when he tried to establish an MLS section in the city.
It is thought MLS preferred Lashbrook’s proposal over Foley’s new entrant, given the Lights were already established. Foley was not interested in starting an MLS club in the city, and he has his sights set on a new ownership for a football club. The Lights play in the USL.
Foley had announced in June that she was planning on lending. John Textor is co-owner of Crystal Palace €523million (£458m, $522m) to purchase a majority stake in French club Lyon.
Foley could have converted the loan into shares to get a share of the Ligue 1 team. However, it appears that he is now looking to purchase a European club instead.
Bournemouth on sale
Demin has been trying for sale for at least 4 years. He wants a return of his investment, or at the minimum, his money back, in any possible sale. According to the last set of club accounts, Demin was owed nearly £130million as of last summer, with a note to say that had increased by £20million since.
It is worth pointing out that Demin still invested another £23million via player transfers during the transfer window that closed three weeks ago.
They’re so beautiful, why would anyone want to buy them?
To keep Bournemouth at such a high level, it takes a lot of money and hard work.
The club needs to complete their new training center, which they started work on in June. The progress made so far on the project will not be affected by the imminent takeover.
There is also the issue of stadiums.
There are plans by the potential new owner to build Vitality Stadium. This stadium, which holds just over 11,000, is the smallest in the Premier League.
Kings Park is the only site that could be used for a larger stadium in the city. However, this would require a change of law in the UK as the parkland is currently protected by an Act of Parliament dating back to the 1980s. It is believed that Bournemouth will be able to move into a new place in four to five years.
Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium is the smallest in the Premier League (Photo: Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)
It is also easy to see why Foley and his fellow investors are interested in the chance to become the Premier League’s latest American owners. As a former MLS commissioner, Foley has spent many years trying bring MLS to Las Vegas. His success with the Golden Knights shows that he isn’t afraid to start a new team.
With no manager in place after the sacking of last season’s Premier League promotion winner Scott Parker just four games into the new campaign and no big-name star players to appease, Foley will look to hit the ground running with Bournemouth, as he did with his ice-hockey team.
What is Bournemouth worth to you?
Insiders believe the club are worth between £80million and £120million, depending on which division they are in, but Foley might be able to talk Demin down to a price of around £100million.
Foley and investors are looking for a Premier League team. Bournemouth is also available. The potential price tag has been reduced by millions due to the strength of USD against the Pound.
Industry experts believe clubs that move between the top and bottom divisions of English soccer, like Bournemouth, will lose their value. parachute payments — the money guaranteed to clubs for the first three years after relegation from the Premier League — are to be slashed or even scrapped, as is proposed. Ditching or limiting these payments would harm Bournemouth’s ability to bounce straight back up and make the ChampionshipClubs will enjoy a fairer competition.
The club has an opportunity to avoid a long-term existence in the lower league. The club must make the most of their Premier League status, and a sale might do that. But it would also mean so-called “yo-yo clubs” are worth half the price Demin wants for them — and that is before potentially knocking more off Bournemouth’s price because of the stadium issues.
What does this mean for Bournemouth’s hunt for a new head coach?
Bournemouth are reluctant to appoint anyone as a permanent employee until a takeover has been completed. They will pitch multiple candidates to Foley, his advisors, if the deal is approved.
Parker was finally fired in late August there was a reasonable assumption among Bournemouth’s hierarchy that the takeover was likely to be completed before the September international break which began on Monday. The ideal situation at that time was to appoint a new coach in conjunction with the change in ownership, but it is now clear that any appointment is likely to come weeks after Foley is confirmed as the club’s new owner.
Parker’s assistant Gary O’Neil is unbeaten in three games as interim coach, which has quelled fans’ appetite for an instant replacement, but the club would still prefer to make an external appointment for the long term. Expectations are that a new head coach will be in place by mid-November, when the season is suspended. World Cup.
Bournemouth is able to plan in an unusual way because they have a midseason tournament to contend with. As a chance to strengthen their squad, the January transfer window was created.
It is quite ironic that Bournemouth has achieved some stability on the pitch at a time when it is much more unstable.
Despite the seemingly odd fit, there is a hope that Foley’s ownership can help steer the club towards steadier waters.
(Top photo: David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)
