Bournemouth takeover: New owner Bill Foley 'a dictator' and 'needs to be captain of the ship'
- Published
New AFC Bournemouth chairman Bill Foley watched the team play Leicester City in October
New Bournemouth owner Bill Foley led a takeover of the club because he needs to be "the captain of the ship" - and has described himself as "a dictator".
Foley became Cherries chairman after his Black Knight Football Club group bought the Premier League outfit.
The American businessman also owns NHL franchise the Vegas Golden Knights.
"I have been looking at different investment situations in the Premier League for several years but I'm not a good minority owner," he told the BBC.
"I tell my limited partners, and they know this, there is nothing more limited than being a limited partner of Bill Foley."
Foley is chairman of Cannae Holdings Inc, which has a 50.1% interest in Bournemouth.
"I have looked at several teams over the last two or three years and they all involved minority investment and someone else is already in charge. I don't like that. I'm a dictator," he told BBC Radio Solent.
"When I'm involved, I need to be the captain of the ship. I had to wait for a situation where I could buy the team myself, with my partners of course, and control the destiny of the team.
"I've always said with the Vegas Golden Knights that if there's a mistake made then it's on me. I'll take responsibility and I plan on doing the same thing with AFCB."
The deal for Bournemouth is reported to have cost about £120m,, external and the minority ownership group of the club is led by Hollywood actor Michael B Jordan.
Foley said there were "no borrowings" involved in the deal and "we ended up raising roughly $250m". He described the deal as "a bargain".
"The MLS, unfortunately, requires a stadium to be built and, in the United States, that is costing $600-700m," he said.
"The franchise fee itself, I think, is $300m so you are into it for a billion dollars before you have a team.
"I'm buying a Premier League team that already has a stadium, already has players and I can improve it. I don't see us being involved in the MLS."
Foley plans to ensure there are "adequate funds" for a new training facility, building a new stadium or upgrading the Vitality Stadium, and player transfers.
And he is pursuing a "multi-club concept", saying: "We are in negotiations with a Ligue 1 team in exclusivity and with a first division team in Belgium that would give us that little triangle that we could move players back and forth.
"We raised adequate funds to fund all these transactions. I'm excited about how much progress we are making. Everyone in Bournemouth is going to be excited about this."
He added: "It's going to take us a few years to do this.
"The big thing is we need more seats as 11,300 is not adequate for what we need to accomplish at Bournemouth."
He is also looking to change the make-up of the fans at matches.
"When I went to the game, I looked around the stadium and everyone looked like me - older, white men," he said.
"I want to expand our base. We have to go younger, I want a lot more females going to our games. I want diversity - then we really have something going."
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