Bill Foley considered setting up an MLS franchise in Las Vegas before $185m Bournemouth takeover

New AFC Bournemouth owner Bill Foley says he was interested in bringing top-level soccer to the deserts of Las Vegas before turning down the idea.

Foley, the owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, told the BBC lewis coombes that the high sticker price of the stadiums and the team itself prevented him from establishing an MLS team in Sin City.

“You know, I looked at it and looked at it and took it pretty seriously,” Foley said after being asked if he would consider a future purchase of an MLS team following its $185 million acquisition of the Premier League. club.

Vegas Golden Knights and Bournemouth owner Bill Foley won’t put an MLS team in Las Vegas

Foley recently completed a $185 million acquisition of Premier League side AFC Bournemouth

“Unfortunately, MLS requires a stadium to be built and stadiums now in the United States cost $600 million, $700 million.

‘I think the franchise fee itself is $300 million. So, you’re in it for a billion dollars before you have a team. I thought Bournemouth was really a bargain.

I am buying a Premier League team, it already has a stadium, it already has players and I can improve it. I can do better. So I don’t see us involved in MLS. I’m just not that interested in it.

Foley was considering creating a second team of his own in Las Vegas, but decided against it.

The businessman officially completed his takeover of AFC Bournemouth earlier this week, as head of a consortium of investors that includes Hollywood star Michael B. Jordan.

MailOnline exclusively revealed the deal and Foley’s interest in October, with an agreement to sell the club to him days later.

In addition to the Golden Knights, Foley is the chairman of Fidelity National Financial, one of the largest insurance companies in the US, and is said to be worth $1.2bn (£1.08bn).

When Foley sought to create the Golden Knights expansion, he paid the NHL a $500 million expansion fee. That’s considerably more than the $2 million team owners paid in 1967, when the league first decided to add more teams to its “Original Six.”

The Seattle Kraken, the latest NHL expansion team to just wrap up its first season, paid the whopping $650 million franchise fee.

Major League Soccer recently added its 29th team, St. Louis City SC, which will begin competition next season. This year, Charlotte FC made its MLS debut.

St. Louis City paid $200 million in franchise fees, while Charlotte, expected to be MLS’s 30th team in the league, paid $325 million to create a team.

Initially, the league expected its 29th franchise to be the Sacramento Republic FC, currently playing in the second division USL Championship. However, after the team ran into a roadblock developing the stadium, the expansion was put on “indefinite hiatus” in early 2021.

Foley paid $500 million in a franchise fee to establish the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017

According to the sports business website. SportsMLS’s current 28 franchises are worth a combined $16.3 billion.

MLS Cup champions Los Angeles FC are worth the most at $900 million, followed by cross-town rivals LA Galaxy at $865 million, then Atlanta United ($855 million), Seattle Sounders FC ($725 million) and Toronto FC ($705 million).

The bottom five MLS teams in descending order are Real Salt Lake ($430 million), Orlando City SC ($420 million), Vancouver Whitecaps FC ($415 million), Colorado Rapids ($400 million) and CF Montreal as the least valuable franchise with $390 million. .

That’s a marked difference from the previous year, where three teams had valuations below $400 million.

MLS was scheduled to have 30 teams for now, but Sacramento Republic FC isn’t ready to join just yet.