New Las Vegas team owner Bill Foley could well be the most interesting man in hockey
— -- LAS VEGAS -- Midway through my chat with Bill Foley, the principal owner of the NHL's newest team, he discovered, much to his relief, that he didn't need to wear dress pants to his meeting with commissioner Gary Bettman.
Phew. Jeans suit the investment executive and entrepreneur better.
After Wednesday's official announcement that the NHL will expand for the first time since 2000 and add a new team in Las Vegas beginning with the 2017-18 season, Foley, an admitted recluse, might well be the most important, or at least the most interesting, man in hockey.
If this is uncharted territory for the NHL and all of pro sports -- the first pro franchise to call the gambling and vacation mecca home -- it is for Foley as well.
The former head of Fidelity National Financial is also heavily involved in winery investments, mostly in California but also around the globe. But a man accustomed to operating behind the scenes has had to redefine himself as a public figure as he campaigned to bring professional hockey to Las Vegas.
Rather than seeming euphoric on the eve of one of his biggest business successes, the NHL's approval of his team, Foley was more understated.
"I've worked so hard, and it's been such a process, that it's exciting but it's anticlimactic," Foley said while sitting in his spacious office about 25 minutes off the Las Vegas Strip. "It really is. People have said, 'Congratulations. If this happens, it's fantastic. You've worked so hard.' I said, 'I have and I am really kind of exhausted.'"
When Bettman took the unusual step in early 2015 of allowing Foley to engage in a trial season-ticket drive to test the market in Las Vegas, it's fair to say few in the hockey world knew exactly who Foley was or how the drive would turn out.
But the community responded in a manner that even now continues to amaze Foley. And that was no small factor in the NHL's agreeing to take the plunge with a new team in another nontraditional hockey market.
"I hoped that Las Vegas would get half as far as it did in terms of embracing a major league sports team," Foley said. "And the reality is Las Vegas went all-in on this deal.
"We got to that 13,000-ticket number by last May 15 or so and we didn't have a team," he added. "And the arena wasn't going to be open for another 10 or 11 months, so for people to put down 10 percent deposits -- and many for three years, five years, 10 years. These are firemen, policemen, teachers, doctors, lawyers."
To get the public behind the venture required Foley, born in 1944 and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to become more of a front man than he prefers. But without the public embracing the idea of NHL hockey in Vegas, convincing the league's owners was going to be a hard sell, regardless of the lure of the $500 million expansion fee that Foley will be putting into other owners' coffers.
"This is much different because I have to be up front and I have to be out talking to people and being interviewed," Foley said. "I'm a pretty common guy, but I'm reclusive. So I'm not really good at large groups and glad-handing and trying to motivate and get people excited. So I've had to really learn how to do that in doses.
"It's not me," he added. "It's not me. I love people. I love being around people, but I like it in a controlled environment."
What Foley could not control was how the league would respond to the work that he'd put into the process. In fact, when he organized a party to be held on Thursday, the day after the board of governors vote, at his offices, on the invitation he suggested that guests could come to "celebrate or commiserate," Foley said with a laugh.
A celebration it will be. But now the real work begins for Foley, who must quickly be building his hockey operations department. He will have help from longtime NHLer Murray Craven, with whom he has a strong friendship. Craven, who played 1,071 regular-season games with the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, has Foley's ear when it comes to hockey matters
But Foley understands that his first hires, beginning with a general manager, will be crucial and will set the tone for everything that follows.
He said he already has résumés from seven current assistant GMs and three or four former GMs.
"We've got lots of coaches who want to talk to us," he said. "And we're going to start sorting through it. I'm starting with the GM because that's a key component. As soon as I find the right guy, I'm going to hire him."
Foley is not a hockey guy in the strictest sense of the word -- although he did did skate outdoors and play some shinny hockey as a kid when his dad was stationed in Ottawa -- but he is a builder of businesses and will be demanding as he constructs this particular business model.
He talked about flying out to meet players and potential free agents to make sure they understand the lure of living and playing in Vegas. As for his staff, well, they'll be expected to work collaboratively.
"They're going to get their ego out of the way," he said of his hockey staff. "I'm serious about it. They're going to leave their ego at the door when they come in because I can run a pretty tough operation. But I'm going to get the right guys, and then we'll build our culture around our hockey team.
"You have to be open-minded and have a spirit of cooperation," he added. "And listen: I'm sure I'll make some mistakes. I already started to make one in one particular area and we cured before we ever got really into in terms of front office. So we fixed that already."
Will it work? That's the great unknown and what makes this whole hockey experiment in the desert so enticing to watch.
But Foley already senses the enthusiasm in Las Vegas for his team.
He recalled a recent morning television interview at the new T-Mobile Arena that will soon become his team's home. As he was riding the escalator at the rink, he was stopped by a group of men.
"These three guys are walking up to us and one guy says, 'Hey Bill, how's hockey going?' These are just guys. These are just three guys that are walking by," Foley said.
Then last month while having a burger with his wife and children, an 11- or 12-year-old boy approached Foley's table.
"He says, 'Mr. Foley, my name is Connor. I just want to tell you I'm really rooting for you to get hockey here. I love hockey,'" Foley recalled. "That's what I mean. We are going to be so successful here with local fans and we're going to do so much for local hockey, to develop it and get the community involved in what we're doing. And the community's embracing it. It's amazing."