 Hello and welcome to the official AFC Bournemouth podcast coming to you as ever from Vitality Stadium. We're here as always to bring you closer to some of the personalities connected to the club, be it staff, players, former players or management. Now we're back in the string of things with our second podcast of the year and as we record this, we're just on the back of a big three points against Wolves and we're really looking forward to some huge fixtures to come. Neil, you're back alongside me, it's great to see you again. We're a couple of months into the year. How's 2023 treating you? It's doing really, really well, not just those three points against Wolves. There was the one against Newcastle as well, four points from those two big games. Going to be a really, really exciting end to the season and I'm really looking forward to today's podcast as well because normally the person that we're here with, we would be looking over their career chronologically but we're almost looking into a crystal ball with our guests today. So see what's in the future for the club, it's going to be really exciting. Absolutely, or as you say, we've got a superb guest today who not many of you will have heard from yet. He's relatively new to the club and the country having made the trip across the pond just a couple of months ago. Arriving from the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning where he served as chief commercial officer, today's guest is responsible for driving all revenues within the club, expanding the club's community presence and helping increase the globalisation of the AFC Bournemouth brand around the world. So without further ado, we're delighted to welcome Jim from Vola onto the official AFC Bournemouth podcast. Jim, thank you for joining us, how are you doing? It's lovely to be here Zoe and Neil, thank you guys for having me and I've actually been excited to do this for a while. So when I first heard about the opportunity, I couldn't have been more delighted to have been asked and looking forward to spending time with both of you. Brilliant, well it's great to have you here and we're going to cover so many different aspects over the course of the next 45 minutes to an hour. Now first we're going to start with sort of the here and now, you've just arrived in the country at the club, what are your first impressions of the club? You know it's interesting because I had never really spent much time internationally, you know outside of a couple of visits, I spent a little trip to London with my son one weekend about a year ago and I went to Monaco a few years ago, but other than that this was kind of a unique idea to come over and join Bill and this opportunity over here and what I can say from my first impression standpoint is the immense welcome that I have felt from not only the team and the club and the staff in the administration but just from the community as well and the support of all of Bournemouth and even the league. I've had some chance to spend time within the league. It's been amazingly welcoming, refreshingly so. And the area, what about Bournemouth? I guess you probably haven't had too much time to explore. You know the good part about it is we're still in a little bit of a transition. I've been here, as you said, just under two months and my wife's been with me for about half of that time but in the time where she's been back kind of settling our affairs back in Florida I've explored quite a bit. I've done quite a bit of walking around and checking out Ashley Cross and checking out Westbourne and checking out Sandbanks and Bournemouth and Town Centre and Christchurch. There's so many unique little areas that kind of build it up into this one Bournemouth kind of community dorset I guess in full that I think I've probably seen one one hundredth of what I want to see and what I've seen so far I love. The beach, do you love the beach? Have you had a stroll on the pier yet, Jim? Oh yeah, yeah, I'm a water person so that was one of the things that attracted me right away when I heard about it, you know the first thing I did was I grabbed my phone and I looked at the map. I said I don't even know where Bournemouth is, I've never been over here and then I saw the water and the beach and I called some friends that live over here and are from here and they said they described it as the Westpawm Beach of England and that just made me light up because for a large part of my life I've lived in Fort Lauderdale and Miami and Tampa which are all on the water so I'm a creature of the water, I love the water and the beach and it feels like home already just being by the water. What tempted you, Jim, to cross the pond to take this role on? It's the biggest sport in the world, it's the biggest league in the world globally. I've been in the NFL for many many years, I've worked in the NHL obviously most recently but this is the biggest global sport and league that you can be a part of so in my business, in my industry, on the business side of sporting organisations I'm 53 years old and this opportunity comes along maybe once in a lifetime if you're lucky and I was lucky enough that Bill thought enough of me to call me back. We've got two major casinos in Bournemouth and I think there are about 60 in Las Vegas do you know, is there any comparisons between the two places at all? So I'm embarrassed as I haven't been yet, that's of all the places I have not been and I gamble, I like to play the games and I like to fancy my time through a casino especially I lived in Las Vegas for nine years with two different opportunities there I will say, I saw it on kind of the agenda of things in the community that we have is casinos, I haven't gone yet but I'm going to go this weekend now that you reminded me I'm going to check it out, I can only imagine it's going to be amazing I think any casino is amazing so I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like Don't tell my mum this and I hope she doesn't listen, but I'm actually a member of one of those two casinos I lost thousands down the years as well Jim, so you can come with me if you wish at the weekend I don't know, you don't sound very lucky Zoe, how are you? Neil's been trying to persuade me to come to the casino with him many times but I haven't quite made that leap yet I'll give it a whirl with you Jim, you attended Miami University, a big sporting university Did you play any sports either now or when you were younger? University of Miami folks are very passionate that it's not Miami University Miami University is in Ohio University of Miami is in Florida That's more just playful I loved my time at Miami, it was amazing I didn't play any organized sports or collegiate level sports I played just more pickup and intramural amongst athletes of my skill level but I didn't have a skill level that took me to I was more of a tennis player and a high school level football player but not a university level football player American football But roulette and blackjack, do they count as sports or not? They certainly do in my mind and they are games of skill and chance You have to know how to play both But I'm more of a crapsman I don't know if you like craps or not I know what it is but I know they haven't got it in the casino in Bournemouth so you could be disappointed That's okay, I like my blackjack too Now Jim, you studied a Bachelor of Science Would it be fair to say your career didn't exactly follow your studies or is there some kind of great science behind being this business leader? That's just a title in the state so I was really more of a communications communications major I also had a politics and public affairs major so I was a double major so my background really came up I'm an old broadcaster so I love the idea of doing this podcast I was a play-by-play announcer for the University of Miami's football, basketball and baseball teams American football team and I ended up working in minor league baseball for five or six years broadcasting the games so I love being behind a microphone I'm very comfortable behind a microphone and I learned that in the sporting world and I thought I was going to be the radio voice of the New York Yankees if you would have asked me what I wanted to grow up and be I was the radio announcer for the New York Yankees and I was working at minor league baseball and they said, well you can either have a job part-time you come in the summer, you work the baseball season and then when the baseball season is over you can go home and 10 bar, wait tables or do whatever you want to do or you can have a full-time job and we can teach you the business side of sports I said, yeah, full-time sounds good I'd much rather work full-time and they said, all right, well do you want to be more on the marketing or sales side I go, let me go to the sales side and start off my career that way and that was a life-changing moment and I didn't even realize it that I had to follow in the business side I always thought I'd be a broadcaster and I was a broadcaster for five years I did great and then I realized that there's not a lot of money in that and the business side had a lot more commercial opportunity for me Well, Michael B. Jordan stars in the Creed movies a spin-off from the Rocky films now Sylvester Stallone also attended the University of Miami are there any other famous alumni that you know or that you went to university with? Well, a lot of the athletes obviously became very famous so Dwayne Johnson the Rock is one of the he started out as a football player, American football player there and then he turned into the rock and became one of the biggest global names in the world there's another musician that Zoe, you might not know, Neil you might know more maybe age-appropriate but Neil Hornsby if you remember that musician at all now Neil Hornsby in the range might have been a US thing I'm actually much younger than I look, Jim OK, OK I'll remember that, I'll remember that but I'd say the athletes are the biggest ones Greg Llewgane, so a famous diver one of the world's best divers over probably the 80s and 90s I think he was a student athlete at the University of Miami and a really big Olympian as well so a lot of athletic folks have come out of the University of Miami for sure you've had a varied and extensive career in sport just as we said we mentioned your resume can you give us a bit more of a detailed look at it? Sure, yeah so I got married, I was a play-by-play broadcaster in minor league baseball and I loved my five years doing it it was some of the most fun times I've ever had you travel with the team you're on the buses driving around the country some of the bus rides were 13 hours long some were two hours long most were five or six hours and you travel and you stay in the hotels and you really become part of the team and it's what made me fall in love with sports and working for clubs I felt like I was accepted as one of the guys and one of the players and even though I was the broadcaster and I certainly didn't play they treated me that way and that was just a passion that I had and I knew I wanted to stay in sports I had some opportunities to leave and go more in the media world but outside of sports and I kind of avoided those but at a certain point I got married and met my wife and she was from Miami and I lived in Miami most of my life leading up to that point until I went off into the sports world and I got a chance to join the Florida Marlins at the time they were called the Florida Marlins now they're called the Miami Marlins in major league baseball they're there and on the business side give up my career as a broadcaster hard to do, hard to give it up I still think I'm one of the best baseball broadcasters in the world and there's 30 I think there's 30 major league baseball teams and I always jokingly say I'm the 31st best baseball broadcaster in the world even to this day but I knew I had to make a career choice and the business side was the obvious one at that point I was still pretty young and freshly married so we moved back to Miami I went to work for the Marlins about three years later the owner of the Marlins also owned the Miami Dolphins in the NFL and he asked me to move over to the Miami Dolphins I was a huge Dolphins fan still I am a huge Dolphins fan and that was again another easy decision same owner, I just boxed up my stuff on one side of the stadium and the Dolphins and Marlins at the time played in the same stadium so I boxed up my stuff on one side of the stadium stuck it on the back of a golf cart drove it around on the other side of the stadium unpacked it in my new office within like an hour I had moved clubs sometimes it takes you a month to move from one team to another it took me about an hour because I didn't have to move across the country certainly didn't have to move across the world here I just had to move across the stadium and I did my time at the Dolphins five or six years on the commercial side of the operation loved it absolutely loved being a part of it but then I was really kind of honored I got a call to go back to my alma mater and the University of Miami reached out to me to come and be the associate athletic director which for college athletics is a big deal it's like one step below the head of the organization and so I went back to my alma mater got to be involved in all sports beyond just football and baseball whether it was diving or track and field in the U.S. soccer you know women's soccer there was one of my favorite programs that I was a part of working with that club volleyball, tennis, golf all these sports kind of fell under my umbrella there and it gave me a chance to really open up my eyes to different athletes and student athletes and what they went through and that journey and to do it for my university was an even bigger blessing because it was it brought me back to where I went to school I was walking around campus like I was a kid again even though I was an adult and I already had kids of my own at that point so I did that for a while, the NFL called me I went back into the NFL world with the Cleveland Browns I don't talk about that much it was not a lot of fun and then I think I did my probably my biggest leap of faith I went to the UFC which is the ultimate fighting championship it's mixed martial arts at that time in my life I was introduced to Vegas now I'd been as a gambler I'd been there to gamble for many many trips with my friends but to live in Vegas and work for the UFC in this global sport was really exciting and I fell in love with Las Vegas at that point and if you're not a UFC fan I highly encourage you to go to a fight and see the matches, they're unbelievable and the global nature of the sport I was dealing with Brazil and I was dealing with Argentina and Australia and Europe and Canada and the US and it just opened up my eyes to what a global entity is and then when this opportunity came around it made me think about my UFC days so that was probably three of my favorite years in my life and then I'm going to let you pick some questions if you choose to but I leave there the siren of the NFL called me again I went back to the NFL to Tampa Bay and I worked for the Tampa Bay Lightning I'm sorry, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for those of you that are fans of football over here you certainly know who the owner of Manchester United is it's the same owner as the Glazers that own the Buccaneers I spent three years I served a three year sentence there with that organization and while I love being in Tampa I love the market I'm in the NFL I was glad to leave and go to Vegas to go work for Bill Foley and help launch the Golden Knights What would you say Jim so far in your business career has been your greatest achievement? Hands down Vegas hands down Vegas it was the first ever professional team in a city and that is probably not going to happen ever again in the United States I don't think there's a city at least in my lifetime when I'm alive there will not be a football basketball, baseball or hockey team that will be the first ever sports team in a city in the United States all the cities are pretty well saturated now so to be part of the first ever team in a major city was spectacular to do it with so many amazing people from Bill on down the organization just littered with amazing people and to launch a team from the ground up and be part of that experience and build the brand and build the fan base and the success that we had which I had nothing to do with I'm not involved in the sporting side of any of my organizations but the success that we had on the ice that first year we went all the way to the Stanley Cup final it would be like going to the Champions League in your first season coming out of the championship here and making it to the last basically the last game it was just an experience I'll never replicate again and because you can't capture starting something from the ground up tell us about Bill Foley what's he like as a boss amazingly fair he really has a low ego his approach is really about the organization it's not about Bill it's not about anything that deals with individuals when he interviewed me in Vegas the thing that I took away I spent a couple of hours with him talking about the job out there before I started and he kept emphasizing to me I want to surround myself with people that don't think for themselves they don't care about their own success they don't care about what it means for their own benefit what does it mean for the organization what does it mean for the people sitting next to you to your left and to your right the entire collective succeed that can sound like it's lip service but it's not he truly believes that and means that so from a philosophy standpoint when you start with that approach that it's about the whole it's not about the name on the back of the shirt it's about the name on the front of the shirt and that's really what that means it's not about Foley or Fervola it's about AFC Bournemouth or the Silver Knights one of the other clubs that he owns he truly believes that and his goal is to hire good people and let them make the decisions and make recommendations if he needs to weigh in he will but he really wants you to run your organization and not have to worry about second guessing he doesn't do a lot of second guessing he wants you to make decisions and his help and input he'll certainly be available but he's really a great owner I've worked for a lot of owners in sports and I can count on two fingers owners that I would say are top notch in the world of sports and he's one of those too now we know that he's also a vintner have you sampled any of Foley Estates world class wines absolutely almost hard not to when you work for Bill but it's not an obligation it's an opportunity to taste some of the best wines in the world I'm not just saying that because he's my boss and if you get the chance I've never been to New Zealand so he's got vineyards in New Zealand I've never been but I'm told it's amazing but if you get the chance to go to California and Napa or Sonoma these are some of the best vineyards in not just the US but in the world Chalk Hill Chardonnay is my personal favorite but there's so many he's got Lancaster in the Red Family I am a member of the Foley Food and Wine Society I believe in it that much I signed up for the Foley Food and Wine Society I just think that from an affordability standpoint his wines are pretty affordable he certainly has some higher end ones but he's got some mid-size and lower end prices I'm not even joking that Chalk Hill Chardonnay is the best Chardonnay in the world and the vineyard when you go out there and you see it it's one of the most spectacular scenes that you can imagine they have this wooden barn that people kind of die to have their wedding there and they book this out in advance for weddings and parties and events it's just a scenic place to be but it's one of the most delicious wines you'll ever taste in your life sounds like somewhere for a staff trip maybe Jim well we've done it for sure in Vegas we've got a group called The Inner Circle out there that goes and visits some of Bill's properties and the challenge when you go to these properties is when you go to any vineyard in the US or California really probably anywhere in the world too I think there's some decent ones in France from what I've heard but when you go to these places you better be prepared to bring your credit card and your checkbook not because it costs a lot to go it's actually free to go you order wine because you taste these amazing bottles and these amazing brands and lines and you want to bring them home with you so you inevitably order bottles, cases, pallets full if you're like my wife and I really my wife's the wine drinker but I can't recommend it enough I do know that we are bringing some I think there's already some served in the stadium and I actually talked to Paul Fudge who runs our hospitality and we talked about trying to bring some more Bill's wines over so there's going to be an opportunity for supporters and fans here at Vitality Stadium whether it's for a match or for an event to try his wines I think we need one of those inner circles that I have to be poor with, I don't know about you Neil Count me in, Zoe Now, staying with Bill I mean he's certainly delivered on his promises in the transfer window six new faces coming in How can what happens on the field affect your job off the field You know it's an age old question in this industry how do you let the performance on the field or the pitch or the ice in hockey affect the business side of the operation and my whole career has been to not let that get in the way right good or bad whether we're top of the table or we're 17th like we are today when we're starting this podcast right you can't let that impact your decision making because it's out of your control I have no say over it I don't oversee any of the football operations in hockey with the Vegas Golden Knights I didn't have any say on the player side of the business which I'm thrilled about and for us it's about fan experience and yes what happens on the pitch maybe impacts people emotionally how they react but if we can put on a good show and we can entertain them and we can make sure that when they show up here a couple of hours before a match they have a good time outside they have a good time as they're coming in if we can give them the right content all week long podcast, website, social media digital afcb tv these are all tools and mechanisms that we can use to make people feel like I know in this sport particularly that we've been around over a hundred plus years and people are going to follow this team and they're passionate about it so we don't let what's happening on the pitch dictate what we're going to do we're going to make sure that we treat you in a first class manner in a world class manner every single day every single time you come to the building whether it's for a match or not we want you to be a member of our family and have a good time and that's my motivation day in and day out well Bill said publicly that the capacity here at Vitality Stadium is inadequate to put it in his words what's the latest on plans for a new stadium are we that far ahead yet? it's definitely on the radar it's definitely the capacity is a challenge for us 11,302 or whatever the exact number is it's just too small we've got to get to 20,022 somewhere in that range makes sense stadiums are never easy in Vegas an arena for the minor league hockey team and it took some time to develop right you've got to get the land situation settled you've got to hire designers and then you've got to go with architects and then you've got to go with contractors and builders then you've got to put shovels in the ground I can tell you that Bill's commitment is to figure out a solution to increase our our size you know I think I have a pretty good feel for which way he wants to go to the new stadium and a new stadium sounds great to me like I love that idea it's a good opportunity for us it grows our fan base it gives us a chance for more people to come to our matches it gives us a chance to host maybe some other events in town whether that's a concert or a boxing match or international events international friendlies whatever the case may be having a bigger ground and more capacity will make that easy but it's also going to increase the experience we don't have enough we get it we don't have enough points of sale here we have people queuing up to get food and beverage offerings that shouldn't have to stand in lines we know this when people talk about it and I see the people on social media and they're reaching out to me and they're saying what can we do that we don't have to queue up outside 1910 well we're going to do something about that like we're going to open up a stand that's going to allow people to come inside earlier than when the stands would normally open up we don't want people queuing up outside and if it's raining outside we want to give them a place where you can get some weather protection so we're hearing you, we're listening to things like that it's just hard at this ground and it's not an excuse it's an explanation it's easy to make excuses but this is an explanation of where we're at but we're not going to let that limit what we're going to try to do so we're trying things we're going to try some things that give you a chance to come in a little bit earlier we're going to try some things that give you a chance to get more points of sale opportunity we're working on an idea for the south stand like we've got to get more points of sale there during the match there's certain rules and regulations that we have to follow so we'll follow them and we'll make sure that we get the advice of the security folks and the league and our safeguarding and kind of the processes that we have to do we're going to honour those processes but I can assure you it's on our radar it is not being missed and hopefully over the next coming months that people are going to notice that we're making some tweaks around here to make it a more enjoyable experience while we're at this facility under this current structure we might be talking sort of 10 steps ahead, 15 steps ahead here but when plans do go in place for that new stadium or plans are in place but when we get to that stage of potentially being in a new stadium does consideration need to happen as to what would happen with this stadium in this space that we've currently got now well we don't own this building so that might not be our decision so I think that's probably first and foremost we have to make sure that the new stadium is the plan so there's a couple of steps we get there to get to that point and Bill will certainly be the final barometer on those things and we'll weigh in and give him some recommendations but there's so much history here we have to make sure we honour that history we have to make sure we honour the traditions of building if we move into a new building or even if we renovate this building we want to make sure that we don't take away things that might be important and meaningful to people here so so much to consider it's such a lovely neighbourhood and we have to honour the people around it too and you know that they are going to weigh into these decisions and have some voices and opinions on what takes place here I drive up every morning and shame on me because I don't know what street that we come down with all the beautiful trees lining it and I see the green fields off to the out the window that we're here in the boardroom looking out at now it's one of the most stunning grounds I think that we could have a stadium near and I love where we're at it's just making sure we do it the right way we get the people involved we talk to folks we understand what they would want out of either a renovated building or a new building all those conversations are coming you'll have a chance to put your voice to it it must excite you hugely because as you say there's so much potential there's so many things to consider and we are in such a beautiful location there is so much to look forward to I get excited every day and it sounds really cliche but I really do there's so much that I'm still learning my wife said it best we're sitting at a match and the supporters were chanting a song or some theme or some message and my wife says to me she's like what are they saying? and I go I don't know so I started asking and I got people at the club sent me things so these are things I'm learning because I want to sing along I want to cheer along and my wife wants to cheer along and you'll notice we started putting some of these lyrics on the scoreboard last match and we're going to do more of that because there are young fans that maybe are learning like we are and we want them to feel like they're part of it and they know our traditions and they know our history I'm not even two months in and I feel like I have so much still to learn I'm embracing that every day so for me to wake up every morning come here I'm learning so much about not just the club but about our people about our staff the folks that I go to work with every day you guys the people that I am in the grocery stores with and that I sit out in a restaurant next to and when I went to the women's match two weekends ago and I just started talking to folks out there like I want to talk to everybody and if you see me please come up say hello tap me on the shoulder and I'm happy to talk I would love to connect with folks Jim you spoke about a few tweets you've made you've only been here a couple of months anybody coming to their next game whenever that is what may they notice that's a great question so we are working on some of the branding around the stadium we just want to theme it out a little bit better so because we're trying to do it in the middle of the season it's going to come a little bit piecemeal so I don't know when this podcast is going to air but we're working on a stand right now that'll be refreshed it's just going to be cleaned up a little bit it's going to look a little bit different when you show up there's going to be some more branding some more of the theming of the club around it and that's going to happen with every one of our stands we're going to if you walk up from the train station walking towards the south stand you wouldn't know whether the south stand was Vitality Stadium anything to do with the club or a Costco it just doesn't have any appeal to it when you come for the match against Manchester City or if you were here for Manchester City if you're listening to this after it's going to look different it's going to just have a little bit more appeal to it those are little things those are things that we are doing just because we know we're going to be in this building for a bit right whether it's refreshed building or a new stadium it's going to take a bit so we're going to do those types of things because we feel like it needs to Bill was quick to invest some funds into that and then I talked about what we're doing with 1910 and the queuing outside there and we're going to create we're going to open up the main stand one of the concession concourses we're going to open that up a couple of hours early so that people can go inside and get some food and drink if they want to and watch the football matches so you'll be able to come in earlier than you ever were into that main stand and not have to worry about a line necessarily to get into 1910 or the Balfour whatever there's a couple of names that we have for it so that's something that's going to be new for this next match and these are things because people have voiced opinions about it I've seen it on social media they've said things that bug them and we're listening we had a supporter that reached out about accessibility for wheelchairs to get into the superstore and just making it a little bit more accessible the next day we adjusted it and tweaked it little things that mean so much to one person are important it's not just the masses so no idea is a bad idea I don't want to promise that we're going to do every single thing everyone's going to email me or tweet out at me but I'm going to pay attention to it and I'm going to try to do the things that we can make the most impact on and it's going to come in baby steps I will tell you this I won't give away too much because we're still doing some tests but our game presentations is going to look different it won't look different in the next match or two but I promise you before the end of the season you're going to see stuff in our matches pregame, halftime etc that's going to look different we're going to utilize the scoreboards more we're not going to go crazy it's not going to be the Vegas Golden Knights show but it's going to be things that I think our supporters are going to love and appreciate and things that are just going to require us to take a little time and patience get the right people involved to do it but I promise you you're going to have a much better time experiencing the match when we're done Something that perhaps the supporters won't see is a new training ground Jim where are we with that it's going to be so important when it happens and I know that's a lot further forward than a new stadium It's underway The public number has been kind of reported 35 or 40 million it's somewhere in that neighborhood all depends on how well the job we do building it but that was honestly something that was a big priority to Bill and I know that that was started prior to Bill the thought process on that so it wasn't kind of Bill's baby but he has really embraced this idea and kind of allowed this to move forward under his ownership and Bill believes in and he's said this publicly he was here doing his press conferences when he first took over back in December at the end of the month he believes in making the experience for the players and the club first class and whether that's a new training ground whether that's a revitalized stadium a new stadium even the little details so in Vegas the players once a week Bill makes sure they get their cars washed it's a small little detail it's a minor thing but around the league players started talking about these guys have great facilities they've got a first class owner he washes your car once a week not he doesn't, Bill's not out there washing the cars maybe is, I don't know, but I haven't seen him but these are little details that when a guy is deciding to come to a club and he hears the reputation of what we are investing in from facilities and investing in with treatment of players and healthcare and the training rooms and the grounds we want to be top of the league not just part of the league and it's those things that will start changing players minds and keeping guys that maybe would have left or maybe getting a new guy in that just builds philosophy so it's all about facilities it's all about taking care of the club Jim I will say I've been covering the fortunes of the club for a very long time and I was fortunate enough to go to what's going to be the new training ground and absolutely blew me away I couldn't believe that this facility was going to be used by the club that I've been following and I'm sure supporters will be pleased to hear that It's going to be great I've seen the designs I've driven out there I've seen the works already started they've already started working on it it's about an 18 month proposition so hopefully by the end of next season the guys will be moving over there that's also kind of a trigger point for us that'll move along what we're going to do with the stadium here because where they're training today that's an important piece of real estate and where the pavilion is where the training ground is today where the building is that'll open up more opportunities for us to kind of re-energize what we're doing inside vitality so as the first team and the club move over there some of the spaces inside this building can be more for the fans and be more for hospitality and be more for the experience when we're here so there's so many different triggers of what that's going to do not only for the team on the pitch but for the fans as well huge opportunity for everybody now Jim Americans love an underdog story and there's no bigger underdog story in football than AFC born with over the past 8 to 10 years how can the club tap into that American market to boost its audience the globalization of our brand is very much important to us and it's not hard when you think about 25 years ago which sounds like a long time ago but it wasn't that long ago in the general scheme of sports some of the brands that are big brands today were not big brands 25 years ago even 10 years ago some of the big brands in the league as they are today so it's not a 25 year proposition it's probably shorter than that certainly the success of the club in the last 10 years plays a big part of that and the visibility of the television broadcast for the Premier League on NBC and the US on all of these different broadcast networks across the globe is going to make it a lot easier for us to do you mentioned Michael B. Jordan earlier that certainly helps having a celebrity owner part of the mix and such a recognizable actor, director producer and what that can mean for us just to see him wearing a Bournemouth scarf and wearing the gear as he's doing interviews and his press tours for the movie Creed 3 which by the way I don't know that we've publicly talked about it but Michael bought out a movie theatre this week and invited the club to come out and the entire first team was there in the theatre, coaches, staff, players and he wanted the club to see the movie and it was a nice gesture and it's just that level of cross promotion between somebody like Michael cross promotion with a club like Vegas and then taking advantage of India and the US and China and all of these markets where the Manchester United and the Chelsea and the bigger clubs historically have taken advantage of that we've got to tap into that how are we going to do that I've been here less than 60 days certainly don't have the secret sauce just yet but Bill's committed to multi club model he's talked about that openly we've got international marketing minds so they're going to help us with that regard it's a big big priority because we've got to focus on Bournemouth then take the next step out focus on Dorset focus on the whole country focus on the entire world and those don't happen overnight but I can tell you that's an ambition, a big ambition certainly a very exciting one as well now before we move on to some quick fire questions I've got to ask you we've talked a lot about your job and you but what do you do away from here and football and ice hockey as it was before what are your hobbies and interests oh boy, three kids they're all in university in Florida, they all go to Florida State University all together which is kind of neat so they my wife and my kids are my number one everything revolves around them we had a vote when I got the job offer from Bill so I take the job and I jokingly say that it was a four to one vote but my one son who grew up a fan of a different club their color is blue I quickly had to convert him quickly had to convert him over but that was easy but it was unanimous, it really was a unanimous vote my family loves this sport they're the ones who introduced me to this sport probably seven, eight, nine years ago I followed it, I worked for the Glazers begrudgingly and understood what it was all about and certainly from being a professional my life career in the industry I knew what the sport and the league was all about but from a fandom standpoint it was my kids that introduced me and made me a passionate fan so I'm all about them, whatever they want to do beyond them, I like the golf I understand this country has a history in golf that I can't wait to experience I've not golfed here yet I did just bring my golf clubs back the last time I flew back here about a week ago so I've got my golf clubs, I'm looking forward to playing some golf here it sounds like it could play year round which is great I guess I'll need a little rain gear don't mind that and golf's my thing and I like to walk I'm a big walker and I love the beach so I couldn't picture a better place golf check year round good weather there's no bad snow it's not horrifically cold beaches check these things kind of fit my lifestyle perfectly we will definitely be having the rider cut back off you this year as well as I can tell you that oh that's right, yeah I can't wait I can't wait to see that challenge I'll have to probably play that one a little bit more neutral just one final question Jim, you're a father of three like you've said people sometimes will lose sight of that when they're taking aim at you on social media this that and the other what's it like being a father and having you've left your kids behind I would imagine while they're at uni yeah and they won't come my wife will be here full time she's been with me off and on for the last two months but she'll be here full time in a couple probably two months we still have to wrap up some things it's hard to move there's a lot of things I didn't realize getting a bank account was hard getting a car was hard finding a house was hard getting my cable set up was hard so there's things that have been challenging the last two months but the kids they can't wait to come visit so that's going to be fun I think I think for me getting them over here as often as I can is going to be easy I think that'll be relatively simple I can't wait to have gone through a full cycle here and to start a season to finish a season to see how we how we kind of evolve in our life here travel these are the things that get me excited every day 10 really quick questions for you Tom Brady or Michael Jordan roast beef or roast turkey scoring a goal or keeping a clean sheet scoring a goal Bahamas or Barbados Bahamas never been to Barbados Jaws or Shawshank Redemption Shawshank Redemption starter or dessert starter starter really mozzarella sticks spinach artichoke dip al Pacino or Marlon Brando Pacino skiing or surfing cream tea snow skiing cream tea or fish and chips pass is that a neither what is cream tea is that hot tea with cream in it it's not Neil will be able to explain better to cream tea Neil loves a cream tea have you heard of scones scones and jam served with afternoon tea as a cream tea you can get it for as little as 25 pounds around here in some of that detail cream tea for sure I like chips I don't mind fish and chips but cream tea for sure cream tea and then final question red or black I'm going to answer black I love both my oldest son's favorite color is red and his name is Reid so R-E-E-D so it's almost spelled like red but I'm going to say black because some of the things that we're doing around the building have been painting some things and we've been using a little bit more black so black brilliant some supporters questions to finish with Jim from Simon Mason what's the hardest challenge you have experienced so far in the role and what are you most excited about for our future I'm going to give you two challenges if I could the two hardest challenges one learning the rules of not just the premier league because every league has their own rules but governmental rules things that are licensing procedures that's been a challenge and that's not a really super difficult challenge and I think the other one is I would love our fans and supporters to to know I hear you I understand you reach out to me you talk to me about the stuff on the pitch and what's going on on the field and I know that that you want me to react to that I just won't that's not my place that's not my job that's not my role I'm not involved in those decisions so I appreciate the feedback on the tailed off but you want to talk to me about the business side and what we can do in the community and how we can improve things around the building and sales, marketing, hospitality community relations expansion happy to talk biggest positive and negative about living in the UK so far wow that's great I have to tell you I love the proximity to everything I've been now to London I've been here less than two months I've been to London probably four or five times already I think that's fantastic even travelling I went to our match against United even travelling up there was great went to Brighton and I can't wait to take little plane trips so the proximity to other countries is something that I can't wait to experience biggest negative all the things that you plug into the wall my wife says I have to re-buy she thinks her hair dryer is going to blow up she thinks our coffee maker is going to blow up she thinks all of these things are going to blow up I would love for the world to get on one system and if it's this system that's fine by me because I live here now but figuring out am I really going to have to buy everything brand new because it's going to blow up oh here's another one I don't understand why the dryer is here don't dry your clothes do you guys have this problem it takes like 2 hours to properly dry a load of laundry maybe it's just in my apartment the dryer I have is that an issue I would say my dryer is about 3 hours spin it's not ideal it dries it but it takes about 3 hours to dry it to do a load of laundry is like you gotta set a day aside to do one load of laundry that question was from Ross Davenport this one is from Danny Whitelock can we start selling bolty pies on a match day much like the cream tea I'm not sure what that is but can we probably I don't know what it is I'll talk to Paul it's like a chicken curry type pie I won't let the fact that I despise curry factor in I'm not a big fan of curry so Danny I apologize I'm not a big fan of curry that's not going to impact whether we can do it or not certainly would look into that Andy Smith is asking what is your favorite gift I do know that I love my gifts if you follow me on Twitter shamelessplug.com on Twitter one of my favorite ones is it's the actor that I don't know I'm drawing a blank on his name but he was in the series Kenny Powers and he's been in a number of movies but it's him popping out a folding chair to sit down and listen to someone's feedback and reaction I just think it's great someone says anything controversial that's my go-to gift I pop that out because I love to see the comments I read all your comments I really try to read them all and I kind of get to it at probably 10, 11 o'clock at night which doesn't make my wife all that happy but I do love my social media this one from Charlie Mason Williams would you be open to renting out the AFC Bournemouth pitch once again for events that will bring fans closer to the club depends on what he's talking about if he's thinking about a birthday party you're hosting Beyonce right? we're open to ideas around the building for sure Now, Tom LLV again you've sort of mentioned things but what's your current plan for small, medium and large changes to improve the match day experience you've mentioned the bar, you've mentioned work on the south stand you've mentioned the scoreboards is there anything else that you perhaps haven't mentioned that you're keen to share on that I think figuring out points of sale is probably a big topic at some point we've got to make it easier for fans to get a pint to get a pie to be able to in the south stand I've heard people say I can't even buy a beer can't buy a pint because of the way that we're structured and the rules of the league and things beyond our control again explanation not an excuse but these are legitimate issues so we're looking into that and we're planning to figure out a way to fix those things I said on twitter the other day nobody hates more than I do someone not being able to buy something easily that's why I'm here is to make your life easier to engage it's usually about driving more revenue certainly that's an important part of any business but if you want to buy a pint in the south stand I don't have an answer for you today I'm going to get you an answer Sam wants to know has the heart on sleeve nature of football fans taken you by surprise at all? No because I had done quite a bit of phoning around the league and talking to folks that not only have come from the US over because I do have a number of friends I'm friendly with Tom Glick who's my counterpart at Chelsea and Todd Klein who's at Tottenham and I know some folks that have over the years have worked at Villa and some other clubs but I've also talked to folks that are from this country and have been in this league a lot longer than maybe somebody like me who's coming over from the US so I'm trying to get a good cross section of learning but the one thing that everyone has said is it's a more passionate and heart on sleeve fandom I think you'll see in the US I've learned that already I appreciate that, I embrace that if that changed I'd be sad it would make me sad One final question from Luke Vincent Where do you see AFC Bournemouth in five years time? Wow I will not speak about it from a football perspective because again not my place I just think that it's going to be a club that from a local standpoint everyone's going to be even more proud of than they are today and I think there's tremendous pride in the club today I want you to think of our club as world class and I think in five years we'll be world class plus Wow So that is my goal, that is my ambition from the perception of the club is to elevate it no matter where we feel like we are today we're going to have to elevate it otherwise we're not a successful operation so think of our club as world class and world class plus is my goal in five years Wow, world class plus there we go Luke, you heard it here first Now Jim, thank you so much for coming on our podcast, for giving up your time we've had some brilliant stories, we've really enjoyed your company and it's been great hearing about where the future of this club might lie Zoe, Neil, I can't thank you enough for having me, I'm happy to do this as often as you like, what are you guys doing tomorrow? Looks like we're going down to the casino, ain't there's? Playing golf There you go, I'm in for all the above works for me How about a cream tea? I'll try it, I'll even buy even at £25 Well Jim, thank you so much as we say, if you've enjoyed listening to our podcast out there, we'd absolutely love it if you could like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on we'd also be very grateful for any shares on social media so that other fans, whether it's AFC Bournemouth fans or the general football fan, or maybe in this case the general ice hockey fan can enjoy it too Our thanks again to Jim Favola I thank your parrot and myself, Zoe Rundle Thank you for tuning in to our official AFC Bournemouth podcast