On June 22, 2016, the NHL’s board of governors voted unanimously to give Bill Foley an expansion franchise in Las Vegas. Exactly ten years later, Foley announced that he wants to bring an NBA expansion franchise to the same city. The first time, the entry price was $500 million. This time, the expected entry price is $7 billion to $10 billion. The city is the same. The owner is the same. The belief is the same. What has changed is the price of proving it again.
In 1984, Bill Foley bought Fidelity National Financial, a struggling title insurance company in Jacksonville. He was 39, with Air Force experience negotiating multimillion dollar Boeing contracts, a law degree from the University of Washington, and enough capital for his first major acquisition. Over the next four decades, he built Fidelity into the largest title insurer in the United States. Today, he chairs Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF), Cannae Holdings (NYSE: CNNE), and Dun and Bradstreet Holdings (NYSE: DNB). The same pattern is now visible in sport: Foley buys assets others underestimate, takes control, improves the operation, sets public targets, and waits for the value to compound. This is how he built Fidelity, and it is how he has approached the Vegas Golden Knights and all his other sports assets.
The Playbook
Foley’s method at Fidelity National was built around four ideas, and all four show up in his sports investments. First, he looks for markets where assets