New Phoenix Rising governor Bill Kraus shares ambitions for club
Last week, Phoenix Rising FC announced that Bill Kraus would join the club’s Board of Directors as governor. Kraus — a local investment banker who serves as managing director at Arlington Capital Advisors — has been a part of the club’s current 15-person ownership group since it purchased the team in 2016. He previously served as an advisor to the Board of Directors, which he will now head.
This week, Kraus spoke with The Republic to share his ambitions for the club. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What does being the club's governor entail?
A: The first point is really interfaith with the league, senior officials and the league front office. And I would say the governor is also the first point of contact for Bobby Dulle as GM, who is running the day-to-day for the club. I've been on a bunch of corporate boards before and they tend to meet quarterly, maybe every two months. We talk every Friday morning. It's almost been more of an operating committee, where we have a bunch of talented folks, they each have different sets of experiences. Tim Riester runs a big marketing firm in hand. Mark Detmer is a real estate executive. And several other guys like myself are business and finance executives. So we've had the approach over the years of talking regularly. Every Friday morning, I try to pool the resources and talents of the whole group.
Q: What are your goals as governor?
My goals are the group's goals and they haven't changed, really. But I can tell you some things that are top of the list for me. We want to win a USL championship. In fact, we want to win a bunch of them. I'd love to see 10,000 people at one of our matches. That's number in my head. We've been in the 8s, we've been in the 9s, I'd like to see 10. That'd be great. I'd like to tell you we'd like to top our 20-game winning streak from 2019, but I don't think that's practical. Winning 21 matches in a row is a little bit unheard of in this sport.
What else? I'd like to see us develop the next great youth talent that makes it to the national team. Guys like Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie. They all started somewhere. They started in some youth organization. Arizona's got a ton of talent, it'd be great to see guys come from up from our system and make it on the big stage. Those are just a couple goals of mine.
Q: What are some of the goals for the club at this week's USL owners' meeting in Louisville?
Knowing me with my business style, I'm probably not gonna come in in my first meeting and grab the baton and drive the agenda and make a whole bunch of noise. I'll probably be in listen and learn mode. I think that's been an effective strategy for me historically in business and that's my approach going in. But I want to meet as many of the other club governors as possible and as many of the league officials as possible. There's always key things on the agenda at these sorts of meetings. I'm sure they'll talk about league expansion and marketing partners. I'm sure there will be a dialogue about the competitive side of the league.
Q: How do you make sure that you're representing the desires of such an expansive ownership group?
The fact that we talk every Friday gives me the opportunity to be very current with folks. I'll de-brief afterwards. We've had some planning ahead of time. So the fact that we're together and talk so regularly, I think I'm pretty in sync with what the rest of the board members are thinking or concerned about.
Q: What are some of the types of things that are discussed in the weekly board meetings?
We always get an update on the team, the soccer operations side of it. Of course, that's been an interesting ride for the last couple of years, learning about COVID protocols and all that kind of stuff. We talk about strategy for the club. We talk about personnel. We talk about finances, just like any business. A variety of topics, whatever tends to be top of mind or of most importance at that point in time.
Q: Is there anything you want to adjust about the way the club operates?
We can always do better. I hope we'll continue to improve in all areas. Competitively, financially, serving our customers, all those kinds of things. But I don't have a specific item or two that I could point to right now. At any business I've ever been a part of, as good as you might be, you can always be better. That's my goal.
Q: You mentioned the youth development side. Do you plan to push the club to invest more money in the academy?
Absolutely. We talked about it regularly. I've been serving on the board of the youth organization already so I'm pretty familiar there. It's an interesting discussion that we have on a regular basis on what the direction of the club should be and what the primary objectives are. And there's sort of a delicate balance there. Where are you going to invest your dollars? Are you going to invest in the roster today to try and win today, which might mean some more mature players, maybe some more experienced players that might cost a little bit more? Or do you we go young?
Obviously, over the last four or five years, we've invested a bunch in the roster to try to win at the time as you can see by the performance on the field over the past few years. But it's clearly a balance. I'd love to see some younger players come up through the academy and get a look in some of our matches. We were hoping Niall Dunn would be that guy this year, but he's had some injuries. We've run Jacob Harris out there. I'd love to see more of that. It's a balance. There's no right or wrong answer. Each club has to define its philosophy. Obviously, if you've been an MLS2 team, it's more clear that you're trying to develop younger guys for the first team, but we don't have that sort of a relationship so we have more of a balance to manage.
Q: For the past few years, that balance has heavily skewed towards building the professional roster. Is your goal to bring the academy up to a similar level?
I don't know that it was a conscious decision not to invest in the academy or not to focus on younger, but we were very enthusiastic owners early in our tenure. We made some bold moves. We enjoyed some success and we went for it. From the very get-go, Didier Drogba was wearing our shirt. Not many players of that ilk have feature in USL. But look, we're evolving. We want to win championships, but we also need to develop youth guys. So I think you'll see hopefully more of a balance on that going forward.
Q: There's been some talk about the club having to move out of Wild Horse Pass. What are your plans for the stadium situation?
It's a tricky one. For now, we play at Wild Horse Pass. When we went there, we expected to be there for a number of years. If you asked me right now, today, I'd say we'll be there again next year. But we're also keeping our options open. You never know. Not much more I can say. We play there now. It's a great venue. It's beautiful. It has a lot of improvements for fan experience over Casino Arizona Field. I love that lawn beyond the South End and the scoreboard. It just has a good feel to it. I'd like us to get back to our winning ways and make that the place to be on Saturday nights.
Q: Is ownership still pursuing an eventual bid for MLS expansion?
Fair question. Unfortunately, it's another one I can't talk about. Legally, I can't comment on MLS and Phoenix Rising.
Q: What does MLS look for from clubs that they bring in?
Great market. Strong owner with deep pockets. Stadium is key. Those are the top three.
Theo Mackie covers Arizona high school sports and Phoenix Rising FC. He can be reached by email at theo.mackie@gannett.com and on Twitter @theo_mackie.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New Phoenix Rising governor Bill Kraus on club's future vision
