I spent a day with the American billionaire obsessed with Huddersfield Town ...Middle East

Chief football writer Daniel Storey is spending time this season embedded within Huddersfield Town, given behind-the-scenes, exclusive access throughout the campaign. Feel free to suggest any of your own questions to him on social media…

Sit down for this one: billionaires are usually quite busy people. Accumulating that level of wealth takes a dedication – perhaps even an addiction – to doing two things at once while thinking about another three. Kevin Nagle, Huddersfield Town’s owner since 2023, typically spends one week every six or seven in the UK. But that’s just the start.

For American business tycoons, English football has become a second home. Of the 92 Football League clubs, 31 have either sole, majority or significant US ownership.

The first natural question for any super-wealthy guy from the other side of the world is: why? Why a football club? Why England? Why sign up for the ride?

There is certainly a desire to be part of football heritage in roughly the same way American tourists flock to Stratford-upon-Avon, York or the Tower of London. There is certainly an ultimate (if knowingly optimistic) aim to make money. Nagle points out that businesspeople are businesspeople after all.

But almost all are here because this means something more than just another business venture. As he says: “You get to make a tangible difference to a social institution” and “England is the place to be for football”.

It gets under your skin and that creates an interesting duality. You spend more than 80 per cent of your time 5,000 miles away from the thing you end up thinking about an awful lot more. You have to compartmentalise, but then a football club is an entity with real-time requirements.

“It’s a great question – people ask me that frequently,” says Nagle when I present the quandary. “I mean, I have sports and non-sports teams, so when do you click off and when do you click on? I will say this much: I’m spending most of my time focusing on Huddersfield Town.

“I think it has the most opportunity and I think maybe it has the most needs. That’s a push-pull thing – as you start to see the fruits of your success then you can maybe back off and cede a little more control.”

To me, the fascinating aspect – because I have no idea – is just how much time a billionaire owner spends on club business. This was a summer of great change at Huddersfield Town – new head coach, expanded chief operating officer role, new sporting director, new start.

Put me in that position and I could imagine nothing worse than lacking total oversight, given my investment. That’s probably one of many reasons why I’m not super-rich.

Nagle readily accepts that he is “old school” – and he is 71 – but improvements in technology clearly help. This summer he has spoken to chief operating officer David Threlfall-Sykes at least every other day and often twice or three times a day. The same was true with sporting director Chris Markham, sometimes as a three and alternatively through individual conversations.

But it’s also true that you cannot micromanage or you would drown and your other business interests would suffer. Delegation also makes sense: football club ownership is unusual in that the person with all the money ultimately holds the power but (at least initially) lacks the expertise and knowledge is its own form of power in this arena.

“And that’s why you need confident leaders,” Nagle says. “You need somebody whose qualities are going to lead the group. I’m an owner. I’m not the CEO. I was a CEO for 40 years, so I understand that position. And I’m not just saying it because he’s here [looks over to his COO]: we have that now.

“When I leave here each time, even though we’re really close thanks to technology, it’s the people there that are going to make it work. When I step on the plane to go back to California, I have to ask myself: ‘Is everybody here ready to continue? Did I give them everything that I can give them?’.

“I think that, this year especially, we’ve captured what I believe is the right model. I would say before we were maybe not as much of a team. Now we are. I’ve said to the manager with David and Chris in the room: ‘This is us now’. This year, in the selection process of personnel and other leadership positions, they were involved in the process.”

Even while at home in northern California, Nagle begins each day with an email from Threlfall-Sykes containing details of decisions, occurrences and things to ponder. The aim is not for the owner to necessarily decide or even engage, but to know that he is firmly inside the loop.

I’m spending time with Nagle during one of his UK weeks to understand how involved an owner really gets. And it’s fair to say that while he’s here, he’s on club business.

On Tuesday after arriving, Nagle attends an Under-21s fixture in the afternoon and a first-team match in the evening. On Wednesday, there is a filming job for the club’s Foundation, a senior leadership team meeting and two separate meetings about the club’s plans for land around the stadium, including the construction of a hotel.

Thursday brings a meeting with manager Martin Drury and the sporting director to discuss team affairs, a call with a local MP to maintain relationships over project plans, a safeguarding meeting and a session with Huddersfield Unlimited, an agency that promotes business and industry in the town.

There is also Teatime with Kevin, a club initiative where supporters enter a ballot for a two-hour session (and afternoon tea) held in the boardroom with the owner and the chance to ask questions about any aspect of club life, performance and plans for the future. These happen multiple times a season and are genuinely impressive and innovative. I’ve not heard of another EFL club with a foreign owner doing the same.

On Friday, Kevin meets with Threlfall-Sykes for two hours before afternoon meetings with solicitors and internally to discuss the club’s conference and events plans. Saturday is his last day in the country for this visit – he attends an Under-18s fixture in the morning and then immediately heads to the stadium for the Notts County match.

This is the bit I find most interesting. A couple of hours before the match, Nagle walks around the stadium to chat to supporters. A queue of probably 100 people immediately forms, all wanting to have a photograph and speak about club matters – he works his way through them all. Small children in replica shirts know his name and face. I cannot remember that happening when I was a kid.

This anecdote is not repeated to conclude that every owner should do this, although it clearly cheers supporters. It is certainly unusual.

I wonder if this urge to meet the people is provoked in three ways: 1) being a face allows people to see the human side and have more patience, 2) Nagle is making up – even is subconsciously – for not being here for six weeks at a time, 3) supporters tend to take significant financial investment as standard but value visibility higher.

I ask him how much being an American, and an outsider, drives that need. Inevitably you get tarred with a brush and only through showing your individual personality and plan can you change that reputation.

“The answer to that is yes,” he says. “I saw that because there were a lot of people on social media, when they were frustrated, they would name call. At the same time, I’m confident enough, because I know where I came from, that I can deal with that and overcome it.

“I’m getting more confident that people know we are here to try to be successful long term. I believe there’s going to be a great return. But what I would say is this: when I leave and depart, I want to make sure that we’ve left Huddersfield Town and its assets in a much better position. And then hopefully they will say ‘That American left us in a much better place than when he bought it’.”

There is also no guarantee of success. Huddersfield Town were relegated in 2024. Everybody wants to get back to the Championship.

But it’s something that Nagle concedes takes some getting used to as a sports owner: you can do everything that you believe is right at the time, invest as much money as you are able and, ultimately, you can still fall short because sport is not quite business. There are fewer logical guarantees.

On Saturday, after the stadium walk, Nagle entered H Town (a bar and space for 600 supporters in the stadium) and was interviewed on stage after stopping repeatedly along the way with more supporters.

H Town is a facility that was built under his ownership inside a stadium that – thanks to his purchase – is now 100 per cent club-owned for the first time. There are new suites and offices in most parts of the stadium.

So far, this is an overriding theme of Nagle’s ownership: huge investment off the pitch for significant, long-term gain and significant investment on the pitch without the huge reward because it is yet to click and because mistakes have been made.

With that in mind, I want to know what regrets he has about his time here so far – do billionaires even have regrets? Maybe phrase it a different way: what does he wish he knew three years ago that he does now?

“Well, to be a little bit more patient,” he says. “I do typically tend to be patient, but I was probably impatient for a period here. Also, I should probably have been a little bit more of a student of the game in the early days rather than being a doer. Would that allow me to make some different decisions over the course of the last three years? Maybe.”

Huddersfield Town are craving some consistency, a cousin of patience. During Nagle’s three years and three months, they have employed seven different head coaches. Nobody has reached a year in charge since Carlos Corberan, who left in July 2022. It’s time for that to change. The new off-field team makes sense. That can filter to the pitch and dugout.

It is, to an outsider, a very odd existence. As the privilege of wealth increases, so too does the responsibility and that only doubles when you are an obvious outsider within the environment of a social institution.

Supporters understandably expect the club to be your sole focus, yet that is an impossibility. You want to get everything right; that is an impossibility too. You want feedback (and Nagle is on social media and has openly discussed issues there with fans) but the majority of that discourse is skewed negative.

The only answer, I suppose, is to keep going. The next time I speak to Nagle, more things will have happened: more wins, more hope, more “bumps in the road” as he repeatedly refers to them.

There have been a few over the last three years. But, at 71, you can’t doubt the enthusiasm for it all.

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“The one thing is: we’re in this sport to win,” Nagle says. “But at the same time, in the journey, there are a number of other things that you can do. The investment has been far, far greater than any return so far. But I feel the community needs economic vitality. We can help with that.

“Even though I’m not here very often, we want to get more involved, and we are starting to get much more involved in the community. I’ve really pretty much done that my whole life, whether it’s been in my own business or as a member of the community. I think economic prosperity is really important.

“Look at the big picture: Huddersfield Town is always going to be here. It was here before me, and it’s going to be here after. And that’s why I reiterate: we want to leave it better off. We need to help Huddersfield too. There’s a lot of fantastic things that are going on here, but we need to elevate it. And we can. And we will.”

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