Revolution President Brian Bilello Talks About Independent Media, the Growth of the Revs, and What Comes Next
And yes, we did ask for stadium news.
On Friday, Jan. 27, The Blazing Musket went to Foxboro to attend the New England Revolution’s training session. We were fortunate enough to speak to club president Brian Bilello about a variety of topics. Below is a transcript of the 10-minute conversation.
TBM: Can you talk a little about the importance of independent media and your willingness to support TBM during this time?
Bilello: Yeah. One, it’s important for us, right? And we know it’s important to the fans to have as much coverage as possible of the team. Every different media outlet does something a little bit differently, but for the group from The Bent Musket and the consistency of reporting that you guys do, how often you’re here, the articles you guys write, and just that the fans are really engaged with it. They expect to get that from you guys, they see it and they appreciate it so I think unlike maybe some of the bigger media outlets, you guys are probably a little bit more tuned into the fanbase and what they want to know about and the kind of things that they want to hear about. I think it’s really important that every organization has that.
For me, it’s just more important that we have folks like you guys out there covering the team, writing whatever it is that you want to write about the team, but you’re engaged and the fans know they have an outlet like you guys.
TBM: I’ve been covering the team for nine years and you guys have always been welcoming to us. Why do you think independent media is so important to the Revs and the growth of soccer in this country?
Bilello: Again, the groups like you guys, you’re here for the soccer. It’s not a pure business proposition to you like maybe some of the more traditional media outlets, right? They’re just doing the math and saying, like, “How many clicks do I get?” or “How much coverage does this get versus another team versus a story not even about sports?”
I think you guys start with “we care about soccer, we care about the Revs, we care about the fans of the Revs”. So you’re already dedicated to us in what you’re doing. So having an organization and a media outlet that’s soccer first, Revs first, Revs fans first is super important to us.
We get it with all the other medias because they’re covering a million different things. They’re covering sports, non-sports, etc. They have different priorities at different times. Having people that we know we’re the number one priority is huge for us and, again, it’s huge for our fans and I think it’s evident in terms of the coverage you guys do and how you write about the team.
TBM: In 2019, you guys hired Bruce Arena. It was a pretty big moment for the club and its history. It kind of transformed things. I know the training center was being built beforehand. Maybe there were whispers about having a second team as well. There’s so much growth that’s happened in the last few years. How do you feel looking back at that moment of hiring Bruce Arena and how far the club has come since then?
Bilello: When you ask me about the transformation of the club, I would probably take it back a little further. We’re constantly evaluating the club and how we’re doing. It’s always our goal to be really competitive in the league, obviously try to win trophies. As the league started shifting–maybe a little bit too late–we realized that there were a lot of things that we just were falling behind on. The training center is a good example.
I think when we brought Brad [Friedel] in, we really wanted to invest more in players and we wound up bringing Carles Gil in during that time and we were hoping actually to bring in more players during that window. That just all didn’t come together the way that we had hoped.
I think at that point, I looked at Bruce and looked to him to say, “Look, here’s the vision. Here’s where we’re trying to get to and we’ve started down the path but we’ve got a long way to go.” He was enthusiastic about the project and the opportunity. To be able to get someone with his level of experience, not just coaching on the pitch but his understanding of all the people that it would take to do this, building that up and bringing guys like Curt Onalfo and Richie [Williams] and guys that he’s worked with in the past into our club. I think what he does himself is pretty amazing but he’s also been able to transform us by bringing great people to the club and they’re doing great things.
Again, you’re right. We were thinking about the second team. We had an academy, but having someone like Curt, who among all the other things he’s done for us, really grabbed that pro pathway project and took us from where we were to where we are now. Now we think we have one of the best academies in the league. I think our second team program is among the best in the league and most importantly, that pathway from academy player through the second team to the first team now and the players that we have coming up through that system, we feel really strong about that as well. I think the project, so to speak, from my perspective, from the club’s perspective, started before [2019], but Bruce and the staff that he brought in really helped bring it way forward for us.
TBM: You mentioned the goal is to continue to do more. Are there specific things that you look at and think, “This is what we need to improve or add to be amongst the top teams and to be consistently amongst the top?”
Bilello: At this stage, trophies. I really feel that our pro-pathway system is right there now. We’ve been recruiting multiple players from outside of our market and showing them that this is the project and they’re choosing us and saying we think that this is the place that I can best develop as a player. We’ve got academy kids now up with the first team and a ton of them getting experience with the second team, so that’s obviously there.
On the international market, one of the great things that I’ve seen the last couple of years is that we’ve went out and bought a bunch of really great players. We wound up selling a bunch of players in the last few years but we were able to replace them with other high-quality, high-potential players. What we learned from the market, so to speak, when we were out doing that is now that we have this sort of reputation of like, hey you can come here, you can develop, and you can move to Europe, you can move to Champions League quality teams, we’re an attractive team for those players to come to. That’s allowed us not just to sort of replace it but we’re playing in a little bit of a different pool talent-wise in terms of the types of players that we’re able to recruit, that will listen to us, that will come here. That’s a major, major shift and it’s not easy to get over that hump.
So now, what do we have to do? We got to continue that moving, right? So that next crop of players that we have, we have to develop them, we have to give them opportunities to maybe move if they want to move and keep that cycle going. I think from that perspective, if you look at the transfer market business, we’re doing as good a job as anyone. I saw the FIFA report came out [on Jan. 26], we’re top 10 in Concacaf in transfer spending right now.
I think from a fan perspective, what we’re trying to do is say, “Look, we’re going out there, we’re selling players but we’re also buying a lot of players too.” I don’t think even five years ago you would have looked at us and expected us to be top 10 in Concacaf in transfer spending. But again, it goes to that when you sell these players, the goal isn’t to sell them for the money. The goal is to sell them to get the money, to go spend the money, and to bring in even better players. I think we have that system moving now and if we can continue to do that then the club will continue to grow.
TBM: I interviewed Jay Heaps for my 2014 retrospective article. He talked about during his time, people didn’t want to come to New England per se. But he said that once they came here, it became home and it became your place. You mentioned the transfer part and you guys are going a little bit younger. Did you find that sometimes it was a little bit difficult to bring in big-name stars to this area and that’s why it was important to change the philosophy?
Bilello: I think we just looked at it as, like, we had to build a better environment for everyone here, right, in order to be competitive. I think the expectation is that once we did that we’d be able to do it.
Look, money plays a big part of that, right? I think phase one with us was like, we just spent money on guys. We spent a lot of money to bring in a lot of that sort of first generation of guys under Bruce into the club. Once you did that, okay, then you showed players not only will we pay transfers and pay the salaries, but you got this great development opportunity here as well.
Now I think we’re in that next phase. Again, building the facility, this is extremely important to players. Guys come from other countries. This facility is up there or better than a lot of facilities that the players we’re bringing from other parts of the world have ever trained in. They know they have great facilities, they know the club takes care of them, obviously the pay is good, their clubs think the transfer revenue is good, and the players feel like there’s potential to make more moves if that’s what they want in their future. When you put it all together, I think that’s where we are now. So when you sort of say, “What’s next, what do you have to do now?” I really do think it’s bringing home those trophies.
TBM: My understanding is that Bruce Arena was a candidate for the head coaching job earlier before Brad Friedel was hired. You can tell me if that’s true or not. From there, what made it the right time to hire Arena in 2019 as opposed to earlier?
Bilello: I’m not going to really comment on the past and who we hired and who we didn’t hire. When we got to that point where we were in 2019, I knew enough about Bruce to know that that’s the guy I really wanted. Met with him and kind of tried to make that clear that I thought he was really good for this.
But with Bruce, the big part of that was not just like, “Hey, we want you.” We had to make sure that Bruce wanted this too. We needed the club and the project to be attractive to him, that it was something that he was willing to take on. Again, someone like Bruce has options, has choices. You need to also sell the club to him. It’s not just trying to find a first-time coach who of course will take the job. So again, having the facility in the ground, building that, talking about what we want to do with the player pool, that was all a big part of the recruitment process with Bruce.
TBM: Last question and it’s a question that you get all the time. I talked at Carles Gil’s MVP ceremony to Taylor Twellman. He said that this is the closest you guys have ever been to having a stadium. He said that 2026 or something like that is on your mind. Do you have a comment on what Twellman said or the progress on a stadium?
Bilello: No, not right now. Not right now.
Appreciate asking the questions a lot of us have. Thanks Seth
Amazing coverage as always!