'We have the right guy in Lee Grant': Old rocker Kevin Nagle on five-year Huddersfield Town plan, stadium investment and passion for Terriers

A Huddersfield Town crest – incongruous in this affluent American town 5,200 miles from West Yorkshire – hangs near to his base in this new piece of real estate which Nagle built, one of his many successful business ventures.

“It gets a lot of attention,” said Kevin. “Some people don’t know what it is but it creates a talking point and suddenly people start finding out about Huddersfield. I love it.”

I’m in El Dorado Hills which is near Sacramento where his football (soccer) team the Sacramento Republic play to sell-out crowds in an area which doesn’t strike you as a football hotbed.

Over lunch, we have a far-reaching discussion – how he first heard of Huddersfield, how he fell in love with the club’s heritage and supporters, about his family and his business career and his six-weekly visits to Huddersfield.

He outlined his plans for the team and stadium which he says can become a downtown entertainment venue, and about his entrepreneurial spirit which he says was sparked by his impoverished youth and a determination to do better.

But he’s keen to put one thing right. I mention reports that he is worth six billion dollars and he laughs. “I’ve read reports that say I’m worth $3million and others that say I’m worth $6billion. Let’s just say it’s somewhere in between.”

There’s no doubt he is a wealthy man. He was born in Minnesota where some of his family still live and he was raised by a single mother in Long Beach, California.

He began as an investment banker and later worked in health care before co-founding a health care business. He made his fortune and later branched out with real estate, venture capital and investment in basketball and football (soccer) teams.

He ended up buying Huddersfield Town after getting to know Jake Edwards, the club’s CEO who had spent much of his career in American football as a player and administrator.

“I remember going to the first match in Huddersfield and we had done the deal and I turned up really early and there were lots of people there, hundreds,” he said.

“I couldn’t work it out, why were they there so early?

"And as I got out of the car people were welcoming me and shaking me by the hand. It was a rock star moment. What a welcome.”

It has been far from plain sailing since. Relegation and a succession of managers have tried the patience of the Town supporters but Nagle says progress is being made on the pitch and off it.

“There were always going to be bumps in the road but I’m confident that in Lee Grant (the club’s football manager) that we have the right guy. He works hard and he knows what he is doing.

“What we are doing behind the scenes is creating the environment for success.”

He’s proud of taking control of the stadium and the land surrounding it.

Previously ownership had been split between the football club, Huddersfield Giants rugby league club and Kirklees Council but now the football club can redevelop the area more easily.

Plans are at an early stage but will certainly include a hotel.

“We have options for the placing of the hotel,” he said.

“That’s not decided yet but it could be adjoining the stadium or nearby.

“We need a hotel. We have lots of plans for events and it seems silly to bring hundreds or even thousands of people to our vicinity and then send them away to hotels way out of town.”

He says having the proper infrastructure is vital.

Plans include more concerts. The stadium has previously hosted Sir Elton John, REM, the Eagles and others and recently the Stereophonics performed there.

“I’m an old rocker and we want to have more concerts,” he said. He has contacts with Sir Paul McCartney and says it would be a dream come true if he could play Huddersfield.

It wouldn’t be Sir Paul’s first visit to the town. He was there in November 1963 with his bandmates for a show at the former ABC cinema which was converted into a theatre. Strangely, Gorden Kaye (a Huddersfield man who later found fame in ’Allo ’Allo) interviewed them for the Huddersfield Tape Recording Society.

Nagle says he works in five-year cycles and is now a couple of years into that process. “The negotiations for the stadium took longer than expected but we got there. The idea is that it will help bring more revenue into the club and help with investment in the team. If we want to bring in more good players we have to have business working well,” he said.

He stays in hotels in Leeds when he is in Yorkshire because Huddersfield has so few places to stay and often they can't accommodate him.

"I get criticised for staying in Leeds," he said. He says he has considered buying a home in Huddersfield and has an open mind on the idea.

Asked if putting his feet up by a pool doesn’t tempt him to have a quieter life, he laughs. As long as he keeps fit – he eats a lot of fish, drinks very little alcohol and walks and runs a lot – he says he will carry on.

Does he have a succession plan? Not as such. His daughters Lindsay and Haley have valuable jobs outside the business as a teacher and nurse respectively and he has three grandchildren.

One of his proudest possessions is a photograph of baby Sebastian, just three months old, sat in Kevin’s office looking very much like the chairman of the future.

“He looks like he could succeed me!” said Kevin. “I call him the little man. I will bring my daughters over here some time on one of my visits to Huddersfield. They will be blown away by the town, I’m sure.”

His father wasn’t on the scene and only later in life did he finally decide to trace him. He found his house but sadly his father had died just a few months earlier.

He did trace his father’s brother who filled him in on some of the details but he says his stepfather, a teacher, was more of an influence showing him the importance of education, sport and chess.

He is a busy man but says he enjoys his trips to Yorkshire every six weeks where he can catch up with developments far more easily than by Zoom calls.

And with a number of English clubs having American owners, he says "the Americans are coming" in the same way that the Beatles led a British invasion of the States.

"I'm certainly here to stay in Huddersfield," he said. "We have a lot of work to do but I'm enjoying it.”