LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Sally Yates Report, which outlined systemic sexual and other abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League, was released in October of last year, with Racing Louisville FC coach Christy Holly and his abuse of a player over multiple career stops a central feature.
A joint investigation into the same issues by the NWSL and its players association was released last December 14.
On Friday night at Lynn Family Stadium, Racing Louisville FC chairman and CEO John Neace and president James O’Connor met supporters in a Town Hall for the first time. For two hours, they answered questions submitted ahead of time, and occasionally answered questions posed directly from the crowd of around 120 season ticket supporters.
The mood was calm but serious. The franchise has been billed from its start as one that strives to treat its players well, to pay them the best it can, to provide a good living environment, better benefits than elsewhere, and facilities equal to or better than any women’s franchise in the world. It was a point of pride for supporters. So to have the club in the center of the sport’s biggest scandal was a bitter revelation.
Leigh Nieves, a past president of the Lavender Legion supporters group, said it was a disappointment that she still struggles with. She was in attendance for Friday night’s Town Hall, and offered an assessment.
“Ultimately it was a great starting point,” she said. “I don’t think the Town Hall went perfectly. But I do think that transparency that has not been there, that was a long time coming, was finally there. Were all the questions that we wanted to be answered, answered? No. The word ‘trust’ was brought up many, many times, and I do think this is a baby step toward rebuilding that trust.”
O’Connor, who has been the focal point of much fan outrage, said that was the goal.
“This is the first step in trying to rebuild trust,” he said. “I hope people get an understanding of what we're trying to do and understand maybe where we're trying to take the club. And that's something that, you know, we want to be totally transparent with everything tonight and we're grateful for the opportunity and I personally, finally, am grateful that I can actually come out and answer questions and speak to people.”
Racing Louisville FC chairman and CEO John Neace speaks to season-ticket holders at a Town Hall on March 10, 2023.
Both O’Connor and Neace said that much of their silence has been geared around legal advice and league wishes. When O’Connor did speak about the firing of Christy Holly originally, his comments from that interview became a flashpoint of anger once the public knew why Holly was fired.
When he was asked if Holly had done anything illegal, in an interview in September of 2021, he said, “that’s a subject of viewpoint, if you like, depending on different people and who’s asking. I’ll plead the fifth, I’ll take the attorney line on that.” He also chuckled during his answer, which angered many fans in retrospect.
On Friday, O’Connor said he regretted those comments, but that he was in unfamiliar territory and trying to not draw more attention to the story for the benefit of the player involved, and the club.
“I think the biggest thing to remember in a situation like that is I'm a human being,” O’Connor said. “And that was a mistake. And I think what is the context that people don't have around that is, if I was to say, ‘pleading the fifth,' that I assumed when you pled the fifth, it just meant basically, you didn't want to answer the question. I had no idea that pleading the fifth actually meant that you're admitting some form of guilt and that you were just trying not to answer the question. I think where I was trying to get to with that was, we had obviously been given legal advice as to what we should say, what we shouldn't say. You also then had the issue relative to what the player was feeling, what she wanted. It was an incredibly scary time for her. Ultimately, what I didn't want was to draw any kind of attention to a player or the players or to the club. Could I have handled that situation differently? Absolutely. The laughing piece is a nervous laugh, because I'd been caught in a situation where honestly, I felt as if no matter what I said, I was going to get it wrong.
“The most important thing to me was that the player at the time was protected and that I didn't draw any kind of attention to do anything that would cause any more difficulty for her. That was the primary reason of trying to get through the interview. But this concept of that, you know I'm saying it wasn't the legal or illegal or that I'm in agreement with what happened? Yeah, I can I called subjective or objective, remember exactly. I mean, it guys, if I could go back and change that interview, believe me, I absolutely would. It wasn't as if I'm in any way trying to be flippant. It was, at the time, I'm dealing with something I've never dealt with before. I'd made a mistake and I got caught by a question. If I say yes, it's illegal, then it creates more of a fury around which, at the time the player in question wanted everything to go away. She was incredibly frightened. And for me, I tried to answer the question in a way, which would not draw more attention to the club, which would maybe scare her further. So I said I was wasn't sure if it was illegal, objective versus subjective, rambling about pleading the fifth. I mean, it was a car crash, you know, and there's no other way of saying that, you know, and I'll fully admit that. It was a mistake.”
Club leaders were also criticized for entering into a non-disclosure agreement with Holly upon his termination. They did so, they said, because at the time the player involved wished to keep the incident private. Later, Erin Simon, the player alleging a long pattern of sexual and other abuse by Holly, spoke with investigators from the Yates Report and the league.
Neace acknowledged that the NDA was a mistake when asked about it Friday night, and said that the club has retained new legal counsel.
“Our goal was to protect the wishes of the player, and to do what the player involved had asked us to do,” Neace said. “And I'm sure that individual -- I cannot speak for her -- was as bewildered and confused and not sure what to do about all of this as anybody else. So, you know, was it was it the right course of action looking back? No. Right? Did we do what we were advised to do at the time? Yes, we did. Right? So, you know, whether we like it or not, we have to own that.”
One question for the club leadership was why it did not respond to player complaints about Holly sooner, or in a stronger manner. A group of three players earlier in the season had approached club leadership with various complaints about Holly, concerns about medical issues, or treatment of players based on their experience level in the league, or just general concern about how Holly was speaking to some of them.
O’Connor said he told players that they would all sit down with coaches and discuss the issues. (In the reports, players said they felt blindsided by that meeting, and that Holly later retaliated against some who had come forward.) O’Connor said he handled it the way he did because, in his time as a coach, such meetings had been opportunities to build deeper relationships between players and staff.
Racing Louisville FC chairman and CEO John Neace and president James O'Connor speak to season-ticket holders at a Town Hall on March 10, 2023.
“People just need to remember that It was a brand new organization with a brand new group of people that was still trying to establish a group dynamic,” O’Connor said. “. . . That phase was very much as we saw it as a trust-building phase, where I've been through it myself as a coach, when you sit with players, there are new players or young players or old players, there are multiple things that are discussed. You're always trying to generate a relationship where you can build trust, and you can form a winning mentality. And you can fine-line performance. And I think the point that we're trying to make is relative to that meeting, we felt at the time that that meeting was best served by bringing everybody together. And then having further weekly meetings, with (club chaplain) Garrett Bates around our cultural model. Our cultural model is PITCH, which is something that we developed, along with Garrett, which stands for personal accountability, intellectually engaged, trust, commitment, and humility. And this was something that the players were having on a weekly basis with Garrett, around the forming of a culture. And the point we're trying to make is in the forming of a brand new team, a brand new organization, it's really important to develop trust, and that was something that everybody is trying to develop. And that was a big factor of why we continued to try to work along our cultural model with not just those three players but with all the players and try to get the staff with the players to work similar to how LouCity did and the Academy does and build meaningful relationships.”
What club officials did not know at that time was that they were trying to help players build trust with a coach who was engaged in predatory behavior with a player. O’Connor went to some length to remind fans that the complaints from the players that he originally dealt with via a group meeting with coaches were not the complaint that eventually got Holly fired. Once club officials heard the abuse allegations, Holly was fired the next day.
One supporter, likely speaking for many, challenged O’Connor on his handling of those original player complaints, saying that had the club acted more decisively or looked into them more deeply, it perhaps could’ve rooted out a dysfunctional coach more quickly.
O’Connor said that the club did not minimize the complaints, and engaged in “active listening,” to the players, and in one case, of a player who had a problem with the way Holly had been speaking to her, the leadership met privately with Holly to discuss it. In any event, he said that he club has made many resources available to players moving forward.
They answered questions for about two hours.
“Throughout the forming of Racing, there's been a sports psychologist that's been involved,” O’Connor said. “There has been a clinical psychologist and counselors that have been made available to all the players. And that's something that has been there from the beginning and has continued. There's also an employee assistance program that's been put in place for all employees. So, I think we've done our very best to continue to put services and expertise in those positions to try to help. . . . Do I look back at those meetings and say, you know, could we or should we have handled those meetings differently? You know, I felt at the time we were trying to build trust with players. I felt as if it was really important for the players and the coaching staff to develop meaningful relationships. And I think that was something that we continue to try to do.”
The meeting featured a great deal of interest in the hiring of a general manager for Racing Louisville, a move mandated by the league. Neace said that process was complete and an offer extended in November, only to have the candidate back out at the 11th hour. The club then started over, and another candidate was found and has provisionally accepted the position, though the club can’t announce it until the league approves it and the requisite background checks are complete. He expects that announcement to come within the next 2 weeks, and the new GM to be in place shortly after.
O’Connor noted that he was not involved in the process of hiring a GM. Some in the crowd were upset that the club had not updated the process, or been transparent in its candidate searches. But Neace said that the need for confidentiality among candidates prevented some of that, as did the wishes of the league. Still, some were not happy that the club has taken so long to provide any in-person response.
“If you don't think we were as upset by that as you were, I'm sorry, but we were,” Neace said. “But you know, the league is bigger than we are. And I think they wanted to be certain the investigation was completed. Which one? We didn't end until the NWSL, the NWSLPA investigation, which was December and we were ready to announce,” but the withdrawal of the GM choice set the timeline back.
On a wider view, both men said that the organization has changed over the past two years, and that they believe the player experience offered in Louisville is at or above any other offered in professional women’s soccer.
But O’Connor said that the club is never likely to fully get over what happened with Holly.
“I think the biggest thing is regret,” he said. “To start with, I think when we look at the appointment (of Holly), I never believed anything like that could ever happen at our football club. It's something that we're never leaving, if I'm being totally honest with you. Things that we learned from and have done differently, I think when we look at the process to hiring any individual I think is significantly changed. I think when we look at the involvement, we'll say, from players relative to (current coach) Kim (Björkegren’s) appointment, when you look at the involvement relative to the players of this football club and previous football clubs. As an example, we spoke to multiple ex-players before hiring Kim, to really delve into the background of what the player experience was under that coach. I think that's something we've continued with any future appointment around the whole organization, is there's a greater depth around that process. And that's probably the biggest thing that we've done throughout.”
Neace said that club leadership has learned the hard way, through some regrettable missteps, but that he believes players current with the club have had a positive experience.
“I think the players feel safe,” Neace said. “I think the players understand what we went through and they know that we're making the strides we need to make and putting the checks and balances, if you want to say, in place to assure that. Obviously, you never can speak for other people. So, I hope we've got that right. But you know, three of our key players, Katie (Lund), Jaelin (Howell), and Savannah (DeMello), all have signed new long-term contracts. I don't believe they would do that if they weren't comfortable here or if they didn't feel like we were listening and putting the mechanisms in place that need to be in place to give them the opportunity to speak up. And, you know, I hope they will do that. And we certainly will listen. . . . I also don't think that the new players that we've signed would be coming if they didn't believe that we were sincere, and they didn't feel that they could trust us. And both from the international side and from players who've already had a wonderful run in this league, we're signing players to come here and play. And I think they know the facilities, they know the training ground, they know how we try to treat our players and they're comfortable with that. But I'd encourage you to ask the players. We're all in this thing together. So, the closer we can all get, the more transparent we can be ultimately, and the better off we all are in this relationship, because it takes us all.”
Near the end of the town hall, one supporter asked what they should say to fans who are on the fence about supporting the club, given the past events. One noted that many sexual assault victims might not be in a place to support the club.
“I think for us, we're trying to build trust and we're trying to own everything that's happened,” O’Connor said. “We've tried sincerely since 2021, to implement change to ensure that -- last season was completely different to 2020. I think the majority of players would say they had a completely different experience last year relative to 2021. I think the ambition of the club is there to try to get things right. You can see with the player signings that the club have made that there’s a nice mix, when you look at some of the talent, the youthful talent blended in with the international talent. So, we're very hopeful that there can be a successful year next year.”
Neace spoke at some length on the question.
“I think that question is a much bigger question than just Racing Louisville,” Neace said. “I mean, I've lived in greater Louisville for 42 years. And I've watched Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, grow up around us. And while I'm still proud to call Louisville home, and this is where I want to live, the reality is we can do the same things that these other cities have done, if we all work together and do it. And we need to all work to make greater Louisville greater. So, when we're talking to our friends, or we're talking to our acquaintances, and they say to me, ‘Oh, John, I love the stadium and what you all are doing.’ And I say to them, ‘Where are your seats?’ I've never been to a game. But I mean, to go to one, right? It's not go to one, it's support the club and do the other things that we need to do to make our community better.
“Our community has lots of issues right now. We are one of them. And we are taking the steps to fix it. And we want you to hold us accountable. But I think we need to do that on all parts of what we are as a community, not just this piece. You know, we're we are a top tier club with Racing Louisville. We're it. We're the best league in the world. We have some of the best players in the world. But if we don't support it, it won't be here. And I'm not trying to be the boogeyman. It's just reality, right? You know, clubs are escalating in value. There are other cities that want clubs. I know we're all season-ticket holders. But the question was, what do we tell our friends? And I think that's what we tell our friends. We need you. We need you to help. I mean, we got the Women's Cup here, right? We lost a lot of money in doing that. And we had four, or at least I think we're one of the four best clubs in the world, but we've got to support them. And if our community doesn't get it as a whole, then we're never going to get it. And it won't ever happen. . . . So, while we're not proud of proud of it, we're owning it. And we believe we fixed it, and that it's only going to get better from here.”
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