[Archived] Sunderland AFC

[tomphil]

8 minutes ago, RoverCanada said:

Oddly, a second relegation won't have that big of an impact on Sunderland's turnover compared to if they stayed in the Championship as they're due for a £31m parachute payment. If they stayed in the Championship, their broadcast revenue would have been about ~£35m total. It'll only fall to about ~£32m dropping to League One.

Matchday revenue may fall again. It's probably fallen from about £11m in the PL to £7m in the Championship. Maybe down to £5m in League One. Hard to say on commercial revenue, which was £21m a couple years ago in the PL. Maybe it's down to £12m in the Championship. Maybe £8m in League One...?

By those guesstimates, excluding player trading, they were looking at £54m of turnover in the Championship, which maybe drops to~ £45m in League One.

For a sense of scale, it looks like we spent like crazy in League One with a wage budget of maybe £15m, and our turnover was probably about £10-£11m.

(For a further sense of scale, suppose Sunderland bounces right back to the Championship, they'll be due a £16m parachute payment that year, which is roughly equivalent to what Rovers' entire turnover will be in the Championship)

The real shame for Sunderland is the horrendous waste of the parachute payment advantage, which looks like it'll have to go more toward paying off the likes of Rodwell and steamrolling League One for a year rather than splurging like Newcastle or Aston Villa in the Championship.

Which is exactly what happened at Rovers re parachute advantage - straight into the pockets of Murphy, Best, Ethuhu etc etc and of course some nice percentages to the snouts in the trough.

Sunderland will probably be the Leeds of League 1, guaranteed big gates, sell out away followings and on the TV every week.

Someone somewhere will be making money out of it all.

[Norbert Rassragr]

I know I asked this on the Championship thread, but does anyone know who they are being bought by? The now former Ebbsfleet chairman is going to be the face of the organisation, but who are the guys behind him with the cash?  

[DE.]

1 minute ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

I know I asked this on the Championship thread, but does anyone know who they are being bought by? The now former Ebbsfleet chairman is going to be the face of the organisation, but who are the guys behind him with the cash?  

I've only seen "international investors" in the articles I've read on it, which sounds a bit shady but I'm sure the good old fit and proper owners test will weed out any bad eggs... 

[JHRover]

13 minutes ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

I know I asked this on the Championship thread, but does anyone know who they are being bought by? The now former Ebbsfleet chairman is going to be the face of the organisation, but who are the guys behind him with the cash?  

Its the current Eastleigh Chairman, not Ebbsfleet (who oddly enough are owned by a Kuwaiti millionaire who has chucked fortunes into them).

The bloke leading the Sunderland takeover is called Stewart Donald (not Donald Stewart who is the Scottish swinger on Benidorm). He made his money in insurance companies (Hastings Direct?) and has put decent money into Eastleigh to try and get them into the Football League, whilst working his way through numerous managers like Ronnie Moore and Martin Allen. He reckons he's put £10 million of his money into Eastleigh and is now going to give them away (presumably to speed up the process as he needs to be rid of them to take over at Sunderland). Either way he's unlikely to have the hundreds of millions potentially required to turn Sunderland around and get them into Premier League contention. He also owned shares in Oxford United for a while but wasn't majority owner.

Plenty of rumours of Spanish people involved behind his bid for Sunderland.

I'd always be suspicious of the timing of this takeover. Sunderland have been up for sale for years and Short has been desperate to sell, yet this has waited until demotion to League One. It suggests to me that Short might have drastically reduced his asking price following relegation just to get rid. If this consortium were mega rich why wait until relegation? Why not buy last summer and have a crack at the Championship?

[DE.]

3 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'd always be suspicious of the timing of this takeover. Sunderland have been up for sale for years and Short has been desperate to sell, yet this has waited until demotion to League One. It suggests to me that Short might have drastically reduced his asking price following relegation just to get rid. If this consortium were mega rich why wait until relegation? Why not buy last summer and have a crack at the Championship?

It looks like the trigger point was Short deciding to write off all of the debt. Before now he was only willing to write off a percentage. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

The 'international investors' tag is very vague, and suggests that there is either so many stake holders it is hard to keep track of them, or that there are some Pablo Escobar types down the line.

[K-Hod]

11 hours ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

The 'international investors' tag is very vague, and suggests that there is either so many stake holders it is hard to keep track of them, or that there are some Pablo Escobar types down the line.

I see what you did there.....

[Vinjay]

On 01/05/2018 at 12:38, DE. said:

It looks like the trigger point was Short deciding to write off all of the debt. Before now he was only willing to write off a percentage. 

Well yes obviously. Davies did the same at Bolton Wanderers though in his case it wasn't as unexpected. 

I can't see why Wilder would leave Sheffield United for Sunderland. While their financial position has been boosted Donald's admitted making mistakes at Eastleigh FC which hardly compares to bloody Sunderland. I'm not convinced his vision will be anything exceptional though he might not do anything malicious either. Still think Grayson only went there for 3x the money (look how long it took Rovers to get rid of him as a player) but would the same apply here with Wilder/SheffU?