Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League could be worth around £200m
Comments
Sunderland AFC's chief business officer David Bruce.
Sunderland AFC's chief business officer David Bruce.
(Image: Sunderland AFC)
Chief business officer David Bruce reckons Sunderland have become “hot property” since their triumphant return to the Premier League.
The club are about to see their revenues surge and Bruce has stated the financial impact will go well beyond an increase in TV revenues.
The Black Cats are already guaranteed in excess of £200m over the next three years thanks to their Wembley win against Sheffield United.
Even if the worst happens and relegation follows, the club would be protected to a degree by parachute payments coming into play.
Speaking at the Foundation of Light’s annual fixture breakfast, Bruce gave an update on discussions he had undertaken with a number of brands with a view to increasing the commercial revenue and potentially giving sporting director Kristjaan Speakman a healthy transfer budget for the summer.
The Black Cats are weighing up how much they should shift their transfer strategy, with a need to add better players to the squad who will cost several millions.
Article continues below
“We got promoted very late,” Bruce said. “Everyone wants to get promoted this way because you got those amazing memories and that brilliant day out at Wembley, but what it means the other promoted clubs have an extra three weeks as well as the experience of having been in the Premier League more recently.
"We literally won Saturday, Monday was a bank holiday and then I think on the Wednesday we had 20 Premier League staff running a full induction.
“We’re then dealing with inbound requests all the time because we’re a hot property.
"We were before because I think our staff were doing a really good job in the context of where we were operating to be really attractive to a lot of different stakeholders, but you can’t impact the global scale of the Premier League. There’s more people watching this league than any other.
"So all of a sudden you get all these brands calling you saying, ‘how do we become a part of Sunderland?’
"We’ve now got to assess what’s right for Sunderland, what’s right financially and from a brand point of view. What’s the number that we can get to that can then help Kristjaan [on the footballing side]? It’s been completely non-stop and it will continue to be that way.”
Bruce added he was looking for long-term partnerships with companies, not just the first of what could be many years at the top level.
“The club has probably been too short-termist in the past, looking a year ahead of time,” Bruce said.
“We have to view the medium and long term as well in the decisions we make now. We’ve got potential partners coming to us now wanting to sign up for a year, but we’re saying, ‘no, we want to be partners for two or three years, so what does that look like’. And then you begin to sniff out who wants to be part of the club for the right reasons.”
Article continues below
Promotion should also drive increased revenue from the club’s ‘multi-million pound’ investment in its hospitality spaces.