Decent article in The Athletic with Bruce https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6545745/2025/08/12/sunderland-premier-league-return/ Sunderland are back and buoyant with bold signings, intense demand for seats and 100,000 shirts sold By Philip Buckingham Aug. 12th, 2025 5:06 am GMT+1 15 On the corridor wall outside David Bruce’s office in Black Cat House, there is a framed piece of paper that has fundamentally changed Sunderland’s world. It is their Premier League share certificate, awarded to the club’s owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus at the AGM dinner in early June, displayed for all to see. Sunderland’s, if you were wondering, was the 128th certificate issued. “You need to look at that,” an enthusiastic Bruce, Sunderland’s chief business officer and lifelong supporter, tells The Athletic. “It shows what we’re all part of. My job is to help keep it on that wall.” Not since 2017, when meekly surrendering to relegation from the Premier League under David Moyes, have Sunderland held a ticket to the party that begins again with the visit of West Ham United this weekend. “I’ve never experienced a buzz like this,” adds Bruce. “It’s palpable.” Tickets for Saturday’s opening game all went within a day of going on sale. Season cards, too, are long gone. Kit sales have never been higher and the club shop, two floors below that share certificate, has a snaking queue of supporters wishing to add Premier League badges to the sleeves of new shirts. Eight years were spent awaiting this moment. There was the ignominy of falling into League One and then the long, arduous road back that climaxed with promotion via the Championship play-off final in May. Those dramatic victories over Coventry City and Sheffield United are already the stuff of Wearside legend. There is the very real danger of the Premier League’s formidable strength quickly putting an end to Sunderland’s rise in the coming months but this is a very different club to the one that parted with English football’s elite. The ambition now is to be sustainable and strategic after a string of wasteful, aimless years began a ruinous slide captured on the Netflix documentary Sunderland Til I Die. Even with this summer’s spending — £121m ($163m) and counting — it is stressed there will be no deviation from the plans that have brought them this far. “Kyril has a very clear vision,” says Bruce. “It’s been, ‘How do we build a football club that’s sustainable?’. Doing the right things on and off the pitch, building a club that people can really buy into. “A lot has been written about what’s been done on the pitch, young talent and creating a platform for them, but a big part of what Kyril has pushed on the business side is to understand how we build a club that reconnects with the people.” It has been no small task. “The feelings the fans had towards the club and the players that played here (in 2016-17) would suggest there was a real separation,” he adds. “For this part of the world to have that is really quite upsetting. What you’ve got now is something that fans recognise as being theirs.” West Ham’s visit on Saturday promises to be a spectacle but it will not beat the delirium felt when the Stadium of Light last hosted a competitive match. Dan Ballard’s extra-time header to sink Coventry in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg was the cue for feral celebrations and the platform for more of the same as Sheffield United were then beaten at Wembley. That stroked finish from Tommy Watson, now a Brighton & Hove Albion player, was as big as any in Sunderland’s modern history; cathartic and the sudden catalyst for what could be transformative change. Returning to the Premier League was always Louis-Dreyfus’ stated aim when taking a controlling stake in Sunderland from Stewart Donald in February 2021. The son of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the late former owner of Marseille, made it clear at the start of 2021-22 that a five-year plan could guide Sunderland from the backwaters of League One and up to the Premier League. It took just four. There were missteps along the way, like defeat by Lincoln City in the League One play-offs and the disastrous appointment of Michael Beale, but Louis-Dreyfus, still only 27, has turned Sunderland into a club feeling good about itself once more. “Kyril is a very progressive young guy,” says Bruce, who was convinced to step down from his position as chief marketing officer at Major League Soccer to return to his home city last year. “He sees the world differently to many owners, who probably grew up consuming sports on radio and in newspapers. Kyril has grown up with the mobile phone and social media. “He’s very thoughtful, he’s very thorough. There’s a lot of noise around this club with a lot of scale but he’s good at hearing the feeling and staying resolute towards good plans. “In football it’s very easy to get drawn into the emotions and move away from plans because things happen in real time to move you off course. You have to listen to some of that but you also have to stay the course with plans you believe in. For such a young person to have that steadiness is a real quality.” Sunderland’s methods in coming this far have barely altered in the past four years, even when irritating a string of head coaches. New arrivals have typically been under 23 with the potential to develop into assets. Jobe Bellingham went from being a £1.5m signing from Birmingham City to a £32m player sold to Borussia Dortmund this summer. The year before it was Jack Clarke, sold to Ipswich Town for £15m and the year before that, Ross Stewart, who Southampton paid £9m to sign. Reinvestment has regularly been smart, such as moves for Ballard, Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle and Eliezer Mayenda, which have complemented the emergence of academy graduates that include Anthony Patterson, Chris Rigg, Dan Neil and Watson. Wages have been controlled along the way. Figures from the 2023-24 season, the last available club accounts, showed salary costs to be 81 per cent of turnover, way below the Championship average. Sustainability has always been the buzzword and it stretches to the business outlook of a club that was the ninth-best supported in England last season, with an average home crowd of just under 40,000. “For us to be successful, a modern football club at the highest level, it’s the ability to take advantage of the scale and reach you have,” says Bruce. “You have to build your revenue streams. If you sit here and you don’t grow revenue streams, then your football club stagnates. It does not grow and others go past you very quickly. You can’t become the club your fans want you to be, and from the business side we’re very cognisant of that.” Sunderland, inevitably, will enjoy record revenues in this coming season. There is a guarantee to earn at least £110m from the Premier League pot (almost three times the club’s turnover in 2023-24), as well as matchday and commercial income climbing to new highs. Kit sales, in particular, have seen enormous growth. A partnership with Hummel, the Danish manufacturer that formerly supplied the club’s kits between 1988 and 1994, led to output trebling last season. “We’ve moved from about 33,000, 34,000 shirts two seasons ago (when with Nike) to circa 100,000 shirts in our first season with Hummel,” says Bruce. “That puts you top 10 in the country. What we’re seeing is unprecedented here. There were 500 people here when we launched our home shirt last month, before the store even opened.” There has also been increased demand for tickets. North of 30,000 season cards were sold before the Wembley victory and the limits were reached within 48 hours of being placed on sale in June. With corporate hospitality offerings taking season-ticket holders to 41,000 and Michelin star chef Tommy Banks now overseeing high-end food on site, it is the first time since the capacity of the Stadium of Light was increased in 2000 that supply cannot meet demand. The summer weeks have only served to heighten the anticipation. Former West Ham defender Arthur Masuaku became Sunderland’s 10th signing over the weekend, with the capture of Switzerland international Granit Xhaka underlining ambitions to buck a trend that has seen the last six promoted clubs all suffer relegation inside a year. Twice the club transfer record was broken, first to turn Enzo Le Fee’s loan from Roma into a £19m deal and then when signing Habib Diarra from Strasbourg for £30m. Sunderland’s net spend, offset by the exits of Bellingham and Watson, currently stands in the region of £85m, with an expectation for further signings to arrive before the transfer deadline. “There’s headroom based on how the club has been run in the last few years,” explains Bruce. “We’ve been sensible with how we’ve spent based on the revenue afforded to us as a football club and we’ll always have that in mind. We can’t spend beyond our means and we haven’t since Kyril took over. We make X, we spend Y. It’s as simple as that, so if we can build revenues, that gives us greater opportunity to spend on the football side.” Sunderland will be disadvantaged when only allowed to lose £61m over their next three-year assessment period but the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, says Bruce, are not a concern. “Our approach in the window has been well measured,” he says. “We spent a lot of time as an executive team on what our revenues are going to look like and where we’ve come from in the last couple of years. “What can we spend? What’s the anchor point on wages and what’s the money we can spend in the market? We’re doing it with a view to being a sustainable football club but with every chance of staying in the league. We feel confident. Like what happened in the last parts of last season, where people came together, the feeling around the club can give us a very good chance.” Sunderland have hope again.
KLD CHIPS IN ON PLANNING ISSUE SAFC have followed up Bob Murray’s statement, which we ran yesterday, regarding the latest development plan for the Sheepfolds area, arguing that it could block any future expansion of the Stadium of Light. Kyril Louis-Dreyfus: “As the custodian of Sunderland AFC, it is my duty to safeguard the future of our Club. This includes the Stadium of Light – the beating heart of our city. Unfortunately, Sunderland City Council has recently taken steps relating to the Sheepfolds development that could have catastrophic operational consequences on our Club and, by extension, our community. We are under no illusion that the city needs a more appropriate housing provision and support those endeavours fully. However, later this week, we will be submitting a formal objection against the proposals relating to the Sheepfolds, and I encourage all city stakeholders to come together and join us in protecting the future of our Football Club and the City of Sunderland. Together, we have limitless potential, but it will only be realised through delivering on a shared purpose and vision.” Murray had accused the Council of going back on their 'protective zone' included in the original planning blueprint, instead building as close to the SoL as possible. This would prevent any potential expansion on the South Stand. Murray said: “This is not just poor planning — it’s a disgrace. You don’t strangle your greatest asset and call it progress. I helped shape those protections. The Council agreed then. And now they’ve torn them up."
Just goes to prove verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they are written on. Club should have bought the land years ago when it would have been relatively cheap. If planning permission granted then it will cost a lot more. The club should also look to acquire the car park behind the East Stand. I know, they already have a lease, but once again could avoid a potential problem further down the line. All that said we probably didn't have the spare cash in earlier years.
Which dipsticks in our council thought building houses 23 meters from The Roker End is a good idea? Brainless
When the SOL was being built, Vasey Signs had some advertising hoardings up on Southwick road near the old entrance for the pit. The club wanted the land for the access road that would become Vaux Brewery way and tried to buy them. They were valued at £25k but Vasey Signs wanted over £250k to sell them. The club ended up having to pay the £250k to get the site, basically paying way over the odds to get it done. I'd heard, rightly or wrongly, that some similar stuff happened with other pockets of land around the stadium at the time and that the club refused to have their pants pulled down over it. It wouldn't surprise me if that was true and applied to some of the buildings in the Sheepfolds. As it stands I can see the plans being modified so that housing isn't built that close to the stadium.
That's sick that from Vasey signs... reminds me... didn't some skunk businessman quickly buy some property next to the landfill before they looked into expanding? Think he's looking for a massive mark up on the land/property? Good to hear some common sense is being applied to the plans for the social housing near the SoL
No mention of any progress with the new ‘Cathedral on the Hill’ … … looks like they're stuck with a crumbling. wreck on a slight incline.
I heard the new housing is going to be built to encourage car free families, so they won't have driveways and there will be a small central car park but not enough spaces for every house. I was contemplating moving there, but seen as I need a car to do my job, it's not really practical for me.
One of our group still hasn't got his physical season card, ticket office phone number just cuts off. Anyone else still waiting for a physical card?
I am quite confident that some, middle way, will be found to resolve this issue. I doubt the Council will want the costs and time of being tied up in a planning wrangle. I'm pretty sure KLD will have some very knowledgeable legal advisors that could tie up the Council for quite some time. Time for a bit of common sense, all round.
I wonder if this could speed up a South stand extension? Im sure the North Stand had to be done when it was as if the aquatic centre was built first, it would stop the north stand development. Just thinking the club might look to do it before houses are built?
The extension and away fan situation should be sorted simultaneously in my opinion … … the PL won’t let us get away with it forever.
As far as I'm aware the only land that Ellis Short retained, or rather a company in which he had an interest retained, was for the Hilton Hotel.
IIRC there will be a multi storey car and bike park built at the entrance to the development. Basically as you go under the railway bridge at St Peters Metro it will be on the right hand side abutting the railway line. Well that was the intention on the artists impression that I saw. I didn't notice anything about the number of spaces but most were to have electric charging points. As in all things, plan's do change.
