If Newcastle are looking for around £380 million for a buyer are they really worth almost £300 million more than us? I know that we’re in the **** at the moment, but our infrastructure is as good as a top half premiership club. Although our squad isn’t up to much they would still probably fetch a fair whack. Is it our debt which appears to be stuck at about £110 million no matter what we do or who we sell? Maybe it’s dropped but I’ve not (yet) seen our debt listed at say £60 million or whatever. I keep hearing that Short is still pumping money into the club so where does that leave the debt? If the mags have several buyers lined up why not us?
Even if I had flipping great wodges of cash of arab proportions I would never buy a football club. Very few people would nowadays, unlike 5-10 years ago
Reports suggest that Short has halved the price to £67m. In my opinion it would surely be a no brainer for someone with the money to buy us for £67m rather than spend £380m on the mags. You could wipe the debt and still have around £250m to pump into the club. We have a great stadium and world class training facilities. A new owner and fresh start would see crowds return to over 40,000 which would increase revenue.
I don't see a huge gulf between the two clubs in terms of appeal. It just happens to be the case that at the moment they're doing better than us, things change. Our debt is diminishing as we're being run properly.
We are similar. Just imagine this time last year when our positions were reversed and they were in the championship. I know we would have been down near the bottom and they would have been in the top half but would we have been worth £300+ million then and would they struggle to sell for about £100 million? I would think we would be a far better proposition at the moment and as Daparker mentioned the difference could be used to buy quality players. It wasn’t long ago when I was attending 48,000 sell out crowds at the SOL. That would return with the right ownership.
We are only a better proposition based on the purchase price. Look, I’m a Sunderland fan but let’s be realistic here. They are a Premier League club, and already look safe this year, we are Championship in danger of going down. The revenue gulf is enormous. Stadiums? Ours is newer and purpose built, great. There’s is slightly bigger. This is even. Training facilities and academy we win hands down, but again, they do have a good set up. They are worth 3 or 4 times our value because of those lions on the sleeves, plain and simple. They also have far more saleable assets in their squad. We need to appeal to a mega rich owner with a real vision almost like the guys at city, sadly for us Sunderland as a city is not nearly as appealing, marketable or accessible as Manchester, indeed it isn’t even close to Newcastle on that score. They went down, and for all I still think our attendances are strong given years of rot, well they averaged around 15,000 more than we are getting. Let’s stop kidding ourselves here, we are a burned out shell at the minute in need of a total rebuild, even if we get up we have that ‘difficult first year’ all over again. They are absolutely the more appealing, more saleable, and more valuable club at the moment, there’s absolutely no ****kng about on that. It’s fact. Nobody on gods earth is going to think ‘I’ll save £250 million and spend it on a team’. Who the **** we gonna spend that on in the relegation places of the 2nd league? Who’s gonna wanna sign for a club which is tarnished, where now are fans have a reputation for being poisonous at home? Our club needs 5 years to rebuild its foundations. That means whoever buys us needs to hugely subsidise the running of the club while we try and come back brighter. £67 million, if that was the figure, is the tip of an iceberg big enough to sink Britain, let alone a boat. We will get a buyer, we absolutely will not have a buyer looking at ‘us and them’. You don’t go to a Nissan showroom if you have BMW money. We are a 1996 Nissan Almera with no MOT, let’s be realistic. All we can do is try and support the club. I missed game on Saturday I won’t again. Those of us that sit near the boo brigade maybe we need to start having a go at them ****s. I have already. All we can do is support. The club is ****ed, rotten to its core, I wouldn’t spend what’s in my current account on buying it. What I do know though is we’ve been worse, we are one of the biggest in the land and we can rise. Overseas investors don’t know what we know, don’t see potential. They see £££ and that one other thing I’ve mentioned, lions on the sleeves.
A packet of quavers and a couple of double deckers. Neither of which are available in this stupid sunburnt country.
We would need global recognition like Man U etc, needing to bring in £300 m a season most likely, but that could happen. Short should have sold last May. We need money in January just to keep us up !.
With Newcastle I think the £380m includes their debt to Ashley, with ours it seems the however much has been quoted isn't really inclusive of the debt so overall anyone taking over us could end up potentially paying £150m to clear the debt (and bonuses to Short if we get promoted) or pay Short bottom $$$ then re-finance our debt that is still owed to him. I'm presuming this is what's happening.
A club haemorrhaging money ain't worth very much unfortunately. £67m is a good price for Short if he gets it. Sheff Weds went for half that, they're in a healthier position financially.
We have much higher turnover, valuable playing assets on the pitch, a full stadium, premiership football and Rafa Benitez. It would surely take Sunderland years to get back to that level? Given the state of SAFC i’d say the £67m is about right. There are vultures about though who are clearly waiting for the debt to grow even further before offering Ellis, say £30-40m. If you went into administration then I can see Ellis literally giving it away for nowt. Smug needs to get on the blower to his billionaire mates to get them to pull their finger out pronto.
