The story goes that Mr Short was sold on the idea of Buying into Sunderland by Quinny on a golf course. Since that fateful day he has increased his stake to 100% and now has assumed the role of chairman. But why? OK he's a billionaire with money to burn. If I were in his position I to would love the chance to plow money into the SOL but I am a lifelong fan. I doubt Ellis had even heard of SAFC before he met Niall. So why would an American billionaire invest so heavily into a average English Football club? Have we as Quinny so wonderfully put it "Got under my skin?"
Who knows. Why did Abramovich become involved at Chelsea? Lerner at Villa and the Glazers at Man Utd. The list of foreign owners in the EPL is phenomenal and looks like continuing for some time to come. At Man City, the Arab Princes and oil Sheiks have a play thing to amuse themselves with. The EPL is 'THE' glamour league in world football and the place to be seen. Ellis Short doesnt strike me as a playboy lifestyle sort of guy to be fair, so you can only assume he was looking for something to amuse himself one day and thankfully for us, bumped into the greatest SAFC salesman of all time in wor Niall. Men like Short need projects to occupy their minds and satisfy their addictions for success. Retirement for the likes of Ellis Short must seem like legs on a fish to him. Completely pointless. I hope he has got the SAFC bug and that we are right under his skin. The club needs Ellis Short much more than Ellis Short needs us imo but maybe the 2 are mutually beneficial. After all, if we have cost him £100m as suggested, its a drop in the ocean when you consider how much some clubs have cost their owners and in SAFC, the potential for development is simply massive. Liverpool cost £400m. They need a £300m new stadium and if they got one, would they really get 60,000 fans every week? I doubt it personally. Ellis already has a stadium built and a capacity of 49,000 which if the team were right, would be and has been filled. Everton would be a huge financial commitment to as they need a new stadium as well and imo, wouldnt get 50,000/60,000 through the gates either. A 50,000 SAFC crowd can be achieved at a far cheaper cost than a 50,000 Liverpool/Everton crowd could be, so is a good investment for Short. If he improves us over the next 3 or 4 years then who knows where we/he could be. Noocarsel cost Agent Ash £300m and he wants at least that back but they do get the crowds; Villa cost Lerner an arm 7 a leg; and Arsenal shares cost more than me and you earn in a year. We were a good buy for an new investor and maybe there are some potential ones out there that missed the boat with us. Lets hope Short can realise our potential after all these years eh?
Let's be frank, Ellis Short can make more in a week on Wall St. than he will in five years at Sunderland. So he's not looking for 'a killing'. A hobby makes more sense. But, as Cest says, he's addicted to success, and it's not a lot of laughs with a team that scraped tenth last season and is 16th this season. Nor is it easy for Niall and his marketing team to promote a club like that. There are inevitably changes in the wind. We need winners on the pitch. It's all well and good us laughing at Man. U.'s 'glory hunters' - but there are 75,000 of the buggers. Which would you find easier to market abroad - a full stadium watching league champions or a one-third empty stadium watching a team that only just managed tenth and went out of the cup to Notts County? I honestly cannot see Steve Bruce having a lot of time on his hands - his side of the operation is the weak link now. We hear all about 'building his own side and getting it to gell'. But this is his second 'own team' - he built the first in 2010. And with one sixth of the season over, this team doesn't even look like gelling yet. I don't know what's in Ellis's mind right now - but everything else in place. It's simply a matter of how much longer they're prepared to wait for that team to catch fire. 'Lift off' is being delayed for one man now, and if I were him, I'd be rather concerned.
Ha, I was a bit worried about upsetting the current BiBs/BoBs truce. But we've a finance-savvy Chairman and a man leading the promotion team who not only kissed the Blarney Stone - he got a bit of it stuck between his teeth! Everything's right now except one. Nothing's easier to sell than success, and our whole position now revolves around success on the pitch and a full stadium. So it just wasn't possible to avoid the issue of Bruce and the team altogether.
It's easy to suggest change is in the wind given our league position and poor results and the fact that Short is without doubt one of life's winners. All the evidence would suggest however that Short and Quinn have great faith in Bruce. Niall has said "it will take an âapocalypseâ for Steve Bruce to lose his job." and "Ellis is happy - he is speaking to the manager today. You'll find the manager will be happy tonight." To me that would suggest Bruce has till Xmas at the very least. If we are bottom three come 2012 (which I can't see) He may go, but defiantly not before.
I wouldn't underestimate the potential lucrative nature of the Premier League. Look at Man Utd. They set up the worldwide arms of their business in Asia, Oceania etc. Only the other week they floated the Asian part of their business in an absolutely huge deal. No coincidence either that the man who set those balls rolling for Man Utd is now working for SAFC (on his way to Korea with Quinn and Bruce today). Short will surely have seen this and knows there are megabucks to be made in these corners of the world. I suspect the signing of Ji may have had a few motivators, not just a centre forward with potential. Still, to nail the success we need to do well on the pitch so I'm all for it!
Short can name his own salary at the club and will no doubt be paying himself nicely, if he does get bored he can write the debts off to the club and get his money back - just like the bloke at Portsmouth. What's not to like these guys are making money and who knows how it ties in to other deals. They must hate the current players wages though, think how much money they could make if we didn't have such over paid, underskilled leeches around!
Shorts involvement with Sunderland is all about money. No way would he be interested in us if we were in the championship. I don't mind his agenda is financial....it just means he HAS to have a successful club to maximise the potential income from a club like Sunderland. I am assuming that this weeks comings and goings are all to do with Shorts desire to get things going and him taking a more hands on approach. I am actually heartened by what happened this week..we have a chairman now who is not used to failure, he is a ruthless businessman who will do what it takes to make this club (financially) successful....that can only happen with success on the pitch.
We will never understand the menality of the rich man. We have Short a billionaiar and Quinn and Bruce, bith multi millionairs. Right now Bruce in particular works long hours, is under pressure and akes incredible stick, why? If I had 7 mil in the bank like Bruce I would be at my villa in Portugal. If I had Quinns millions in no way would I be jetting round the east trying to promote a football club, I would be home with the family and horses. I think I have just worked out one reason why I'm not a multi millionair
I didn't say when - but we'd better start moving up that league reasonably soon or someone will get it in the neck.
I've been struggling to make sense of the new chairman's intentions. My seat is 10 rows behind him and can't remember a match that he has attended that we have won!
maybe he just wants to be a success. and owning an American football team is hard as there is only 32 of them, same with baseball, He may not have known much about football when he came but maybe Quinn sold him the sleeping giant tag, and he was hooked. None of these muti billionairs need the cash, so buying for 50 million seling for 100 million after 10 years probably doesnt even cross their minds, I think they do get a shock when they find out how much it actually does cost though, but its probably less than an American Football team (I hvnt researched that though so it may be a lot more). I was surprised the other night though, the Monday night football in America is the only game all week to be shown all over the country, the rest are split over 1/2 get one and the other 1/2 get the other, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who re owned by the Glaziers of Man U) were at home, and its the 1st time in 2 years they have had a sell out crowd, its usually 83% full, but it was on the TV on a monday night, for the 1st time in a few years. You would think it would be the other way around, on TV 83% full not on TV a sell out.
