Tom Burwell - Interim CEO Podcast

[Roker Mackem]

Can't believe that 90% of ticket transactions are done online like! Surely not (although he says it)

Sounds like the end of any none digital/online ticket interaction is the end game

I'm quite surprised its only 90% to be honest!


Did I hear him say we've broken £200M revenue already? If so, thats seriously impressive

 

[Bacon]

It’s not difficult but it can be expensive if it’s only used for retail. We need to make the club shop somewhere that makes revenue every day. Monday to Friday when no midweek games it will do two fifth of fcuk all. But what it can become with some clever thinking is a bit of an event centre. Somewhere business can hire out for the day to hold conferences etc. Most decent sized businesses like to hold meetings offsite and want to do it somewhere different. The club shop could be a cracking venue.

Not sure about it being an event centre especially when the foundation (a much better and suitable event centre is next door) but if we can sell 100k shirts a year at £60 minus vat that’s £5m a year plus everything else, should be more than enough profit in that to run a shop and website you’ll need a few extra temporary staff for shirt releases and Christmas perhaps but with all these business chiefs we have in charge now should be as easy as pissing in bed awake to run a shop and website.

 

[beam1234]

Did I hear that right? Did he call Kevin Ball, Michael Ball?

 

[Mowgli]

I don’t think stopping long serving season ticket holders moving price brackets is the going to make a drop in the ocean of difference when talking about £300m revenue.

Completely agree. I was meaning more about accommodating fans from abroad for a game and pushing more corporate into the ground and the main driver for any extension and the ticket prices being raised 17/18%.

I'm quite surprised its only 90% to be honest!


Did I hear him say we've broken £200M revenue already? If so, thats seriously impressive

Probably included selling the women's team mind I reckon. But still good to be 13th/14th in PL revenue is decent already

 

[SandDancer50]

Managed to get through about 50%, some interesting points, but also a lot of ego tripping corporate bull***t. Bet their meetings have lots of "blue sky thinking" and "running up the flag and see who salutes".
A suggestion for him to make families feel connected to the club and appreciated for their contribution when they are sold merchandise - Stop rip off prices, you might even sell more and raise revenues in the process.

 

[Essayeffsee]

I really enjoyed that, actually.

Probably worth noting that he's appearing on a sports business podcast and not one specifically aimed at Sunderland fans, so if people are ever so slightly uncomfortable with the way he speaks, then they just need to swallow it, really, as he's in a room with other sports business types who are pretty much all cut from the same cloth.

Burwell is only acting as the interim CEO and he was keen during that chat to point out that he was actually interviewing for the permanent role that same day, so whilst he's got a high level oversight of the running of the club, at some point soon he'll step back in his role with the sporting group that owns us and the running of SAFC will eventually be left to whoever they have in mind, which is both daunting and exciting.

The most intriguing thing that stood out to me was how far behind we are because of spending ten years in the wilderness. It's obviously been viewed that whilst we are moving quickly, we aren't moving quickly enough, and at a corporate level, we need to bring some serious experience in to help shift Sunderland into the 21st century so that we don't end up lagging behind other clubs in the top flight commercially.

The uncomfortable truth is that if we want a competitive team in the Premier League, there are going to be some unpopular decisions made. However, I trust this owner and board as they've given us no reason not to trust them.

We're a very attractive football club right now, which I imagine makes us a tasty proposition for ambitious executives who really want to get stuck into a project that could do wonders for their career, and I don't think we should fear that. It's a long way away from being seen as the biggest basket case in England, where nobody of worth would have touched us with a barge pole.

Got to take everything with a handful of salt that he says.

If its correct that he said 1 in 10 people in the city are season ticket holders then what else has he got wrong?

 

[SandDancer50]

Would add that supporter centric view seems at odds with posts on here regarding downgrading season tickets and the apparently heavy handed attitude towards branch activities.

 

[Mowgli]

Got to take everything with a handful of salt that he says.

If its correct that he said 1 in 10 people in the city are season ticket holders then what else has he got wrong?

Hes been CEO for a few weeks on am interim basis good to hear an oversight of the club but he didn't say anything controversial or amazing.

Didn't come across as deep to me as people seem to want to make it.

No you dont need to make any of the recent decisions to grow. Infact they are the opposite. Stop bootlicking

Bootlicker because I have a different opinion on a few parts/decisions the club have made while also agreeing that other things is wrong.

Grow up

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

I really enjoyed that, actually.

Probably worth noting that he's appearing on a sports business podcast and not one specifically aimed at Sunderland fans, so if people are ever so slightly uncomfortable with the way he speaks, then they just need to swallow it, really, as he's in a room with other sports business types who are pretty much all cut from the same cloth.

Burwell is only acting as the interim CEO and he was keen during that chat to point out that he was actually interviewing for the permanent role that same day, so whilst he's got a high level oversight of the running of the club, at some point soon he'll step back in his role with the sporting group that owns us and the running of SAFC will eventually be left to whoever they have in mind, which is both daunting and exciting.

The most intriguing thing that stood out to me was how far behind we are because of spending ten years in the wilderness. It's obviously been viewed that whilst we are moving quickly, we aren't moving quickly enough, and at a corporate level, we need to bring some serious experience in to help shift Sunderland into the 21st century so that we don't end up lagging behind other clubs in the top flight commercially.

The uncomfortable truth is that if we want a competitive team in the Premier League, there are going to be some unpopular decisions made. However, I trust this owner and board as they've given us no reason not to trust them.

We're a very attractive football club right now, which I imagine makes us a tasty proposition for ambitious executives who really want to get stuck into a project that could do wonders for their career, and I don't think we should fear that. It's a long way away from being seen as the biggest basket case in England, where nobody of worth would have touched us with a barge pole.

This sounds familiar from Roker Report!

Let’s not all of a sudden pretend that there haven’t been really big tin-eared missteps on the journey to our current success. The ownership group, one of whom was part of Madrox, are not infallible.

 

[Keith S30S]

Apparently we are trying to build a fan base? We sell out every week. The club are actively destroying our fan based! Banning a branch organisor, taking 65 loyal fans derby tickets away and not allowing coperate season ticket holders fair chance to downgrade to normal seats.

Sort this shit out and then we might listen to your sound bites with a bit more interest. Worrying times!

 

[Essayeffsee]

Hes been CEO for a few weeks on am interim basis good to hear an oversight of the club but he didn't say anything controversial or amazing.

Didn't come across as deep to me as people seem to want to make it.

Bootlicker because I have a different opinion on a few parts/decisions the club have made while also agreeing that other things is wrong.

Grow up

This is one fact we know to be incorrect. What else is he saying thats incorrect that we have no knowledge of?

It might all be right. It might not be. All the talk on fan centric and focused has been shown to be soundbites though. Even if agree with decisions then the communication and declining to comment to Echo/RAWA isnt a club putting fans first whatever is claimed.

 

[Zodiac]

Turning fans into customers is a very slippery slope and one thing I hope this club never truly ventures into. Football fortunes can change in the blink of an eye and if we were to be suddenly “crap” again the fall off in crowds etc would be no doubt massive. Sadly every club has fans that are only interested in things when things are going well. If they alienate the fans who were there at the clubs lowest it’s a very bad look

 

[Shack]

Lots of talk about us being unique, that there's 1 in 10 in the City having season tickets etc. I'm not a season ticket holder these days but it feels to me like the pursuit of Premier League status is going to come at a great cost to the old traditional fan base. For all Bob Murray's faults (which were really just a lack of financial power) he kept prices affordable for the working man and their families. The fan connection they like to spout is true but very easy to just become words as they search out every money making improvement. This is the price of 'success' it seems but it's a great shame that it's going that way.

 

[Nathan Gunn]

Couldn't believe his comment about ticket offices. That us and the mags are the only premier league teams that still have an in person ticket office open daily (Fulham open theirs on a saturday). Makes you wonder how much longer the ticket office will be open so often. I can see them just opening on match days in the near future

 

[Keith S30S]

Couldn't believe his comment about ticket offices. That us and the mags are the only premier league teams that still have an in person ticket office open daily (Fulham open theirs on a saturday). Makes you wonder how much longer the ticket office will be open so often. I can see them just opening on match days in the near future

Perhaps if the dozen or so who work there had more than 1 phone between them, answered between 10am and 10.01am every third Wednesday the ticket operations would run a bit better and people wouldn't need to turn up in person.

 

[Essayeffsee]

Couldn't believe his comment about ticket offices. That us and the mags are the only premier league teams that still have an in person ticket office open daily (Fulham open theirs on a saturday). Makes you wonder how much longer the ticket office will be open so often. I can see them just opening on match days in the near future

My mates a long term Fulham season ticket holder and away game regular. Just asked him if Fulhams ticket office is only open on Saturdays.

"Thats bollocks" came the reply.

 

[Nathan Gunn]

Turning fans into customers is a very slippery slope and one thing I hope this club never truly ventures into. Football fortunes can change in the blink of an eye and if we were to be suddenly “crap” again the fall off in crowds etc would be no doubt massive. Sadly every club has fans that are only interested in things when things are going well. If they alienate the fans who were there at the clubs lowest it’s a very bad look

It's the nature of the premier league unfortunately. It's a global brand and while we're a part of it the only way to compete is to try and grow revenues globally. While the club will always value the die hard fans, financially they would be better off having more corporate day trip customers who will drop a few hundred quid every game in the shop, in hospitality etc.

 

[RedandWhiteRebel]

It's a decent listen - all the corporate buzz words mind.

With the new PSR rules homing in on revenue, we need to maximise as much as possible.

On expansion, some have got carried away saying it would be hospitality focused. He actually says they'd look at a 7k GA /3k hospitality. I don't think that is a bad thing.

Other thing that was interesting was he says the best directors come from out of football, so would not surprise me to see us appoint a CEO from another sport.

It won't be a bad thing if they keep General Admission and Concesssion ticket prices reasonable but that remains to be seen.

I'm all for adding 3k extra hospitality seats that would be a big boost for the clubs revenue but they need to make sure they get the right balance when it comes to pricing for regular seats.

 

[magic snood]

My mates a long term Fulham season ticket holder and away game regular. Just asked him if Fulhams ticket office is only open on Saturdays.

"Thats bollocks" came the reply.

A quick look at Fulham's website says the Ticket Office is open in person Monday - Friday - oops.

It won't be a bad thing if they keep General Admission and Concesssion ticket prices reasonable but that remains to be seen.

I'm all for adding 3k extra hospitality seats that would be a big boost for the clubs revenue but they need to make sure they get the right balance when it comes to pricing for regular seats.

I think the pricing for regular seats is pretty fair and I feel like I've had good value for a number of years for my season ticket. The bigger challenge imo is getting the lower premium offerings correct. Founders is a total con and waste of money, Quinn's is too rammed and 76 yards is eye watering for what you get.

Let's say they add another 50 boxes with an east stand extension which would be 500-800 seats, a similar set up to banks on the wear and other suites taking them to 1,000, then something like a bigger version of Quinns with a 1500-2000 capacity could do very well. I've been to one at Spurs which goes along the entire stand and is excellent.

 

[im not roland rat]

Not sure about it being an event centre especially when the foundation (a much better and suitable event centre is next door) but if we can sell 100k shirts a year at £60 minus vat that’s £5m a year plus everything else, should be more than enough profit in that to run a shop and website you’ll need a few extra temporary staff for shirt releases and Christmas perhaps but with all these business chiefs we have in charge now should be as easy as pissing in bed awake to run a shop and website.

Foundation / BoL is nothing to do with the club finances though. We could have events in a correctly configured club shop that cater for 10-50 people. You could charge around £2k to £5k a day for stuff like that. We wouldn’t even take £1k in revenue on a Tuesday via a club shop when there’s no football on. Be surprised if it takes more than £500 some days. It will operate at a loss more than likely most mid week days.

The new rules mean we need to maximise every revenue opportunity. So if we can make £5.5m rather than £5m we will absolutely do it and so we should.

It also means it keeps season ticket costs down for the normal fan as reality is season ticket revenue from normal fans becomes less and less of a revenue stream.