Ellis Short is open to offers from those wanting to buy Sunderland but no bids are believed to be on the table and realistically it may be a long time before any deal is done.
Price threatens to be a key stumbling block as Sunderland’s owner is believed to want around £170m for the Premier League’s bottom club, who currently have debts in the region of £140m. However the American financier is said to be far from desperate to sell up and will only do so if he feels it would be in Sunderland’s best long-term interests and the new owner can help the club fulfil their considerable untapped potential.
Those expressing serious intent will be provided with a glossy brochure produced by Inner Circle Sports, a New York investment bank which has compiled a three-page prospectus detailing the club’s assets. These include not only the near 50,000-capacity Stadium of Light but also the Academy of Light training ground, which is flanked by 180 acres of land with considerable potential for commercial development.
“The Premier League is the most watched sporting league in the world,” said Sunderland in a statement. “Its popularity and global reach means that there will always be interest in its member clubs and the information is simply a standardised document which is available in relation to any enquires received about the club.”
Inner Circle Sports helps raise capital to assist takeovers, company sales and re-financing, and has a particular interest in the international sports industry. In the past it has worked with Liverpool, Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace, and believes that Sunderland’s large fanbase – despite struggling against relegation the club had the Premier League’s sixth-highest average attendance last season – may make them especially attractive to investors.
Last summer there was tentative interest from a Chinese consortium which approached Short but with price swiftly emerging as one of several obstacles, things failed to develop beyond the stage of initial meetings.
Since buying the club from the Irish Drumaville Consortium seven years ago Short has invested in excess of £200m of his personal fortune into Sunderland. Unfortunately his regular cash injections have been undermined by consistently poor player recruitment which has led the team into a seemingly interminable cycle of battles to stay in the Premier League and dictates that David Moyes, the current manager, is their seventh in the past five years.
