Sunderland Are Rolling In It…
On this day in 1988, it was announced that Sunderland made more than £250,000 in profit during the previous year on the way to clinching the Third Division Championship.
The year before saw a loss of around £125,000 – when the club was relegated from the Second Division for the first time in its history – the accounts released on this day in 1989 showed a turnaround of £375,000.
Increased match receipts of £450,482 and an interest-free loan of £600,000 by chairman Bob Murray were mostly responsible for the club showing a profit for the first time since 1985.
Average gates increased by around 4,000 to 17,426 to provide match receipts of £1,212,118, and though transfer fees were down on the previous year, the turnover increased by £233,273. The assets of the club stood at £39,224, the first positive figure since 1974, and this was a far healthier position than the previous year when net liabilities stood at £860,818. This pleased the chairman:
It’s been worked for. There is still a long way to go despite turning a £½m loss in a period of 13 months ago into a profit of £250,000. I don’t want to see Sunderland Football Club financially embarrassed again. I have been there when the hotel bill had to be paid before the players arrived. I don’t want the club to be associated with that sort of thing.
The club is on an even keel. The bank manager speaks to us now – though we had to change to Barclays in the process. The directors’ report pays tribute to the contribution of the championship-winning team, sound financial control, sensible transfer market activity and good progress with commercial income.
The chairman also explained his interest-free loan to the club:
It’s a pittance when you think of what the club means to the town. I don’t think any club can operate for very long with big overdrafts now that interest rates are up again.
Reduced interest charges saved the club £31,910, with interest received for the part of the year the loan was invested yielding £11,439. In a full year, the loan would be worth as much as £99,000 to the club, as Murray has indicated that he would not seek repayment for at least one year and that adequate facilities will be available to finance the company’s present operations.
Another significant contribution was the difference in the salaries of former managing director Lawrie McMenemy and Denis Smith. McMenemy had reportedly cost the club £223,000 plus lucrative perks in his final year against the figure of between £45,001 and £50,000 paid to one employee, believed to be the current manager at the time, Denis Smith.
Four further employees were paid in excess of £30,000, the same as the previous year. Two were in the £30,001-£35,000 bracket and two in the £35,001-£40,000 bracket.
Five-year wait almost over…
Also on this day in 1988, Colin Pascoe became the first player since Nick Pickering in 1983 to be picked for a full international, when he lined up for Wales in their World Cup qualifier against Finland at Swansea.
Signed for £70,000 from Swansea the previous season, he was the first player since South Shields-born Pickering (playing with Derby County at the time) to play for England that summer in Australia, and Denis Smith was proud of the achievement:
It’s good to get a full international back in the club. The lad’s done well for me and let’s hope there are a lot more caps to follow. He’s done well since he came here in both the Third and Second Divisions. He’s earned his place in the Welsh side and it couldn’t happen to a nicer lad.
Pascoes had already scored six goals in 1988-89; Wales were looking for Pascoe’s firepower to help see off the Finns, and this was Pascoe’s third cap after gaining his two other international shirts back in 1984, before a broken leg disrupted his career. But he had played under manager Terry Yorath at Swansea while he had injury problems:
It knocked my confidence badly, and I was out of football for about a year. I played under Terry for about two years at Swansea, and he knows what I can do. I like getting forward and scoring goals, but obviously I’ve got to do my tackling-back duties as well.
Tony Norman was also on the bench for Wales in a game that ended 2-2.
Government scheming…
It was also reported on this day in 1988 that Roker Park would face a bill of at least £300,000 if the Government insisted on total membership schemes at soccer grounds. That would be the minimum cost of installing card readers at each of the 60 turnstiles, said general manager Geoff Davidson:
We do not think a total membership scheme is in the best interest of the game, particularly for Sunderland fans, who have an impeccable reputation. But the signs are that the Government will enforce a scheme and we therefore urge Sunderland fans to become members now. We will have their records on computer and will be able to keep them up to date. We will be prepared.
Sunderland had operated one of the most successful membership schemes in the Football League when over 30,000 supporters registered free of charge the previous season. To help offset the £50,000 expenses incurred on the introduction of the scheme, the club began to charge a membership fee of £3 for adults and £2 for child/senior citizen.
Card holders were given preferential treatment for all-ticket matches and several sections of Roker Park were members-only areas. Another cause for concern was the potential restructuring of the Football League which, the club believes, will become a reality in the near future.
The big guns of the First Division, who had already been threatening to form a breakaway super league, wanted 75% of the new television deal. Second Division clubs would get 12.5% and Third and Fourth Division clubs 6.25% each.
In other news…
Howard Kendall had reportedly turned down the chance to take over as manager of Newcastle United.
The former Everton boss was in charge of Spanish side Atletico Bilbao, and had rang United chairman Gordon McKeag on this day in 1988 to say he was staying with the Basque club. McKeag made his move the previous day for Kendall, a lifelong United fan, who as a boy supported the club from the terraces at St James’s Park.
Speaking from Spain, Kendall said: “I have turned it down. It was a great honour and a tremendous pull to become manager of Newcastle United. But I had to turn it down as the timing was all wrong.”