In 2015, Sunderland recorded a revenue of £101m pounds.
To put that figure into context
it was the 15th highest in the league behind teams like
Swansea and Leicster,
but head of Stoke, West Brom, QPR, Hull and Burnley.
Their revenue breaks down to £11m in match day income
£21.2m in commericial
and £69.1m in broadcasting.
For a club in Sunderland's position, it's not unusual
for a large portion of their revenue to come from broadcasting
income, but it is an important factor.
The worry for Sunderland is the lack of growth.
Since Ellis Short aqquired a majority stake in the club in 2008
revenue has grown by £37m pound
£33m of which has come directly from the increasing television deals
this means without the TV money, the club have only grown their revenue
by £4m in seven seasons.
For context, in just two years between 2013-2015
Crystal Palace managed to grow non-broadcasting revenue
by over £12m.
Sunderland have failed drastically in this area,
although not as bad as Newcastle, who's non broadcasting revenue has actually dropped
since Mike Ashley bought the club.
This is reflected in Sunderland's profits,
or lack thereof.
The club have made a loss of £25m
in 2015, a year when most premier league clubs
made a profit.
In fact Sunderland haven't made an annual profit since 2006
with their total losses in this period amounting to around £170m.
This loss has laregely been financed by Short,
who has loaned the club £160m during his tenure,
interest free, £100m of which he eventually wrote off.
This is one of the reasons why the clubs gross debt stands at £140m.
Sunderland owe money to both Short and a private banking company.
This came with a £6m annual interest payment
the third highest figure in the league, only behind Man Utd and Arsenal.
So, why has this happened?
There are two clear reasons.
Firstly, they buy a lot of players
often with a poor re-sale value.
Between 2008 and 2015, Sunderland spent
£253m on players.
with a net spend of £129m.
This means the club has made half as much money selling players
as they did buying players in that period.
This is reflected in their low player sales figures
an example of which is the £4m the club made on sales in 2015.
This figure is higher than some other clubs,
but many of those clubs aren't making losses every season.
As a result of their player purchases,
Sunderland have a 76% wages to turnover ratio.
This means that 76% of all the money they make in a year
is spent on player wages
a healthy ratio is deemed to be around 50%.
Their wage bill in 2015 was £77m
the ninth highest in the league,
that is concerning given their lack of positive results on the field.
The second reason is their high turnover of managers
since Short took over in 2008,
Sunderland have had 11 different managers
likely soon to be 12 unless David Moyes can steady the ship.
These two factors together create something of a vicious circle.
Sunderland struggle in the league, so they bring in a new manager.
The new manager naturally wants to buy a few of his own players,
so the club spend some money in the transfer market.
They survive the drop, but they continue to struggle the following season.
And with a £77m wage bill
and a huge reliance on the broadcasting money of the premier league,
the thought of relegation panics the owners into replacing the manager
with a new manager
who naturally wants to buy a few of his own players,
so the club spend more money, and the cycle continues.
Throw in a uncanny constancy for poor player purchases,
and a few poor managerial choices,
then the vicious circle eventually starts to look
like Dante's inferno.
Ellis Short remains publicly committed to the club,
but that could just be because a relegation threatened premier league team
isn't that easy to offload.
Just ask Randy Lerner.
Clearly this model is not sustainable,
with the club edging closer and closer to relegation every season.
And with the growing financial divide between the premier league
and the championship,
relegation could be disastrous for Sunderland.