Andrew Smithson says…
It is hard to know exactly what to make of Tom Burwell’s departure because we are low on details, but from the outside, it appears as if this is another example of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus taking matters into his own hands.
The owner has always acted swiftly and decisively when he has felt it necessary, and to see him now assume a new role as Executive Chairman as part of this development leads me to think he wants to see improved results from certain areas of the club. The press release was pretty terse,
too, so that further increases my suspicions that this isn’t a natural parting of ways, but whether this is a fair assumption, I couldn’t say. What matters most, I suppose, is that SAFC moves on from it and gets stronger, and given the way similar matters have been dealt with by this regime in the past, I’m confident it will.
It is going to be hard to fully assess Burwell’s time here, though, because those outside the club have never been given a full rundown of what exactly his remit or instructions were. The confusion regarding his ‘interim’ status hasn’t helped matters either, but certainly there have been some high-profile concerns regarding commercial, ticketing and communication performance, and supporters will now be looking closely to see how those areas improve.
If nothing else, however, we should perhaps take this news as evidence that KLD is as committed to growing the club as ever, and no doubt look forward to the next step in Sunderland’s continual drive to establish itself.
Mark Roberts says…
If you’re leaving what is happening on the pitch aside, there’s been a bit of a mixed five months since Burwell’s tenure. On the positives, we have, if not the best, then certainly one of the better stadium experiences in the league. Before the matches, it is class – the standout example was our first European game. It was immense, everything was perfect, and yes, the result came.
What else has been a positive this season? Well, you can certainly see some of the transformation around the ground, Welcome to Sunderland and Legends Way (although a little expensive in my opinion – at least there should have been a more price-accessible option). Saying that, the improvements in the area around the ground are going to be fantastic, but a lot of it did start before Burwell started.
On the flip side, we have had continuing issues with tickets and membership. What exactly does £48 get you? The season ticket away membership for the European ballot has dropped from 10 to 5 per cent. It all feels a bit like missold PPI; maybe we will get a phone call for some compensation.
The buying of cup tickets has been a challenge for many, with seats greyed out as two people have bought their season ticket seat, so you can’t buy yours. I am mainly talking about my dad. He has bought my seat for the Brentford game! I’m not sure why we didn’t get the option to buy our season ticket seats like in the past.
Probably the biggest factor is missing: the shirt sponsor. Maybe Burwell has gone to visit Ghana? I presume there is much more going on here.
The fact is, he replaced David Bruce, who rightly was a popular Sunderland man, which set him at a disadvantage. I have no doubt there will be candidates ready to step in, but it feels like someone needs to step up.
Ian Clark says…
Surprising news, as he was CEO of KLD and Juan Sartori’s Bia Sports Group as well, and one of a number of people who moved from there to SAFC either permanently or temporarily. So KLD must have trusted him.
I did find it strange that he said he was interviewing candidates for the permanent CEO position in the summer, but there was never an announcement about a successor. His interim title seemed to be dropped at times recently too, as he was often referred to as the CEO and there was no mention of anyone else coming. Then this news dropped out of nowhere.
We can only guess at what has gone on behind the scenes. I suspect the lack of a front-of-shirt sponsor and the Visit Ghana debacle has cost him his job, or at least contributed to the decision. The club is missing out on a reported £10m a season, which is a huge amount for a club in our situation – way in excess of revenues from the membership or even merchandise sales, despite the improved sales reported there.
Shows again how ruthless KLD is – there really is no messing about with him.
Very interesting that Kyril is stepping into the position as Executive Chairman. Maybe he’ll end up staying in that position and appointing some kind of Chief Operating Officer or something similar, as KLD clearly calls the shots even if there is a CEO.
As for Burwell himself, I don’t think Sunderland fans will really miss him. He seemed more aligned with the Charlie Methvens of this world than the David Bruces, with his management waffle. At the end of the day, most fans don’t care who the CEO is if things are going well on the pitch.
Lee Morrison says…
When someone is only in a role for a matter of months, it’s always a bit difficult to provide a comprehensive opinion, but, with all the issues currently surrounding ticketing, membership schemes and the lack of a shirt sponsor, you can’t help but feel that Burwell hasn’t been up to scratch.
Whilst I definitely think it’s unfair to judge someone based on their appearance on a “high performance” podcast, you can make judgements based on the things that he has overseen. Although it’s vital that we have a membership scheme and address the potential issue of fairness surrounding access to tickets, we can’t be happy with what we currently have in place. Ultimately, this falls under Burwell’s remit.
Having read the minutes from the recent supporter meeting, I’m inclined to agree with Burwell’s arguments in some ways. When our club has fallen so dramatically in such a short space of time, it takes time to build things up and ensure that everything matches the high standards that we see on the pitch.
Whilst in a different role, we saw David Bruce involve the fanbase and provide “quick wins” that helped resonate with the fans and help create that synergy that Régis Le Bris is such a big fan of. Unfortunately, the decisions that we’ve made so far in terms of ticketing/membership have had the opposite effect.
With the membership scheme and ticketing issues, these are things that can be resolved swiftly, putting Burwell’s successor in a much healthier position.
Simply put, the next appointment needs to be a dramatic improvement.
Malc Dugdale says…
This is a bit of a strange announcement for me. While Burwell was always called out as an interim CEO, he has only been in the role since the start of the year, about five months or so. So he has been around as we embarked on securing Europe and all that entails.
To announce his immediate exit without a replacement in place is a bit odd.
As the interim CEO, he had a lot of significant responsibilities and some of the club’s commercial aspects have gone very well in recent months.
It makes me wonder if the situation with ticketing/communications to fans has finally come to a head and become a big factor. Did he maybe have some half-yearly targets to hit and has missed them? Or maybe he has been offered the full role and not liked the package?
Or maybe there has been a falling-out – he isn’t a member of the Dreyfus clan and was always a stop-gap.
As long as the club’s progress in terms of commercial growth and optimising the matchday experience for the fans doesn’t take a dip, I trust the board to cover this off well enough. But whoever comes in needs to put the ticketing and communications issues right at the top of the “to-do” list, as they are the two areas of the club still operating at League One levels, while everything else is Premier League standard for sure.
Owen Sara says…
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but the information on away tickets has improved. They have just published information on Coventry away and included how many tickets will be balloted and how many supporters qualify in each phase.
I’d imagine this has something to do with Visit Ghana and the fact we are yet to secure a significant sponsorship deal.
I do think Burwell maybe lacked the understanding of Bruce in terms of what the club and the city needed, rather than purely a business point of view. I don’t claim to know a great deal about corporate business, but I do know a lot of people were not a fan of Burwell and he seemed to rub people up the wrong way.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a mutual agreement to part ways.
