Phil SumblerSwansea City CEO Julian Winter says that the club’s ownership is aware of his calls to “do more” and that they will be contributing more in a bid to ensure that the club remains on a firm financial footing.
Winter was speaking at a recent Supporter Dialogue event at the Swansea.com stadium which was attended by a selected group of supporters and representatives from both the club and the Supporters Trust.
The Swans CEO was responding to a question around the club’s finances and referenced the loan note of last season which he said was between £10m and £13m and financed between Jake Silverstien, Kaplan and Levien and some other minority shareholders within the ownership consortium.
The question was raised due to the parachute payments stopping this season and how the club was planning to make up that loss of income which he said would be a blend between ownership contribution and trading which could (or would) include player sales
“This club is a debt free club, apart from the convertible loan note, which is designed to leave the club debt free,” Winter is credited as giving his answer.
“We have capacity in the loan note to be able to do more and there will be a need this year for them to do more. We need to understand what we need from the January window and get through the beginning of the summer window. Our financial year is from August, so if a player is sold in July, then it would go into this year’s numbers.
“If the club can sell players for value, they will be sold but will be replaced. This summer there was a need to invest in the team, so we did with Joel Piroe, Michael Obafemi, Flynn Downes etc. Ownership know that there needs to be a contribution, we don’t yet know what that amount will be, because we don’t know whether we will trade in January or in the summer, but there is the ability for them to use the loan note to do”
Winter referenced financial issues with other clubs and pointed out that the long term future of the club was more important than any one person’s levels of aspiration. The aim is for the club to be competitive in the Championship but to retain the aspiration of promotion but under our own methods. He also commended the American owners for the way that they run the club.
His view was the club would not pay big wage bills in an attempt to win promotion but was implementing a well structured wage model with all players having clarity of where they sit and what can be achieved with incentivised contracts and added that Russell Martin was under no pressure at all to deliver promotion.
The structured dialogue also referenced a “£1.7m discount” given in Season ticket prices for 2021-22 which was a reward for those fans who left their money in the club at a time when matches were being played behind closed doors with Head of Commercial, Rebecca Edwards-Symmons saying “We were the only club who did any kind of discount.
“It was a difficult time because of the streaming costs the club incurred to deliver this service to its supporters. We tried to produce a show rather than the basic coverage with a four-camera mix instead of one.
“We tried to find the right mix of being able to financially reward the season ticket holders, and at the time there was an option of a retail bundle, streaming and other options.”
The Swans are already being linked with moves for the January window including MK Dons duo Andy Fisher and Harry Darling, both of whom have supposedly made it known that they would like to link up with their former manager once again. Both though are believed to have reasonably sizeable price tags on their head which brings again into focus Winter’s comments and makes you wonder who may leave in January if either or both of these players are to arrive.
The next couple of months could become very interesting indeed.
You can view the full minutes of the Structured Dialogue meeting here
