Ellis Short came to the rescue in the summer, when Sunderland spent more than £20m on Adam Johnson and Steven Fletcher, while offloading very little.
It is that over-reliance on the American which Sunderland are striving to eradicate.
Sunderland chief executive Margaret Byrne: “It’s not realistic (to lower season ticket prices) because we’ve got massive debts.
“If we were a profitable organisation, I’d take on that argument all day long. But we’re not.
“We would love to be profitable and give more offers for supporters and bring in more players.
“But we’ll be reporting another big loss this year. We don’t want to do that, but we’ve taken a decision not to sell our best players.
“We had lots of offers in the summer that would certainly have put us in a much better position.
“But Ellis said that we’re not selling them which Martin was obviously very supportive of as well.
“Because we’re not producing profits, every time we buy a player, Ellis is virtually buying that player for the club himself. We’re really lucky to have his backing and support.
“Of course you could be a profitable club and sell your best players, but it’s a relegation model.
“We want to keep our assets and not sell them.
“I know some clubs do praise the fact they are profitable, but they’re not playing in this league now. It’s about striking the balance.
“You’re averaging £20 a game to come and watch Premier League football and our Junior Black Cats are bringing in new supporters for £1.50 a game.
“Our attendances have been steady, we’re still averaging 40,000 a game. We’re way up on other clubs.
“We realise the importance of having as many people in the stadium as possible and making a real impact.
“Only three clubs last year reported profits in the Premier League which is not good enough.
“We’re the biggest league in the world, we’ve 4 billion people watching us, but there’s 17 clubs reporting losses."
Source: Sunderland-Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
