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Sunderland and Sheffield United are set to do battle at the highest-stakes table in the Championship casino. The play-off final, football’s richest and maddest game, awaits.
Sheffield United’s route here was straightforward. Their 6-0 aggregate win over Bristol City could hardly have been further removed than Sunderland’s epic against Coventry.
Daniel Ballard’s header in the 212th minute of the tie was met with a celebration at the Stadium of Light that measured on the Richter scale and killed Coventry City’s dreams of escaping the second tier.
For the Sunderland and Blades fans at Wembley Stadium on 24 May, the Championship play-off final will be about glory, not numbers on a balance sheet. But for the two clubs’ owners, it’s the ultimate sliding doors moment in financial terms.
In the last published financial year, Sunderland’s revenue was £38m. In 2016-17, their first season back in the Championship after relegation from the top flight, it was £64m.
The difference? Parachute payments. And why do you need a parachute? To cushion a fall that would otherwise kill you. That’s how stark the difference is between the Championship and Premier League.
Significantly, the size of the Premier League pie is increasing. The Championship play-off final was once dubbed the ‘£100m game’. Now, that’s only a fraction of what clubs can expect to earn.
2025 Championship play-off final: Sunderland and Sheffield United poised to tap into £6.7bn fund
Next season, the Premier League will officially start its new media rights cycle.
In layman’s terms, it’s when the new contracts that the league has struck with Sky Sports and TNT Sports kick in.
The latest four-year deal is worth £6.7bn in total. Taking into account international broadcasters too, Premier League media revenue over the same period is worth a mind-melting £12.25bn.
Tapping into that central pot is what is at stake at Wembley for Sunderland and Sheffield United in 10 days’ time.
This season, the Premier League’s bottom-placed club is guaranteed at least £110m in TV revenue. The final figure could stretch past £120m.
So, before a ball is kicked next season, the winner of the play-off final will have already earned that amount. That’s a conservative estimate.
With the international rights and the Premier League’s central commercial revenue – both of which are distributed among the 20 top-flight clubs – increasing, it could be even higher.
For Sunderland, who unlike United aren’t in receipt of parachute payments, that could mean their annual revenue rises almost 400 per cent if they win at Wembley.
That is before one takes into account the additional commercial benefits a club enjoys in the Premier League. Most clubs can double their commercial income in the top flight, while matchday income invariably rises significantly too.
Parachute payments: How much Blades and Black Cats are guaranteed
The benefits of climbing into the cradle of the Premier League aren’t felt just for one season – as Sheffield United themselves can attest.
We won’t see their accounts for 2024-25 for another year yet, but their revenue will likely be close to £90m despite being in the Championship.
Clubs are guaranteed at least two years of parachute payments if they are relegated from the top flight, split 55-45 between their first and second seasons back in the Championship.
That parachute payment is calculated based on the revenue they would have generated in the Premier League. Using the £120m figure as a baseline, that means both Sheffield United and Sunderland would be guaranteed £66m in year one and £54m in year two. Again, the final figure will likely be slightly higher.
Should they survive in the Premier League for three seasons, they will get another 20 per cent, i.e., £24m.
The Championship play-off final gets more and more lucrative every year. This year, EFL Analysis therefore estimates that the winner is guaranteed £240m over three years.