Mike Sutton Podcast
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast. It's the Sutton Podcast in association with Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host, Mike, and today's peek behind the amber curtain, we're going to be talking to Matthew Disley. We're going to be covering Matthew's role, his story so far, and his hopes for his impact at Sutton. I'm going to try not to make this sound like a job interview like I did with Jack, but as I reviewed the questions, I realised they're all very similar questions, just slightly tweaked. I'm clearly not that good. Obviously love hearing the engagement and seeing all the retweets and shares and likes. It is really, really good. It's even funnier when it's birthdays for players that I post after midnight. That's really silly. That was a bit in the morning, but happy birthday, Jeremy. We're going to dive right in. And Matthew, I know you've been busy, and I know you're on leave soon, and we've kind of pushed this right to the limit. So thank you so much for fitting me in, and I know you're at home, so you're not technically at work, so I guess you can say whatever you want because you're not actually at work. But can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background before joining Sutton United?
Matthew Disley
Yeah, of course. So, yeah, I'm Matthew. My journey actually started in the fitness and health industry. Not so much these days, but back in the day I was a fitness duty manager, I was a personal trainer, and then I had that horrific injury of tearing your ACL. So then I sort of migrated into the back office. It was a bit more sales, it was a bit more marketing, and got into that side of things. I've always done like a degree or some sort of level of studies whilst I've been working, and just, you know, I'm big about improving myself and bettering myself. So I did a degree in business and sports management, and then I got a big break and was a GoApe commercial site manager. So, you know, the zip lines, the zip wires, you know, it's crossings up in the trees, all that sort of stuff. There's a few in London as well, there's quite a few across the country. And that role was sort of, you ran it like its own profit and loss account. So I was in charge of daily operations, health and safety, you know, and all that sort of stuff, as well as the marketing and the commercial. And at the end, I sort of, I realised I enjoyed the marketing and the commercial side of things more, and less so hanging in a harness for hours on end, doing maintenance and bits and bobs like that. It was painful, particularly, you know, for males, it was very painful. And then I got the opportunity to go to Grimsby Town as their commercial manager. And then that was sort of my first step into football, Grimsby being, you know, local, you know, my hometown club. I was there for maybe a season and a half in total. And then, obviously, I saw a job on LinkedIn for Sutton, started to think about it, discussed it with the family, because, as you can tell from my accent, I am not from here, I am from Grimsby. Discussed how it would potentially work, how it would look, came down and had a look, obviously attended a game, which was ironically, when they played Grimsby Town, which was a little awkward, but hey. And, yeah, and then, you know, I was sold on the project, you know, and hoping to push the club forward, you know.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah, that's a word that's been used a lot throughout all of this. But, going to be honest, it wasn't looking great for us at the tail end of the last season, alone we kept picking up that glimmer of hope. But yourself and Jack joined at a similar-ish time. What kind of made you go, do you know what, yes, Sutton, it does look like they're probably going to be relegated. I know you and I spoke and you kind of said I took on the job on the expectation we'd be relegated if we didn't. Great but what kind of made you go actually I will step down from EFL to a club heading out?
Matthew Disley
Yeah, so I joined 1st of April, I think Jack was the 1st of May, and yeah, at the 1st of April, even the month prior, you know, we were bottom, you know, rock bottom, no chance in hell of, OK, we had the easier run, didn't we, but it was extremely, extremely unlikely that we were going to get out of it. And again, it was that project of the amount of change I could make to the club, you know, the amount of change I could bring and to help. And obviously, you know, Grimsby Town and Sutton United, very different clubs, very different fan base, very different fan demographic, you know, very different. And I thought, you know, there's a lot of value I can add here. And it's almost the status in the league didn't bother me too much. I thought the area that we're in.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Excellent. So, can you, because obviously we see you around, we hear the term commercial director or manager, I can't remember which, doesn't mean a lot to a lot of us. So can you kind of explain what your role is? Because it's not, and I've said, I can't remember who I said this to, I think it was Ben. It's not about taking more money out of the pockets of fans that are through the doors every week.
Matthew Disley
Yes. So, you know, I wrote some notes in preparation and I wrote money, money, money. Here's your title. Yeah, so you're right. It's basically it's my job to bring money into the football club. And that is a really broad statement because you're right. It's not the fan. It's not ticketing. But it's almost everything else. So it varies from advertising boards, matchday sponsors, ball sponsors, the pouring rights, you know, when we're talking about the bar and beer and front of shirt, back of shirt, back of shorts and the men's team, the women's team, the academy's team, hospitality, business school. It's a real wide spectrum of what I can do and the different products or the different elements to it. But ultimately, it's about bringing in money from businesses in those different areas.
Mike Sutton Podcast
And so how do you, obviously I don't want your trade secrets, but how do you kind of just reach out? Is it literally word of mouth or do you just cold call people? How do you kind of start the conversation?
Matthew Disley
Well, obviously the first thing on the agenda was renewals. So, who's currently front of shirt, who's currently back of shirt, you know, and to go through the easy tips, let's say, and speak to them and get them on board. I say easy, it's not that easy, but renewals is the first part of call for me when I came in. And yeah, then ultimately it's outreach, you know, we need to, as a football club, we need to broaden our horizons because otherwise you're fishing in the same small pond of sponsors. And, you know, the way the world's going, we're in a bit of a recession. There was the election. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Everyone's looking after their own, their own pocket, their own money. So it's, it's difficult. And you need to try and broad, especially where we are in the different businesses that have national headquarters around us and stuff. It's, it's down to try and broaden the horizons and reach out to these other companies that have maybe never dealt with us before. And it's, it's trying to sell the football club as a, a product, not just to, you know, someone who's a fan who owns a business. It's to use it as a product and sell it to, to other businesses.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah, because I mean one thing that might be strange about Sutton is most of the fans know the money situation is always tight. It's straight away really. So whenever I found it was funny is the whole, when we were in the league, the Papa John's thing, the amount of people I spoke to who knew exactly what the prize money was for each round and all the rest of it. How do you get this information? But is that helpful to you for knowing that the fans know what the story is or does it not make any real odds to you?
Matthew Disley
No, I know what you mean. It does when it does, when it comes to negotiations and sponsors like current sponsors, they could potentially use that information to leverage a better deal or they know things are tight. It doesn't necessarily come into play. I don't think when you're, you're talking about other businesses that aren't involved in the coming on board.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah. So, I know one of your immediate goals was to fix the microphones in the... How'd that go?
Matthew Disley
To be honest, there were many other things that were bigger and more important to look at. So that got completely left by the wayside.
Mike Sutton Podcast
I did laugh when you said that. I was like, yeah, we've been doing this for about 10 years. I don't think anyone's going to fix it. Apart from these quick wins and these are things you have to do. What did Matthew have as a, I want this as an immediate goal for myself to know that I've had this impact, not just ticking over. What was your kind of immediate target?
Matthew Disley
Generally speaking, it's to shore things up a bit and be a bit more professional. When we're talking contracts and stuff, and I say contracts written on the back of a fag packet, that's not quite as bad as it was. The guys that were looking after it before me did a better job than that. But certain elements, it's just having an email trail. Get some contracts in place for the bigger ticket items, so that everybody knows it protects the sponsor, it protects the club, for who knows, whatever could happen. Like you say, we're in a recession, pandemic, whatever could happen, and it was to try and have a process, keep track of things, and put contracts in place for some of those bigger ticket items.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah, because there would have been a whole host of things that when we got that promotion, we just had to put in place really quickly. So there perhaps wasn't this long-term thinking, it was just job done, job done, job done. So I'm guessing a lot of those would be coming up now. But what about any medium to long-term plans? So obviously you've come in.
Matthew Disley
So, yeah, so nationals, like I say, I've already sort of alluded to it, national companies that have a presence across the country, across the region, and digital, you know, you've probably noticed we've got a new website up and running now, you know, and there's going to be some changes to it as we go along with the relationship with Telsa, and so digital, you know, LED, everyone talks about LED, everyone goes to other clubs and sees LED, it's a lot trickier to actually put into place than you think, but five years' time, I'd say, you know, the revenue and, you know, the next five years goes swimmingly to plan and lots of money comes in, you know, I'd love to see LED boards, how realistic that is, we don't know. We'll take it, you know, a step at a time, you know, you can get second-hand ones and ultimately you need to be able to have people knocking on the door before you've even got the LED, so then, you know, that drive, you know, that customer drive, driving the demand for that product, because we could get it, we could put it in place, and then I'm prying myself to sleep every night because I can't sell 10 seconds of it or whatever.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah, well you mentioned one of the questions I was going to do a bit later was local or national because I know I very excitedly saw that video of Steve saying sponsorship available and I was straight on you going let me do it let me do it because I was obviously thinking of myself going that gets my name out in front of a lot of people. I did then think afterwards hmm do I even really want that? For Sutton United to be the manager sponsored by the podcast rather than being sponsored by a big national company? So is it that you're looking for these bigger, massive organisations or will you still be looking at local businesses? Or is it a hybrid?
Matthew Disley
It's a hybrid. It very much is a hybrid. Obviously, it all comes down to the cost, doesn't it? You know, a player sponsor is 500 quid plus VAT, so to a bigger national company, it doesn't- the money's not an issue, but it's no- it's less of an appeal. You know, player sponsors are local companies, you know, people like yourself that really love a player, really love the manager, and want to show their support. When we're talking nationals, it's a different ballgame. They want to see their ROI, their return on investment. They want to see numbers, they want to see digital insights, and so on and so forth, so it's a hybrid. But something like that would get included in a package, perhaps. Each sort of big sponsor would get a package with them, and potentially a player sponsor is included in there.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Excellent. And so are there again don't give away secrets but again, is there anything coming up that you're excited to be introduced that you're able to introduce to us? I know you've worked hard on that on the brochure. I keep wanting to have a little sneak peek. I can't really offer anything. I just wanted to be nosy. Is there anything kind of that's coming?
Matthew Disley
So me and Jack went to visit Chessington, it was maybe two weeks ago now, obviously they're only 20 minutes from Sutton, and they very much fit in with our demographic, you know, we want to be family friendly, we want to hit that sort of demographic, and they're obviously, they follow the Merlin Entertainment stuff, but we're talking to Chessington, you might have seen my LinkedIn post, it was literally the best meeting I have ever had, I got to feed giraffes, I sound like such a child saying that, but it was the best meeting I've ever had, so hopefully there's something there between the two of us, I've put across a proposal to them, literally five minutes before I came on with you, worked hard on a brochure specifically designed for them.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Yeah no I just, yeah, you and Jack went off to Chessington for a meeting to feed giraffes. Yeah, okay. So giraffes obviously link to us as well because we've got Jenny. So do you have any, again we're not stealing it, but any wild?
Matthew Disley
No, not really, to be honest, it's just taking, when I've been to away games, what I did at Grimsby, it's just taking, I'm not reinventing the wheel, you know, commercial is very boring, it's very, you know, money, transaction, package of benefits, it's not too glamorous, but I just want to take what other clubs have done, what Grimsby has done. And translate it, you know, all the clubs are doing similar things. Occasionally there's the odd thing that pops up that might be something a little bit different, but to be honest, I can't think of an example. But yeah, so it's just trying to replicate what other clubs have done and, you know, move us forward to do, you know, there's a setting of the standards across football clubs in general, even in the National League, lots of clubs are doing the same things.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Excellent. So, obviously, we've been this quiet little cozy club for 120 odd years, and everyone knows everyone. Everyone can go and say hello to whoever they like to in the bar. People are going to be hearing this professionalism word. They've already got rid of my curve. I don't know if you're aware of the sulk about my curve, but how do we bring everyone along because obviously change is change and as soon as someone mentions change people are going to balk at it. So how do we kind of make sure everyone's hand is held and as we go along or is it a case of we've just got to crack on and do a lot of this?
Matthew Disley
It's a tough one. I mean, I've got a marketing degree as well. I don't want to speak for Jack, obviously that's his realm, but speaking about change, it's a change curve, you know, you'll see that in business, there's a change curve and everybody moves along that change curve at different speeds. Some of us move along it quite quick. Some of us have an initial, ooh, and then get on board and move along with it. And then everyone moves along it at the different pace, which is fine. That's, you know, that's who we are as human beings. It's about trying to be as transparent as possible as a football club and try to involve people where possible. So if I'm thinking about doing something, I'm not just going to bulldoze my way in. I'm going to speak to the different departments it may affect. So I'll speak to Jack and the marketing team. I want to do this. I want to promise this in the package. Are you guys OK with it? I guess it's different when we're talking about like fans and taking fans along the journey. Commercial, it's like I said, it's a tricky one because there's no direct link as such. But as a club, as long as we're transparent, trying to involve people as much as possible, like the fans Q&A was a perfect example of that. It's tricky. You know, we're not a football club staffed with resources. You know, we've not got lots of bodies on the ground doing lots of jobs and helping everybody out. So we are trying to prioritise and do what we can because we've got a season that starts in a couple of weeks. But we know where we want to be. We are making those changes. You'll be able to see those changes. And it's just sort of a bear with us. We will get there. We will shore things up. Me and Jack coming in at the end of the season helps, but then the off-season is a very short period of time. We can't do too much. We're trying to do too much change all at the same time. It's just going to end badly for everybody. But it is. It's trying to be transparent. Take everybody on that journey with us. Involve people where we can. And then hopefully they can see the benefits of what we're trying to.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Excellent. And that leads me on to, as we say, yours is a slightly different role to me turning up and watching a game. Obviously, you want us to do well because that helps you make your job easier. But how can fans kind of help support, get involved with the commercial side?
Matthew Disley
Yeah, I mean, obviously, if anybody knows, they work for businesses, speak to your employers, see if they're interested in sponsoring. I've got a full range of statistics and analysis and stuff that can get put in front of somebody. Come to the games, drink the beer. That's... I'm sure nobody's going to find me on that one.
Mike Sutton Podcast
It depends on what new beer you're getting but go on.
Matthew Disley
Speak to employers. You know, some fans do sponsor, like the player sponsors, they do it as individuals, they don't do it as a business. So that always helps because, you know, it's a couple hundred quid here and there and it all goes into the pot and it all adds up in the end. You know, nothing is too small. You're all helping and doing your bit. Buy a program. I listened to Lyle's the other day. So yeah, buy a program. Get the beer, buy a burger. And then if there is a few hundred quid lying around from your employer or whoever, you know, play a sponsor, advertising board and all things like that, all the probably the lowest stuff, unless you work for a big corporation and then get me in front of them and we'll do the business.
Mike Sutton Podcast
I mean obviously this is more Jack's side, but I'm guessing the more people engage in everything with the social media, I know Jack has pleased a few people, but the more people engage in getting with social media, it also helps you, doesn't it? Because you're able to then go, look, we're getting this many eyes on it.
Matthew Disley
Exactly. And when we're talking about those national businesses and those businesses or those marketing bodies that have got their heads through gone, they want to see the numbers. They don't just want to go, yeah, that's fine, we'll support Sutton United. They want to see, right, how many people is my brand reaching? And so, yeah, so the work that Jack does absolutely helps massively because those, that data goes directly into my brochures that I'm then putting in front of businesses.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Excellent, so we asked about any marketing campaigns but that's not really where you are I don't know why I did that but I did have some questions sent in for you. Are there going to be any more acting roles?
Matthew Disley
Yeah, I'm sure there will be. No, there will not.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Were any of them filmed at Chessington? And there's one, this one's from me. For some bizarre reason, for someone who runs as little as I do and it's very little, I end up talking about it an awful lot so I know you're planning and prepping for a run. How's it going? Just tell us what's going on.
Matthew Disley
Yeah, so I originally did the same half marathon a couple of years ago. I injured my shoulder, couldn't go to the gym, couldn't lift weights, couldn't play ice hockey, which is another hobby of mine, so I got into running, you know, and that was fine, really enjoyed it, did this half marathon, gorgeous sunshine, loved it. Then I signed up for it straight away and then I, you know, life changed a little bit. I've had a baby and so on and so forth, put on a couple of stone, tried to train for it, tweaked my knee, had to, long story short, I had to defer it and I'm now struggling to get the training in, I'll be honest, you know, it's not going how I want it to, I tried to go for a run this morning, struggled, got shin splints, but what, I am going to do it, I am going to get my backside into gear because one of the first things I did in the first couple of weeks of being at Sutton United was go to visit the Royal Marsden with a couple of the lads and I was a mess, I genuinely was a mess, you know, I've got step kids, I've got my own child and I held it together while I was in the hospital, walking around with the players, but then I got to my car and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I cried, I couldn't, I couldn't hack it and even now talking about it I can feel myself welling up, it was so heartbreaking but so heartwarming at the same time to see the, you know, these young children suffering with cancer and the joy in that, in their eyes and stuff, seeing the lads turn up and getting to speak to them, even if they didn't know them, you know, they were just, kids are just full of life, you know. And I thought, right, well I want to try and raise some money for them, and obviously I'd already signed up to do the half marathon, so I thought there's a nice little link there and yeah, so I'm raising money for them, I think I'm only at the £100 mark, I've got a long way to go to meet my target, but yeah, it was a cause I wanted to help out with.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Good, I'm glad you kept it together because those kids, they could be brutal if you'd cried on that ward they would have gone for you and you would have been doing more than crying, they're brutal. Yeah, no, it's amazing work and it's something that I know we in Sutton take for granted because the Marsden has always been there and you don't really think about it and I work for the council and even I kind of keep seeing things about the Marsden, this great big hub and I'm like why are we making such a fuss? Oh yeah, I remember it's the world-class facility in our backyard. So I'm glad we're doing a lot more link-ups with that as well and I believe there's more planned for the season as well, so that's excellent. We've raced through this, you've done a lot of preparation. For someone who said I'm not sure I'm going to get anything out of this, you've answered all my questions really quickly.
Matthew Disley
Yeah, well again, I'd reiterate, bear with us, we're making change, there's a lot to do, it's all going to be for the better. Everyone has their own opinion on what's for the better and what's not, but ultimately it's about getting money, bringing money into the football club, which is the harsh reality. As fans, you directly impact the revenue almost of the football club. We don't want to lose fans. We want to take you all on the journey with us. We want to add to the fans. We want you to, you know, friends, families. We want you to bring anybody, drag them along, put them in handcuffs and bring them to Gander Green Lane, because it's an experience. One of the things that, again, I've talked about the project and what brought me to the people, you know, being there on a game day, seeing everybody, speaking to people, people like yourselves about fixing microphones. It's about the people. And it's dragged me in, you know, and that's it. I'm here now. I'm stuck. And when I speak to other fans and stuff, it's the same. Once something's got you, don't let go, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Mike Sutton Podcast
Which is why the volunteers seem to be forever and it's like I'm not volunteering for nothing because that's a life sentence. I keep saying things like this, but it's a strange bunch but we all love each other's strangeness and it's okay, you go be strange, I'll be strange, we're all happy together. Matthew, thank you very much. I know you weren't overly comfortable, but you did brilliantly. We're going to wrap up the episode. As always, we appreciate the ear-tension. That's a marketing and commercial thing I should copyright, ear-tension. Follow, like, share this episode on socials. There's a load of Behind the Amber Curtain ones I've done already, so keep up with them. Yeah, share and like on your preferred platforms, leave us a review. These are all all over the place at the moment, so I'll be back very soon with another one. And, as always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin. Thank you to Matthew for your time. I know there's one more day, but have a great holiday. Enjoy the kids. And thank you to the listeners, and hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care, and we'll catch up soon.
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