After last nights poor showing another positive, the remaining games will be back to the regulars, around 35,000. Easier parking, less traffic, a more quiet refined occasion. Less TV exposure so no more of Adrian poking his nose into our business, we can become a quiet backwater again, a hidden secret. A better economic climate for the City, fuller pubs watching on TV meaning more part time jobs. Less rowdy chanting and more refined applause. Many positives, what are yours?
To be honest I'd rather have a full stadium packed to the max than be concerned over parking. It is achieveable so hopefully it isn't too far away. Positives? We are safe in the league and finally had a decent cup run. We can start to look forward to Martin O'Neill shaping our squad over the summer. Negatives? We may see a few lacklustre performances as we effectively with a whole 8 games remaining, have nothing to play for. Hopefully the players show up and put in a shift for the fans that pay up week in week out and expect to be repaid with effort, determination and commitment.
Not having people who have no interest in or knowledge of football talking to me about the match because it happened to be on ITV Especially when they think I want to talk to them about last night's performance. At least I won't be gritting my teeth any more or trying to be polite - usually fail miserably anyway
As a supporter of your club you can't surely be happy with the stadium being so far down in capacity given the importance of money in today's game. From my point of view, the more arses in seats the better. Not sure on the figures for last financial year but the year before that out match day income was more than double yours (partly down to your excellent prices mind) so I would of thought he more the better regardless of how fair weather they were.
Going by twitter and some comments on here, it would seem alot of people who attend the game regularly often snipe at so called " fair weather" fans.
My humour is wasted here, I should have gone to the comedy club. TBH I was looking more for positives like, smaller ques at the pie kiosk!. Going for a piss and not getting ya shoes wet!
They do I guess, but I don't think any genuine fan would rather have a half empty stadium Problem I tend to find with part-timers, is that they tend to recite inaccurate ****e about players, and are the first ones on the players backs after a bad pass etc. Do I want the club to have their money tho? Of course.
Yeh it was a great atmosphere last night mate, I can even hear the sigh of Syd from here as he wrote his post. I believe that last night will be closer to the norm in the future under Martin O'Neill. It is very understandable and easy to be lulled into a sense of 35,000 being the norm after a few years of Steve Bruce. The future is bright, the future is red and white.
True, on the other hand though, with your attendances having falling alot of fans will be regulars who have decided to stay away. But the new generation of fans has to start somewhere. Once they grow up and formulate there own opinions then things will improve. I tend to find more idiots at our away games than anywhere else.
Facts are mate, until some more money and investment gets into Sunderland, the city, not the club, then sell outs aren't ginna happen. The club does a great job of trying to make it affordable for all, but there's a limit to how much they can strip back, the financial figures yesterday showed this. It does offend me when we are mocked for empty seats mind, a recession hit city of 300,000, so around 14% of the populace makes the game on average? That is not a rod to beat us with, tht deserves glowing praise.
I'm sure I read somewhere that your ticket prises are only bettered by Wigan. That's got to be applauded in this day and age. It's something all clubs should look at. The ground looked rocking last night on tv mind. For a cup game again it's encouraging. Cup attendances have been in the slide for a long time everywhere but the stadium looked near enough full to me last night bar the segregation area.
It's a lot cheaper to watch Newcastle than it is to watch Sunderland. Not counting the £15 tickets, the half price season ticket offer for existing season ticket holders in October last year managed to swell your early 44-46k crowds to 50k.
That season ticket thing was a good thing but only for this season. I'm sure ticket for ticket, Sunderland is cheaper. Im not on the wind up over ticket prices by the way, the exact opposite in fact. The fan is getting ripped off up and down the country to watch football and like I say, I read somewhere that your prises were only bettered by Wigan. That's class if true. Our attendances seem to be game depenantnt from week to week. We've sold out for Liverpool but as you pointed out, look at the fulham gate.
The club really does its best, when Ellis says that a full stadium is his aim, rather than the income from it, I truly believe him. The movement of away fans is a big step IMO, should eliminate gaps in the lower bowl, and that should generate a much better atmosphere, which hopefully in turn attracts a few back. I've only managed to get home for 2 games under MON, but you can feel a totally different buzz in the stadium. There's a positivity inside that hasn't been seen since the Reid days, I think this is one of the biggest assets to us, the morgue like atmosphere hindered us, no question