When I was a younger, the term " Geordie" was a catch all for almost everyone in the North East from say, south Durham upwards Sunderland supporters used to sing about being Geordies. If anyone from the North East travelled to other parts, ( and not just this country) others would usually refer to them as Geordies. I'd say up until the early nineties this was still broadly the case, and I moved around enough back then to know. A Geordie is not a Saudi supporter, that is a corruption of the word by John Hall. It was made to whip up the gullible masses, alongside his ridiculous, boiler plate rhetoric about the "Geordie Nation". He needed to whip up interest, float the club on the Stock Exchange, get his money, and get out. Of all fan bases, anywhere under the blue sky, only they would have fallen for it, just as they have fallen for the Saudi heist. Worth saying here, that Hall and his odious son did not use any of the money they made in renewing the season tickets which they once both had at Sunderland!
"Toon" is indeed, as a word in itself, another confection arising from the Hall era. Further manipulation of a lazy press.