Well following that dismal tournout against arsenal(21000 home supporters )i can only argue that some of our supporters are the best in the land..We can no longer argue that we can compete with anyone in terms of numbers of loyal supporters.and it gauls me to say this but if it was newcastle playing arsenal yesterday i think their crowd would have been much higher given the stage of the competition. Sorry to pinch a theme from the SMB board but for over50 years (1973 excepted)we have had a set of fans that were far far to good for the miserable and useless bunch of journeyman and carpet baggers that owned the club,managed the club and for most part played for the club.....throughout all our useless performances ,false dawns(for gods sake we thought martin smith was a world beater.......when your playing in the dirt for so long any shiny object looks like a diamond)short cup runs and ultimate defeats we knew in that we were unserpassed in the quality of our support..it was a sort of unwritten badge of honour that sustained our support ,and the rest of the land recognised this(They probably could not understand how we could think of our club in terms of "big",given the usless performance over 50 years,but they did recognise the varacity and size of our support and in terms of modern football our support was always champions league in comparison to others) But now in terms of performance ..we have the best set up we have had in over 60 years in terms of owners managers and players.........it is the supporters performance that is letting the side down and i am at a loss to know why Firstly to all of those who cannot afford to go to the game(ive been there and dont want to go back)your support is welcomed . But to all of those numpties who can easily afford to go to home games and choose to watch it on the box at home or in the pub or on the computer well dont call yourself a great supporters cos your not and your loosing us the respect that we once had and i am very disappointed and im sure the club are olso ..i think quinny convinced short to invest in a myth a sleeping giant with a huge untapped resourse of support for him to make a profit from...i think he has now seen the light and the myth can no longer be concieved because we no longer have the numbers of loyal supporters we once had. Some may say its the economy..well its the same economy ten miles up the road and we are bigger tha newcastle in terms of numbers of citizens . I do realise that this post will get a lot replies(if they can be bothered)name calling and the usual junk...i dont really care its just the fact that the 35 years of disappointment from the club i have supported has reached a tipping point and its sad that it is my fellow so called fans have supplied the final load to tip it over the edge with their abject apathy..its a sad sad day.
It would take a wise old man, to have the answer to this.... Maybe the cup has lost a lot of it's pull...
You argue that newcastle have a similar kind of economy ? I disagree, population wise we are a much bigger city, HOWEVER, Newcastle is known as the capital of the North East and most business goes through their since they have an airport, good transport links on the whole plus as their is a smaller population there aren't as many people out of work and therefore they can afford things
I watched a programme years ago about crowds at sport. The conclusion they came to was that in the future sport would be free or virtually free to watch live due to TV and internet availability. At the time there were no live streams on the net, we hardly ever featured on Sky and I thought the whole thing was rubbish. These days though you can easily get any game on the net and just lately we are on the box every week and as we saw yesterday £20 quid is to much for many. Clubs have to look at the bigger picture, they get paid shed loads to allow cameras in but winge when people watch the TV. Surly yesterday was a fantastic opportunity to slash the entrance fee as a thank you to long suffering fans. Say a fiver for season ticket holders and a tenner for the rest. After all it's all extra income anyway. Surly it's better to have 49000 people buying beer, pies and programs every other week rather than pricing themselves out of an increasingly competitive market. Maybe that old TV show was onto something after all.
Comparisons with Newcastle? I didn't realise that for whatever Newcastle as a city has a greater profile and affluence, but I suppose that won't make any difference in relation to a much more working class demographic. Perhaps its more to do with a combination of the false dawns, lack of any relative success for decades, diminishing significance of the FA Cup and the worst recession within living memory. Everything points to us having better attendences than we should have. The most important factor here is the money issues, which has seen falling attnedences across the board. Those who can least afford to are those whose fall the most. We are a club built from spit and saw dust not one that has been subsidised by the Crown.
if they had offered somthing like buy one ticket get anouther free then people could bring along family and freinds who dont normally go and they could have got extra fans out of it
I don't think Eliis Short will be too displeased, seeing as Sunderland was named in the top 30 earners in world football, after increasing revenue by 21%:http://http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/newcastle_united_and_sunderland_in_world_s_top_30_earners_1_4232019. I don't think we've ever appeared up there with the top clubs. Any chairman would have to be happy with that. In addition, we are 7th, in the Premier League, for average attendances. The current average is 38,461. Considering the first half of the season, I don't think that's too bad, at all. We may hit an average of 40,000 by he end of the season. Again, a very respectable figure. Finally, I remember the the "old days" in the 80s, when Newcastle had average attendances under 20,000. I think, compared to us, Newcastle have had relatively recent success of being in the Champions League, actually challenging for the Premier League & appearing in a few FA cup finals. I think there is, still, a lingering effect from these relative "successes". I'm sure if we had similar achievements, then crowds would have been greater.
MOST Sunderland PEOPLE HAVE THE TEAM CLOSE TO THEIR HEARTS A BIT OF SUCCESS FOR A CHANGE AND A NEW GENERATION WILL COME UP LOVING THE LADS
It is quite simply an issue of money. Drop the price and the stadium will fill. I'd like somebody at SAFC to prove me wrong... they would have to prove all current economic theory wrong whilst they were on. If somebody at SAFC took the decision to drop the price of the season and matchday ticket by 25% Sunderland would fill the stadium under Martin O'Neill because those who are currently priced out of the market would begin to make financial choices and those choices would perhaps be along the lines of drinking less alcohol in favour of buying a season ticket etc etc along with a whole assortment of other comparative financial choices. Drop the prices by 25% and SAFC will produce the same revenue as we do now because there will be an extra 10,000 fans who are prepaired to make those difficult financial decisions and buy into the dream of SAFC. The club have an opportunity to fill the stadium and with all of the factors in position as they stand today, I really hope that we can see an outreaching and understanding that todays economic climate is just too difficult for most people to commit to the cause and as a result drop all prices by 25%. A worst case scenario would likely see 45,000 at the SOL every week and that atmosphere will become infectious and result, others who didn't buy the season ticket go out and buy more matchday tickets... Lets fill the stadium and give the people the chance to witness something special. This is the final piece of the jigsaw... Drop the prices... As I said on another thread, todays government have people working fulltime for their job seekers allowance... The timing of the 5th round cup game comes just 2 months after xmas... a time when most familys are putting themselves in debt so that they can watch their children smile when they open the presents.
Fan's are fickle, finish top 10, make a cup final, sign a topclass Striker in the summer. That's what's needed. Our fan's have been let down more than most, but if we keep progressing on the pitch the crowd will sort it's self out.
I wasn't there - but only because I couldn't go due to work - I work every Saturday night and the wonderful people at ITV decided to make it a late KO on a Saturday - thanks! (I know another 5 people with the same predicament) so guess a lot of the fans couldn't get due to other commitments. 3pm Kick off please for the next round
Thing is marcus the bills don't get paid when you go to the game mate so you've got to earn when you can football or not. I'm in a similar situation with working Saturdays and some Sundays, just fell lucky with this one as all was organised a couple of months ago.
I was not there as I'm not in the country - I'm in Canary Islands at the minute, due back Thursday before Liverpool game, son and daughter out here with me for half term(another factor) so there are 6 non attendees from one family. Tend to plan hols around away games and FA Cup games as either we will be away or knocked out. SAFC used to be my life when I was younger, now I have a life...................... Season Ticket Holders should have got free tickets if they brought 2 fee payers people to the game, everybody wins.
When I read stories of footballers getting free meals in national restaurant chains & bragging about it on Twatter, commiting crimes, causing criminal damage, commiting adultery, twatting dj's, glassing lasses in clubs, walking around on a Saturday night as if they own the place, snorting cocaine, being racist, slagging off supporters & generally behaving like ****s I think to myself, do I want to contribute to these pricks wages at the detriment of my family? Well, my friends, the answer is no I do not. Anyone doesn't like it can suck my plums.
My mate is the same, ST holder at the mags for years, when they beat us 5-1 he was over the moon obviously, then he read that Nolan complained as he went out in the toon that night, and not 1 person bought him a drink for scoring a Hat Trick, he was like he should have bought all the bar one all bleeding night the greedy bastard, and never went back. He still supports them, but he refuses to go to the games.
