http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/sunderland-cement-their-place-at-top-of-empty-seats-league/? "Back in February we brought you the findings of a report by BDRC Continental found that found Sunderland were the league leaders when it comes to empty seats in the Premier League. The findings showed that Sunderland and Villa were way ahead of the other 18 clubs when it comes to lost revenue from missing fans, in terms of lost ticket revenue and what fans could expect to spend on food, drinks and programmes. Taking into account average crowd attendances, the figures below showed on average how many empty seats each club had on average and what it is estimated to cost that club over the course of a season. Sunderland 8,829 (£6,542,289) Aston Villa 8,467 (£6,965,800) Wigan 6,479 (£4,197,744) Everton 3,520 (£3,103,232) Newcastle 2,730 (£2,282,280) Southampton 2,193 (£1,987,274) West Brom 2,923 (£1,838,274) QPR 1,297 (£1,367,686) West Ham 1,046 (£1,142,755) Man. City 1,095 (£1,081,860) Bizarrely Newcastleâs crowds have inched higher as weâve sunk lower in the league and with an average now of over fifty thousand the number of empty seats per game over the season will be only around two thousand. In contrast, I couldnât believe when I switched on the Mackems v Stoke on Monday night and thought they had closed some parts of the ground! For this vital relegation clash they could only get 38,130 along to the game, well over ten thousand empty seats, more than the average empty seats back in February. Does this tell us that Newcastle fans are a bit mental or does it tell us that the mackems are a bit fickle and fairweather? I think the answer would have to be both!" I dont know if it's just me, or I must have missed our fairweather times over the the last 30 years, or so. Considering the utter garbage served up by O'Neill, I think that our average of, over, 40,000 is quite an achievement. And, think we, all, know the Craas fans are a bit mental - recent events, after the Derby match, prove that.
Can't remember the weather being very fair over the last 30 years either. So QPR get 100% of 18000 every week and we get say 80% of 48000. Does that make QPR better supported? make more revenue? I think not.
its hard for non season ticket holders to find the money at times ,if you have a partner or say two kids its an expensive thing to do, also it was on sky. some fans like myself find it hard to go if the game is not at the weekend, perhaps the club could punt the tickets out to school kids to fill the seats up
The ground is a wee bit too big for us, but it's bollocks to suggest a club of our size averaging around 40k is anything but fantastic. One thing nobody can slate us, or the Toon for, is our fans. End of.
The 19 point relegation then the 15 point relegation lost us alot of older fans who've not returned, it also cost us a section of young support in my opinion. If Newcastle suffered another relegation you'll see an impact. The only stat that matters is the actual attendance is QPR getting 100% attendance at 18,000 better than us getting 38,000?
They need to bring the prices right down in my view, fill the ground and get the atmosphere back to what it was when we were full with 42000 every week. In my view they should knock £10 a game off all full price season tickets and £10 off all full price match day tickets, (with other discounts to discounted tickets) for a season. I know that sounds like a lot of money but in real terms when you compare it to the amount we get from the TV and how much money Ellis actually has its not a lot. I am sure we would finish much higher up the league and with the extra money from that and the extra publicity it would gain us we could make more from sponsorship. That would mean losing effectively approx 7.6 million, but the extra ticket sales would bring us in approx: 4.5 million. So a net loss for only 3 million, probably less because the extra people would buy food and drinks. A couple of extra home matches in a cup at home would make this up. It seems like a no brainer to me and the club would get massive publicity for doing it, it would probably also encourage loads of new fans. You have to think outside the box and to be honest a full stadium is what we need.
In addition Newcastle have attracted a lot of 'plakka mags; from east durham since sky's promotion and the north east medisa love affair with the royalists/
Thanks mate, the more I think about it the more it makes sense and to be honest it would kick a load of the other clubs up the arse too. I tell you now its the way football will go. I work in the music industry and the business has changed massively over the years, prices for music went up and up, bands and artists made more and more money.... Then the Internet came along and changed everything. Football is the same with Sky and the Internet. Wait until every match is available to watch on TV. It almost is now with illegal live streams. It will happen and the price of tickets will come down just like it has in the German league. If Sunderland really want to be innovators then they should start now, drastically reduce the ticket prices and fill the ground. I think the results of doing it would be surprising. I would bet it would make the club more money than it would lose it. God I wish I could get 5 minutes in a room with Ellis Short.
To be fair you really struggled to fill the old St James. You have to admit the title challenging season probably quadrupled your ticket demand. Not attacking you on that, it's pretty much expected. You would have put 70,000 arses on seats the following season if you'd had the room. the fan base is there for both clubs to fill our stadiums twice over. It's all about economic climate and and fan inspiration to get them through the turnstiles. Oh, and just pretend that idiot is not there
