the thinking behind the naming of the stadium was that it was the light the miners looked forward to at the end of the shift, hence the lamp outside.
I will never forgive Bob Murray on several counts 1) for selling Don Hutchison, put the clubs back by 5 years, totally shortsighted and a typical accoutants penny pinching trick, cosy us millions in lost revenue. 2) for not moving heaven and earth to get Peter Reid some money for transfers when we were 2nd in the premiership, once in a lifetime opportunity wasted. 3) For appointing total dross managers from Butcher to Buxton to Wilkinson. 4) for not spending as much time and effort on matters on the pitch with those off it, he became infatuated with SoL and AoL. Decent enough chap but out stayed his welcome.
Fckin hate the name SoL. Unoriginal, corporate sounding gubbins. for sure this wasn'tvoted for by fans by the way it was announced. Bob is a loverley fella and respect for what he did for us but he had the marketing nouse of an out of touch dad. Remember his cringeworthy faucet fit-out nonsense on Premier Passions? Roker was so original, v. Difficult to replace it.
He absolutely failed to invest at the right time. Not a big enough, ballsy enough character for the big league. Too much of a penny pinching tap warrior
He never had the sort of money we needed then or now. I can remember him offering to sell the club back to Cowie for £1 as long as Cowie invested the true worth of the club back into the squad. Cowie refused.
A decent bloke who just couldn't get the accountant instinct out of his chairmanship of the club. We needed an entrepreneur we got a bean counter. All in all though he did see through the stadium and academy development fro low cost and no debt and sold out for a pittance in todays terms to Quinny and the Drumaville lads. He meant well but was a terrible communicator and just came across as a bit of a twat most of the time, not helped by the PR disaster of the Premier passions tv programme where he was Nero like seen discussing the gold taps for the boardroom of the SOL whilst the team where woefully underfunded for a relegation fight. We were relegated. Marks out of 10? Only a 6 or maybe a 6.5 but certainly no more. I'd like to think he would be at Wembley alongside Sir Niall, supporting the lads (he is genuinely a lifelong fan) and enjoying a trophy at Sunderland after so long. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since he left but its also noticeable that we have not been relegated since he left the club after suffering that fate several times under his stewardship? That tells its own tale tbh.
He found money for AoL and expanding the SoL but not enough to keep Hutchison, he failed to speculate to accumulate when the club was in its best position in living memory.......it cost us millions.
Hutchison wanted to leave cause he fell out with Reidy. Without Bob giving us the SOL/AOL we would be in the first division by now. Bob's legacy has provided the club Millions over the years and continues to do so. One of the best grounds in the country and it cost 12M? Gotta ask how he did that.
Whinge, whinge, whinge. The Sol and AoL are the cornerstones for any future success. The final capacity at Roker was about 22,500 FFS, so we needed a SoL. And we got Henderson and Colback and their ilk out of the AoL, so don't give me that stuff about not needing that either. We could have lobbed cash at Reidy's team and ended up doing a Leeds. Who knows? Murray was one of our better chairmen and if he shows up a bit the worse for comparison with SNQ, there's no shame in that. Don't even mention that twat Cowie...
No mate, it wasn't voted for...I believe the vote at the time was for our nickname..Black Cats won the vote of course..
The Stadium Of Light is a pants name. It doesn't suit the area at all. To pompous for my liking. That said I like what it stands for..Blokes working in the black came back into the light where we now play Football. I can see the logic.
I remember voting for the third strip one season but not the stadium name. Don't mind SoL. Wouldn't mind it being named after the location or a prefixing with a suitable sponsor either. There was a rumor shortly after the move to SoL that Phillips were going to sponsor us making it the Phillips Stadium of Light. As for Bob Murray, looking back he did a lot of good for the club.we had some good times and despite the embarrassment of Howard Wilkinson,19 points and 15 points, I wish him all the best.
This sounds like a winner, I have never liked the name, and it was a poor show copying an already famous European Ground. It is a tribute to them or testament to our standing that no complaint was made by Benfica at the time, but it can't have pleased them having another Stadium of Light. Also incorporating Wearmouth into the name, establishes a sense of place and identity that the SOL never will.
