We are the best supported club in the Championship

[Nelson!]

Don't think anyone would deny they have a larger fanbase than us. However much of that is simply an accident of Geography. If we were located where they are and vice versa we'd have the larger fanbase. One thing I will say is that I'd have been interested to see how their gates would have held up if they'd had a few years like we've just had. Sadly that will never be put to the test with what's happened but I'm not so sure they'd be averaging high 30s like we are. Maybe they would but I'm not convinced.

I think it’s got more to do with them having a purple patch when the PL began with “the entataynaz”, CL football when it was special, and only a couple of seasons out of the PL since it started.

Before 1992 our support was typically bigger.

 

[Kenna]

Great support, and I say that as a Newcastle fan without any malice. There's plenty to knock our North East clubs about, but support and dedication isn't one of them

Football is in our blood.

Just a shame your clubs blood is all over your owner's swords.

 

[RossTheNinja]

We would have to extend the ground. Like was originally planned.


Imagine the queues to get out 10 minutes from the end.

We'll install slides to get out quicker. It'll be fine.

 

[DaveH]

I don't often look at the BBC comments on match reports, but took a look yesterday. There was a Villa fan taking the piss out of empty seats.

Always amazes me why people fixate on the amount of empty seats. It is like last season, regularly having 15,000 empty seats. So what, we had 33,000 full seats. There were some Saturdays when we had more fans in our ground than fans at all the other League One fixtures put together. Full seats matter, empty ones don't.

To have just come up from League One, being a club that has had a torrid last 7 years and are 10th in the league to have crowds that are more than or within 2k of Premier Leagues clubs, that is amazing support.

 

[Deleted member 52509]

I don't often look at the BBC comments on match reports, but took a look yesterday. There was a Villa fan taking the piss out of empty seats.

Always amazes me why people fixate on the amount of empty seats. It is like last season, regularly having 15,000 empty seats. So what, we had 33,000 full seats. There were some Saturdays when we had more fans in our ground than fans at all the other League One fixtures put together. Full seats matter, empty ones don't.

To have just come up from League One, being a club that has had a torrid last 7 years and are 10th in the league to have crowds that are more than or within 2k of Premier Leagues clubs, that is amazing support.

We have the 10th biggest support in the country at the minute apparently ( all divisions)
Villa used to wine at every clubs ground about empty seats -they then went through a relatively “ bad patch “for them and guess what -loads and loads of …….

 

[Calico]

Well said mate but I really doubt if you're lot could do any better if you'd been as shite as we have for 70 of the last 75 years .

We've not exactly lit up the world football stage during that time period either mate

Could argue the toss either way in terms of support but it's a boring topic that's been done to death, and would just become the usual tit for tat arguments you see on here day in day out

All in all two very well supported clubs considering the absolute shite usually served up on the pitch for the most part

 

[Honess10]

I don't often look at the BBC comments on match reports, but took a look yesterday. There was a Villa fan taking the piss out of empty seats.

Always amazes me why people fixate on the amount of empty seats. It is like last season, regularly having 15,000 empty seats. So what, we had 33,000 full seats. There were some Saturdays when we had more fans in our ground than fans at all the other League One fixtures put together. Full seats matter, empty ones don't.

To have just come up from League One, being a club that has had a torrid last 7 years and are 10th in the league to have crowds that are more than or within 2k of Premier Leagues clubs, that is amazing support.

Villa fans. full mad one at that.

I think it’s got more to do with them having a purple patch when the PL began with “the entataynaz”, CL football when it was special, and only a couple of seasons out of the PL since it started.

Before 1992 our support was typically bigger.

I don’t think it was mind. It’s pointless getting into a numbers argument with the mags as it’s a fight we wont win. Now the reasons behind that are another matter! But pure numbers… nah

 

[ned_werby]

By a mile.

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Truly amazing our dedicated fans.

Well, smack my bottom and call me Elizabeth. Who'd a thunk it?

 

[ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK]

Villa averaged 36,027.
Leeds averaged 35,321
We are currently on 38,308
Mags last time in this League 51,106

Worth pointing put that the 3 other clubs with huge attendances were all promoted.

We always have one of the highest average attendances in the lower leagues as we love football up here. One thing about SAFC fans is that we still get big crowds after years of shite and winning nowt major for coming up to 50 years and selling out when we got a sniff of being at the top. Aye the Mags get big crowds but that's also thanks to many more years of enjoyable football and hopes of winning summit. They did show signs of it waning a few seasons back but it's all changed of course since the takeover shite.

Some might not like this and I'm far from bashing fans but not everyone takes into account that we had a lower average ticket price per fan in the Premier League. This obviously has an effect on the revenue we generate from ticket sales as we were one of the lowest in the PL. If we charged similar average ticket prices to most other clubs then this would cut off a lot of supporters who either couldn't afford it or simply don't want to pay that much to see us not win much. That's the PL of course and I'm not sure how we compare to other clubs in the Championship as there's no up to date financial figures out there and COVID also affected the last set of figures.

I explained this in another thread the other day and it's class that we're one of the cheapest tickets for fans as some clubs take the piss out of fans milking then as they know demand outstrips supply.

Home Games Income

Revenue from gate receipts is peanuts these days.....gate receipts mean nowt to clubs.........id imagine the corporate revenue is decent at teams like Man city etc where they coin it in on sales of food and drink etc but apart from that match day receipts dont determine your transfer budget if...

www.readytogo.net

Home Games Income

Revenue from gate receipts is peanuts these days.....gate receipts mean nowt to clubs.........id imagine the corporate revenue is decent at teams like Man city etc where they coin it in on sales of food and drink etc but apart from that match day receipts dont determine your transfer budget if...

www.readytogo.net

Aye some clubs may have cheaper tickets than us but they won't have as many available up to a certain point. This is why some clubs raked in more gate receipts than us even though we get 1,000s more on average. If you have a quick look at those 2 posts then if we had similar pricing structures like Bournemouth/Southampton who haven't exactly had great success, would we get the same amount of fans charging double/triple the current prices? It's unlikely we would as people simply couldn't afford it (even more so these days!).

Not to big up the Mags but they generate a lot more gate receipts but then again they had the 90's helping their fan base. In that 2016/17 season they generated £27m to our £8.9m which equated to £27 per fan per game to our £11.

Again I'm not bashing the fans, I'm just adding another perspective as our pricing structure doesn't taking the piss out of fans like other clubs do and the kids option is class. That's the positive of having the larger SOL capacity as it allows for fluctuation in crowd size and gives everyone a choice to go the match. Some clubs sell out weekly in the PL and 1,000's of fans miss out but the fans that do get tickets also pay a higher price for it. Look at Southampton for example as they were League One in 2010/11 and now in their 10th PL season and averaged 30K since being in the PL. If we had a 30K capacity then it's inevitable that the average ticket price would be higher and it would also cut of the 1,000's of fans would couldn't afford or be willing to pay the extra for tickets.

We're better in the Championship as our revenue will be up there but once we're in the PL then it's a different story. Below is the last set of decent matchday revenue number prior to COVID, Leeds who were mentioned earlier got £18m matchday in the Championship so their ticket pricing must be higher than ours given we didn't get near that in the PL (though it's less games of course but still more per game). They averaged 34K in 2018/19 so a rough estimate averaged over £20 a fan. Same goes for Norwich with their £14m from 26K fans which is near capacity and over £20 a fan. Villa got £13m match day from 36K fans which means their fans are also paying more to watch the games than us. Even Nottingham Forest with £9m revenue from 28k fans means a higher average ticket price than us. If those clubs had a 50K capacity and the same tickets at various prices available like SAFC then there's no doubt it would to their attendances.

To condense all the waffle above, you can't just simply compare average attendances alone given our pricing structure. Other clubs would get more if they had a bigger capacity and lower prices and we wouldn't get as many if we had more expensive tickets.

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Even so, we've still got a huge hardcore fan base which is bigger than most clubs as they would go regardless of what league it was and even allowing for a higher ticket price. The away attendance numbers are also testament to our fans as again we have one of the best following support. The same again for the times when we get to Wembley as many other clubs simply don't turn up in those numbers or support the club no matter what

 

[CaptainRed]

I think it’s got more to do with them having a purple patch when the PL began with “the entataynaz”, CL football when it was special, and only a couple of seasons out of the PL since it started.



Before 1992 our support was typically bigger.

It wasn't historically, going back 100+ years the Mags are the 5th highest supported team in the Country (Behind Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs) and we are in 12th position. There's been the odd exception but generally their crowds have been higher than ours. Can't say it's something that's ever particularly bothered me like. We have a smaller area to draw support from.

 

[Steve 10]

Easier for other people to support the mags as they are on the east coast mainline. Darlo etc direct & only 30 mins on train. Catchment area including Northumberland anarl.

Our support is outstanding, & I couldn't care less if the mags get more fans or not tbh.

 

[CaptainRed]

Easier for other people to support the mags as they are on the east coast mainline. Darlo etc direct & only 30 mins on train. Catchment area including Northumberland anarl.

Our support is outstanding, & I couldn't care less if the mags get more fans or not tbh.

Exactly this. People go on about Durham Mags. It's 11 mins on the train from Durham to Newcastle. Easier.to get to than Sunderland. They have a larger catchment area, they have better transport links from outside their catchment area to add to that. I dare say they probably apear to be a more "trendy" team to support as well.

 

[oriss]

I don't often look at the BBC comments on match reports, but took a look yesterday. There was a Villa fan taking the piss out of empty seats.

Always amazes me why people fixate on the amount of empty seats. It is like last season, regularly having 15,000 empty seats. So what, we had 33,000 full seats. There were some Saturdays when we had more fans in our ground than fans at all the other League One fixtures put together. Full seats matter, empty ones don't.

To have just come up from League One, being a club that has had a torrid last 7 years and are 10th in the league to have crowds that are more than or within 2k of Premier Leagues clubs, that is amazing support.

Same as me, If you have a 100k ground and get 50K in your still a well supported team.

 

[Teesside_Steve]

Theres a couple of Boro fans who wil be raging when they see this thread

Not at all. I'm happy to acknowledge that you have very good support. I also feel our support is good for a club competing in the Championship.

I think it's also fair to acknowledge the difference in our season ticket prices though.

Your cheapest adult ticket was £390 (not sure whether that was the early bird price). Our cheapest was £450 early bird offer, and £514 as a new applicant.

Your cheapest U18 ticket was £48, ours was £166 early bird and £191 renewal.

Don't get me wrong, you'd still average higher crowds than us, even if we swapped price plans but I think if we did then you could add a few extra thousand onto our average, and knock a few thousand off of yours.

 

[Binxy]

Not at all. I'm happy to acknowledge that you have very good support. I also feel our support is good for a club competing in the Championship.

I think it's also fair to acknowledge the difference in our season ticket prices though.

Your cheapest adult ticket was £390 (not sure whether that was the early bird price). Our cheapest was £450 early bird offer, and £514 as a new applicant.

Your cheapest U18 ticket was £48, ours was £166 early bird and £191 renewal.

Don't get me wrong, you'd still average higher crowds than us, even if we swapped price plans but I think if we did then you could add a few extra thousand onto our average, and knock a few thousand off of yours.

We get almost 10k paying match by match.

£28-£35 a pop (adults obviously)

 

[vinegar hill]

Our crowds are good but not remarkable. Ipswich are averaging 26000 in the third tier. Those crowds are more consistent than when Bobby Robson was winning cups and almost winning the title for them. With regard to the general popularity of the game and level of the club within the game, our attendances in the period from 1961 to 1967 were remarkable.

There’s always one

We have the 10th biggest support in the country at the minute apparently ( all divisions)
Villa used to wine at every clubs ground about empty seats -they then went through a relatively “ bad patch “for them and guess what -loads and loads of …….

Well since WW2 Villa have averaged 40,000 in a season only 5 times, we’ve done it 20 times, we’ll take no lessons from them on attendances.

 

[Teesside_Steve]

We get almost 10k paying match by match.

£28-£35 a pop (adults obviously)

I believe you have 31k ST holders so now that you're getting crowds of 40k that is probably true.

I believe we have 18k, so probably get 5-6k walk-ups roughly each game. I do think we'd have a few extra thousand ST holders if we had your prices but our walk-ups are a similar price to yours.

 

[AgnewsHorseshoe]

Also I think more seasons in top flight than anyone else currently outside it

 

[1879]

I don’t think there are many genuine football supporters who would deny Sunderland have great support. Especially after all the years of shite, false dawns and heartbreak.

We’re all pretty sadistic for keep on turning up for more

 

[Fetch Fletch]

I bet I know a poster that disagrees