-
The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
New user registrations are currently disabled.
Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.
SOL expansion
- Thread starter Father Larry Duff
- Start date
Wrenthorpe Mackem
Striker
I suspect owners might just be asking the same question....
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Winger
It's also because the nasty mags (or other teams fans) will take the piss out of the empty seats.
This image below has a dot showing the attendance of all the league games games post war to now. The blue line going across is 30,000 as a guide. You can see how high crowds got at the beginning, yet also how low they got at the same time as it fluctuated wildly all the way up to when the Roker End was cut down in size in the early 80s which is the red vertical line.
The green vertical line is the switch to the SOL. For every game above 30,000 from 1946 to when the Roker End was cut down, there's a game below it also. Did anyone have any issues back then with this? Did it affect the atmosphere have such low crowds with huge spaces around the ground?
Logon or register to see this image
My point is, so what if there's empty seats or even a few empty sections as long as it means kids aren't denied going to the game. There's no perfect capacity to ensure all seats are sold and nobody is missing out as the crowds would still fluctuate if everyone who wanted a ticket got one.
Even if we had a 60,000 capacity the club could adjust tickets to get people to come, especially bairns. Therefore ensure more lifelong fans getting addicted who will put money into the club in other ways also, not just the ticket price alone and more importantly even go when times aren't great like the 30,000-40,000 have the last 8 seasons.
This is why it should be extended as we need to keep the conveyor belt of fans going.I think we should go for it now. I have had a season card since stadium opened and I can’t get tickets now for my grandkids who are now almost old enough to start going.
I’m sure that there will be multiple people in the same situation as myself even if it’s only 1000 that’s a list of over 3 thousand currently not able to goget it extended
If we had the extra 5,000 seats now then there's no question they'd be sold. Even if they weren't the club could then make it tempting to bring bairns to games, so you could end up get 2 extra tickets sold as a parent is dragged along to the game anarl. That kid could then end up a lifelong fan and will be putting money into the club other ways.
Or the kids can miss out going to a game and end up having to watch on TV etc but then those who won't have SAFC in their blood could be tempted to follow the mags glory hunting instead or peer pressure etc. A kid who goes to our game can stand up a bit more to peer pressure and say he goes to the game and isn't a armchair glory supporter.
Last edited:
Smiter
Striker
Yes would still be there mate, like it is across the Premier League right now.
Premier League is just a different beast than when we were last here, and some of our fans (not saying you appreciate you’re asking the question) couldn’t be told before we came up and can’t be told now.
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Winger
It's as I mentioned above, get the kids in and in time the club will reap the benefits of having a larger stadium in following years. The club would also benefit now as kids will be wanting SAFC merchandise and related stuff etc so it's not all about ticket money. If not then chances are some would end up supporting the mags if they can't get to any games yet would support us if they can actually go to games and see the players in real life.I know of a few family’s (parents had little interest in football) who’s kids started supporting Sunderland last season because it was impossible for them to go to a Newcastle game unless it was a cup game. Extend and we could take a large portion of the next generation from neutral areas by premier league games being accessible. Stay up this season and it’s a no brainer! We only need one more seat than sjp and they will be well and truely rattled again
He had the vision and it was also the new all seater stadium rules kicking in back then along with the crowd growth across the game. Football was growing in the 90s and there no doubt an increase in the amount of lasses/kids going to the matches also due to all seaters as it felt 'safer'.
riffraff
Striker
Appalling ffs yer daft get.
Flea Market Trader
Striker
We not have many opportunities to extend due to our incompetent council and their housing schemes so for me we have to do it now or let it go.
riffraff
Striker
Everyone I’ve spoken to down sarff about the matter has basically written off their chances of seeing us home or away this season. All don’t or can’t make plans to the militaristic lengths required to attend home games. A midweek “I fancy popping back home to see the family & match this weekend” simply isn’t on. Staying up will probably result in a rinse n repeat scenario next season.
Selling out a smaller stadium week in week out is throwing money down the drain. A few hundred empty seats in a larger stadium isn’t.
Brian Griffin
Striker
The meltdoon if we end up with a bigger stadium than the Mags will be tremendous
riffraff
Striker
We weren’t even selling out Roker when the SOL was announced.
Disco_Pants93
Striker
We aren't technically filling the SoL now because people can't resell tickets to games they can't attend despite their being less than a couple of thousand available to buy each home game. When we're doing that consistently over a number of years I'd agree. We weren't even selling the SoL out last time around in the PL. Going from Roker Park to the SoL is fine but you can't just expect that scenario would work every time. If we suddenly moved from the SoL to a new 70,000 seater do you think we'd fill it?
Hostility boxes? Corporate box hooligans throwing prawn sandwiches down onto the great unwashed below. Where will it end?
riffraff
Striker
Not every game.
I mentioned “selling out” not “filling” btw.
It looks like we need to build sharpish if we want to expand the south stand easily. Myself I’d prefer to expand the east stand first and I’d hope/bet the club do too. The current south stand SAFC-council interaction could possibly be cured by KLD and/or SAFC buying a section of the land where council buildings may interfere/object, though obviously that’s a simplification of the matter.
The fear of empty seats seems to bother a lot of fans more than I believe it should.
RedandWhiteRebel
Midfield
It's a bit of a conundrum of what should be built first. South would be more appropriate for capacity at the minute but East would be better for hospitality.
So maybe the solution is do both and get it done with....
But seriously, we could be selling 55,000 for most games this season. 60,000 for the bigger teams.
keithmoon66
Winger
Build it and they will come
Mowgli
Striker
Why haven't they filled what was previously built until 8 weeks ago?
viccarlton
Striker
RedandWhiteRebel
Midfield
Because we were coming back from one of the worst periods in the clubs history.
Mowgli
Striker
And if we extend it and get relegated next season? Be back to 1memoty seats, maybe even more than the 7k or so we had last season. Could be 15k if we extend.
The club are not stupid and will wait 2 or 3 years. They've already said they need to see if the demand holds long term.
