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Xhaka not happy with the early leavers

DonaldDownTheWing said:
Maybe that’s why they played WMS at the start of the second half?

I think a holistic approach has to be taken and there’s not one single measure the club can implement which will solve it all.

Queueing times at the bar mean people go down early before HT, and come back up late. Traffic issues mean people want to get away quick. Public transport is really poor.

Home performances have dropped off recently, we’re safe from relegation and we won’t be getting into Europe, so some may take the view that we’re not really playing for much now.

Like I say, there’s loads of reasons people may use to justify it to themselves and whether those of us who stay till 90 minutes like it or not, the early leavers won’t stop just because they get slagged off on a forum they don’t even know exists.
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So we basically just accept it and don't talk about it? I'm not sure what the suggestion is here. I think you make some valid points there about reasons why it happens but I'd much rather people talk openly about it, so that even if it makes one person think twice about leaving a game early when it's in the balance, they stop and cheer the team on.

It's like any behaviour that detracts from what's going on on the pitch - people should talk about it, whether that's on here, in the stands, in the pub, over social media... whatever.
 

Rizla said:
Much easier said than done in regards to the press high and attacking style. We are competing against teams like Brighton who have been competitive in this league for nearly a decade - these teams are streetwise and will cut you apart as soon as you open up too much.

The defensive style has got us to 40 points with 9 to play, this is unheard of for a team finishing a distant 4th in the Championship. We also have 7 or 8 out injured which for a promoted team is a huge problem. No fit full backs, no fit wide players, our hand are tied.

The attitude of our support has been shocking lately, completely incapable of seeing the big picture and a total lack of understanding of what drives success in the modern game.
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Brighton passed through us quite easily tbh with the low block. We lost the game and they had the better chances. It’s his inability to switch tactics that concerns me and also not being able to see that Brobbey needs somebody playing off him.
 
The only way to reduce the numbers leaving early is if the players can get back to some kind of attacking intent to give people the belief we can get back into matches.

The belief has gone in recent matches. We concede a goal and then never look like scoring to turn it around so a sizable number of people think whats the point in hanging around when nothing is happening.
 
Cack Stottie said:
The club's new safety officer (who also attends these meetings) is a massive lads fan
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I'm not talking about how committed to watching SAFC people are, I'm talking about the people who will create the atmosphere.

The club, and many of the fans, are ignoring the fact that the type of fan the club is listening to, is not the type of fan who is going to generate the atmosphere.

It's all by design anyway. The club know all of this, as do other clubs around the country, as well the authorities; given they put in place policies aimed at getting working class male football fans out of football grounds or forcing them to modify their behaviour.
 
I don’t like it that people are leaving early with us only 1 goal down but the recent performances and results have been absolutely shocking, thank god for our early season form. How many goals have we scored from open play since Christmas?
 
Cack Stottie said:
So we basically just accept it and don't talk about it? I'm not sure what the suggestion is here. I think you make some valid points there about reasons why it happens but I'd much rather people talk openly about it, so that even if it makes one person think twice about leaving a game early when it's in the balance, they stop and cheer the team on.

It's like any behaviour that detracts from what's going on on the pitch - people should talk about it, whether that's on here, in the stands, in the pub, over social media... whatever.
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No, I didn’t say that. I’m actively encouraging talking about it. But talking about it in a way that the club & other fans learn the reasons for it happening so measures can be taken to reduce it.

Coming on here and just saying “they’re f***ing shit fans” isn’t going to change much, if anything at all.

Have the club done a survey to find out what those who leave early use as their justification for that? The first step in changing behaviour is finding out what’s causing that behaviour in the first place.
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
It’s far worse now than it was in L1. A large number of the people leaving early are the ones who jacked in going to the match and only came back once we were promoted.

Why anyone is surprised that they don’t behave like supporters and just leave when the team isn’t doing well is hardly surprising.
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I think that is alway going to be the case the larger the crowds are.

Obviously it means that there are far more people who are less serious about there football and its also takes significantly longer to get out of the ground and away if you do stay until the end.

I was up towards the back of the Premier Concourse on Saturday and it took over 10 minutes to get down the steps even with all the people who had left early. Frustrating, yes, but in reality what is 10 minutes at the end of 2 hours?

Its another symptom of the cuts so belongs in politics, but traffic management is poor in Sunderland post match. In the past and sometimes still the case elsewhere police used to manage major junctions to prioritise traffic getting away from matches.
 
Locke's SAFC said:
I'm not talking about how committed to watching SAFC people are, I'm talking about the people who will create the atmosphere.

The club, and many of the fans, are ignoring the fact that the type of fan the club is listening to, is not the type of fan who is going to generate the atmosphere.

It's all by design anyway. The club know all of this, as do other clubs around the country, as well the authorities; given they put in place policies aimed at getting working class male football fans out of football grounds or forcing them to modify their behaviour.
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Go on then.

What behaviour do you think people are desperate to demonstrate which they have been banned from and is preventing them going to the match?
 
Nothing better than a late equaliser or winner, that the buzz of football. Getting home earlier or not queuing to get out of the stadium wouldn't really be compensation for missing a goal.
 
RTGAdmin said:
I think that is alway going to be the case the larger the crowds are.

Obviously it means that there are far more people who are less serious about there football and its also takes significantly longer to get out of the ground and away if you do stay until the end.

I was up towards the back of the Premier Concourse on Saturday and it took over 10 minutes to get down the steps even with all the people who had left early. Frustrating, yes, but in reality what is 10 minutes at the end of 2 hours?

Its another symptom of the cuts so belongs in politics, but traffic management is poor in Sunderland post match. In the past and sometimes still the case elsewhere police used to manage major junctions to prioritise traffic getting away from matches.
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Re the extra 10 minutes, an extra 10 minutes in the ground doesn’t equal getting home 10 minutes later.

I agree with your last point. The council has spent however many millions on a new pedestrian bridge and still closes a lane on the green bridge. Why don’t they just build a railing on the edge of the pavement to stop people getting knocked into the road? Foot traffic over there must be <20% of what it was pre keel crossing.
 
Locke's SAFC said:
I'm not talking about how committed to watching SAFC people are, I'm talking about the people who will create the atmosphere.

The club, and many of the fans, are ignoring the fact that the type of fan the club is listening to, is not the type of fan who is going to generate the atmosphere.

It's all by design anyway. The club know all of this, as do other clubs around the country, as well the authorities; given they put in place policies aimed at getting working class male football fans out of football grounds or forcing them to modify their behaviour.
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Again, that just isn't true.

For this specific group the club approached the fans with the highest amount of loyalty points, fans who stand at the back of the Roker End, fans who are part of groups like This Is Wearside, fans under the age of 24, etc which is the first time I can think they've ever done that. Usually it's full of fuddy-duddies who would turn up to the opening of an envelope but this just isn't that.
 
Locke's SAFC said:
I can tell you now that the atmosphere will not improve.

The reason being that the fans, sub-groups, whatever you want to call them, who act as representatives of the fans and talk to the club; are all the same kind of people. They're all people who are bothered about things such as the bogs not being big enough, the paths outside the ground being dangerous, the pies in the ground not being good enough and loads of other daft shite.

If you want the atmosphere to improve then working class male football fans are gonna have to be represented when talking to the club, and in the ground you're gonna have to leave them to be what others consider to be a bit of a nuisance instead of slavvering on about how they're trying to kill everyone through putting a toe in the aisle and second hand smoke.

Tell Granit Xhaka from me at your meeting: the authorities in this country have sanitised the shite out of football, they have created a situation whereby a football ground is now full of consumers who treat it as being an entertainment, no different to being at the Oxford Cambridge boat race, in fact it's probably more rowdy there. If Granit wants the atmosphere to improve, tell him to start using his influence in the club and spreading the word that the working class lads need to be accommodated, one step at a time, first off: turn a blind eye to the lads having a tab in the bogs.
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Tbf mate, a lot of people leaving early are middle aged blokes nipping out early for a pint.

I was at said meeting recently and it was squarely focused on the atmosphere, not other stuff.
 
RTGAdmin said:
He was obviously in a bad mood from the start, having a go at everyone and seemed to let several of the Brighton players wind him up. Obviously booked for dissent and he was definitely distracted from his football and more interested in having a go at Brighton players several times during the match.

When a key player like him loses his focus its bad news for us and with Le Fee missing much of our creativity seemed to be coming from Ballard and Alderete !
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I thought it was Ballard having a go at him, but I didn't see it start what it was for. Not seen any of the game back yet. Not quite ready for that.
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
Maybe that’s why they played WMS at the start of the second half?

I think a holistic approach has to be taken and there’s not one single measure the club can implement which will solve it all.

Queueing times at the bar mean people go down early before HT, and come back up late. Traffic issues mean people want to get away quick. Public transport is really poor.

Home performances have dropped off recently, we’re safe from relegation and we won’t be getting into Europe, so some may take the view that we’re not really playing for much now.

Like I say, there’s loads of reasons people may use to justify it to themselves and whether those of us who stay till 90 minutes like it or not, the early leavers won’t stop just because they get slagged off on a forum they don’t even know exists.
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They need more of those e-bars. The one in the south stand has made a massive difference to how quickly you can get served.
 
Cack Stottie said:
As soon as I've realised the game has kicked off I've launched my pint in the bin and run back to the stands because I've not realised the game has started :lol:

It's actually pretty difficult to tell when a game has kicked back off - I suggested to the club having some sort of messaging on the screens in the concourse warning people that the players were coming back out or something could be useful.
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They do - there's a message on the screen about taking your seat as the 12th man or words to that effect
 
MackemMagic said:
They do - there's a message on the screen about taking your seat as the 12th man or words to that effect
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Is that a new thing? Might actually be an example of where something that has been suggested is implemented :lol:

I know at the last meeting they were talking about turning the screens off so people couldn't just stand and watch the game from the concourse.
Roadhouse said:
They need more of those e-bars. The one in the south stand has made a massive difference to how quickly you can get served.
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They are great those like. The ones in the West Stand have made a huge difference.

They've got them in the foyer of the Hilton post-match too which makes getting served quickly so much easier. Used to be a nightmare in there.
 
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