View Full Version : Sunderland's empty stadium = disgrace
musicl
01 Jan 2006, 06:44 PM
Does it annoy anyone else when they see Sunderlands stadium pretty much empty? Having an empty stadium shows the EPL in bad light. I dont think the FA will be one bit disappointed to see them get relegated.
Middlesborugh also always have a half empty stadium.
Pazarius
01 Jan 2006, 07:11 PM
Does it annoy anyone else when they see Sunderlands stadium pretty much empty? Having an empty stadium shows the EPL in bad light. I dont think the FA will be one bit disappointed to see them get relegated.
To be fair to Sunderland fans this is a club that is well on course to smash several of their own records for being the worst Premiership team ever. I think attendances at any club would be low under those circumstances.
goonsquad
01 Jan 2006, 07:30 PM
Maybe if the fans showed up and cheered on their team, they would be getting some points at home at the very least.
PsychedelicCeltic
01 Jan 2006, 07:45 PM
Maybe if the fans showed up and cheered on their team, they would be getting some points at home at the very least.
The Stadium of Light could have the atmosphere of the Kop behind them and it wouldn't help them. That team is awful and nothing's going to change it.
Most fans abandon a team when the going is bad. It happens.
liverbird
01 Jan 2006, 08:47 PM
It is a very large stadium and they are very sh1te team. It is hard to get people out twice in eight days in lousy weather to drop 25 or 30 quid to see a poor team lose to Everton.
leg_breaker
01 Jan 2006, 09:15 PM
Their stadium's a lot bigger than their fanbase. It's around 48k which was very optimistic. Especially when their catchment area is chopped off on both sides by better teams just down the road.
PsychedelicCeltic
02 Jan 2006, 01:41 AM
Very true, leg. I was quite surprised reading something about the capacity of their ground and finding it as 48,000. It should be about 30K, more like Southampton or..your club.
sinner78
02 Jan 2006, 03:29 AM
Sunderland used to pack out their stadium when they had 2 or 3 good years under peter reid .
But when they got relegated their attendance went down by over 20,000 .
musicl
02 Jan 2006, 06:11 AM
What about Middlesborugh? Why is their stadium so empty as well?
RichardL
02 Jan 2006, 07:14 AM
since moving from Roker, Sunderland have averaged...
1998 34,337 (CCC)
1999 38,745 (CCC)
2000 41,375 (PL)
2001 46,791 (PL)
2002 46,744 (PL)
2003 39,698 (PL)
2004 27,120 (CCC)
2005 28,821 (CCC)
2006 34,116 (PL)
So it's hard to make much of a case for their ground being much too big. With a decent team they'll fill the place.
One problem is that they don't get that many away fans coming up to their place. It's usually one end that looks most empty, and that's the away end (or at least half of it is).
Also, as the stands are quite deep, fans tend to sit further back as the view is better. That does have the effect of making the place look more empty than it really is on TV.
What about Middlesborugh? Why is their stadium so empty as well?
Their capacity is 34k and their average is 28k. Not what I wouild call 'empty'.
Captain_Bisciuts
02 Jan 2006, 03:48 PM
i think stadium turn outs as a whole have been dropping this past year or 2. middlesbourgh is by far the worst though. sickens me sometimes when im watching them in europe playing infront of a crowd that a reserve match would even find to be bad. and to think that on 606 a few weeks ago some bourgh fan came on and said they and sunderland were much bigger clubs than newcastle.........who fill their ground week in week out....its like wathcing juve at the delle alpi......such a big stadium and big club yet they cant fill it. thats probably the reason they are building a smaller ground....
english clubs always had the best overall gates in europe and probably still do but seeing places like ewod park, the riverside and the stadium of light with huge amounts of fans dressed up as plastic seats is a far cry from manchester united still getting 50,000 fans even when they were in the 2nd division in the 70s........but it must be something to do with ticket prices or something. maybe someone can compare, say 2002 prices with now. i dont think its all down to the team being shite. i know that elland road's lack of fans is mostly down to the tickets being pricey.
liverbird
02 Jan 2006, 04:24 PM
i think stadium turn outs as a whole have been dropping this past year or 2. middlesbourgh is by far the worst though. sickens me sometimes when im watching them in europe playing infront of a crowd that a reserve match would even find to be bad. and to think that on 606 a few weeks ago some bourgh fan came on and said they and sunderland were much bigger clubs than newcastle.........who fill their ground week in week out....its like wathcing juve at the delle alpi......such a big stadium and big club yet they cant fill it. thats probably the reason they are building a smaller ground....
english clubs always had the best overall gates in europe and probably still do but seeing places like ewod park, the riverside and the stadium of light with huge amounts of fans dressed up as plastic seats is a far cry from manchester united still getting 50,000 fans even when they were in the 2nd division in the 70s........but it must be something to do with ticket prices or something. maybe someone can compare, say 2002 prices with now. i dont think its all down to the team being shite. i know that elland road's lack of fans is mostly down to the tickets being pricey.
Actually, the Bundesliga gets the highest average crowds. The price of a ticket is much lower there than in England -- even for the Coca-Cola league.
english clubs always had the best overall gates in europe and probably still do but seeing places like ewod park, the riverside and the stadium of light with huge amounts of fans dressed up as plastic seats is a far cry from manchester united still getting 50,000 fans even when they were in the 2nd division in the 70s........but it must be something to do with ticket prices or something. maybe someone can compare, say 2002 prices with now. i dont think its all down to the team being shite. i know that elland road's lack of fans is mostly down to the tickets being pricey.
Not so. The current average is 33k. No season in the 70's had a season as high as that: most were clustered between 28k and 30k.
Captain_Bisciuts
02 Jan 2006, 05:37 PM
regarding germany, fair enough, i dont know the stats.
but regarding the 2nd division, i was talking about manchester united alone who were getting 50k fans week in week out. the high was 60k and the averge was 48k. i think thats still the record for a lower league team in england. the point i was making was no matter what kind of football your team is playing, you still turn out and support them...
musicl
02 Jan 2006, 05:49 PM
England has a higher number of seats filled to the number of seats there then they do in Gerrmany.
20m more people live in Germany as well.
liverbird
02 Jan 2006, 06:40 PM
England has a higher number of seats filled to the number of seats there then they do in Gerrmany.
20m more people live in Germany as well.
Yeah? the question was average attendance, not ratio of empty to filled seats or for that matter ratios of attendance to population!
Pazarius
02 Jan 2006, 09:36 PM
Yeah? the question was average attendance,
It wasn't specified.
english clubs always had the best overall gates in europe and probably still do
'best overall' could mean total attendance, average attendance per club, or ratio of attendance to population... 'best' is an inherently subjective term, and the addition of 'overall' only restricts us to considering all the teams.
Which method is better for calculating the 'best overall' attendance is a matter for debate.
leg_breaker
03 Jan 2006, 04:34 AM
Germany have lower prices and terracing though. And an 18 team league so a couple of low-attending teams aren't counted like they are in England. Not to mention those numbers were from last season when West Ham and Sunderland were in division 1.
Colm
03 Jan 2006, 06:29 AM
Here is the table for ground filled capacity.
The figures are percentages.
1 Newcastle 99.62
2 Tottenham 99.48
3 Man Utd 99.45
4 Arsenal 99.00
5 Chelsea 98.56
6 Liverpool 97.86
7 Portsmouth 97.52
8 West Ham 97.02
9 Charlton 96.44
10 Bolton 91.77
11 Fulham 91.49
12 Man City 90.76
13 Birmingham 90.33
14 Everton 89.19
15 West Brom 88.95
16 Wigan 82.94
17 Middlesbrough 81.16
18 Aston Villa 78.85
19 Sunderland 69.75
20 Blackburn 63.46
and on average the ground capicity ratio is 94%
not that bad.