Fan's View - Sunderland Away
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
Level: Callum O'Dowda
MiddleBartonYellow
Level: Andy Crosby
(122 Apps, 13 Gls)
Thought you had given up.
Victor1986
Level: Andy Crosby
(122 Apps, 13 Gls)
Well put Paul regarding SD & CM. I have known Stuart for a long time & I think it is a gamble they could not resist but woe betide when/if things turn bad on the pitch as it will get mighty difficult off the pitch too!
Glad you had a pleasant time up there & I reckon things are turning for us to the good.
Glad you had a pleasant time up there & I reckon things are turning for us to the good.
TailsWeWin
Level: Dave Roberts
(176 Apps, 8 Gls)
I spoke to CM about celebrating the Sunderland goal briefly in the pub that evening. He said he was pleased they equalised - I got the impression that a draw was the right result for him.
Witney Wag
Level: Ricardinho
(39 Apps, 3 Gls)
Ego massive egos
Witney Wag
Level: Ricardinho
(39 Apps, 3 Gls)
That’s complete tosh. CM and SD will have been fuming if the result had been what it should have been, an Oxford win. A draw was a 2nd best result for our so called « life long « fans. When you have so much invested in a club with the recent history of Sunderland, there is no way that a draw was the right result, it was better than a loss.
MarkG
Level: Steve Basham
(189 Apps, 51 Gls)
I'd say Charlie is there doing a job, and that job is to do his best to make Sunderland a success again, ideally back in the Premier League. So of course part of that job entails getting the fans onside with the club, supporting the team, making sure everyone is sending out the right messages. I'm sure it's the same for anyone working in football, you support the club paying your wages at the time, whether it's a football player facing his boyhood team or ex-club, or for instance Sarah Gooding having jobs at Oxford, West Ham, Notts County, or Stewart Donald being owner at Eastleigh or Sunderland.
When Eales took over Oxford, he was fairly careful to never explicitly set out his long term plan for the club - which was presumably get two promotions and sell on for a decent profit. Instead, even though he's naturally a Birmingham City fan, he was able to get a better relationship going with the fans by standing on the terraces at away matches, having a drink in the away pubs, the pre-seasons in Austria etc.
So having watched this approach for four years, I think number one on the list of fan engagements at Sunderland is "don't give out free hot dogs", but instead to tell the fans what they want to hear, sell them a vision of a club on its way back up.
MarkG
Level: Steve Basham
(189 Apps, 51 Gls)
Another thought was that our away support seemed quite low for what is arguably the biggest away game of the season. By which I mean I was imagining a Premier League or Championship side selling out that away stand with 3,000 or whatever it holds. So no disrespect to the 1280 who travelled a very long way, but we've got far to go to build up our home and away attendances.
Paul B
Level: Callum O'Dowda
(106 Apps, 14 Gls)
Very true. Although there are other clubs who would envy our away following. Reading?
Deleted member 222
Guest
I tend to agree with regards to how many we took. Considering we took over 3000 to Middlesbrough in a cup game last season I would of thought we would of took at least similar numbers to Sunderland in probably the biggest away game of the season.
Having said that I thought it was low numbers for Pompey away and expected more to travel to Barnsley for the first day of the season.
Foley
Level: Colin Harrington
(260 Apps, 30 Gls)
Really?
Middlesbrough was the furthest we had got in the Fa cup for decades. It was far more than a League game after 4 defeats and one win.
I thought that our away support at Barnsley and Sunderland was excellent. I agree that I expected more at Pompey.
With regard to away support, Readings in the Championship I believe is very poor. Look at clubs who are now in the Championship and what they brought to Oxford. I think our away support is being underestimated a little.
Deleted member 222
Guest
The problem is Pete, Charles lacks class. He always has done.
I've been involved in games as a staff member against OUFC before and it is a strange feeling. OUFC in fact lost both times I was involved but not once did I celebrate a goal as I didn't feel it was right to.
If I had millions to waste then I too would fancy buying OUFC like Stewart has wanted to. I however wouldn't want to waste my millions on a football club I had no emotional attachment to hundreds of miles the other end of the country. I guess everyone is different though.
With regards to Charlie being involved I just think he is an excited kid in a sweet shop. Finally able to throw his ego around at a football club. Even if it does upset current long standing staff members Sunderland.
Deleted member 222
Guest
https://reeshowls.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/football-league-attendances-blog-part-two/
This is an old article from last december but it appears we are around the same average as last season.
Interesting that we had a higher away average than teams like Bolton and Hull. As for QPR I didn't realise they traveled in such low numbers!.
I think Preston is a fair comparison of the size of club we could be. They regularly get between 12-10K home fans a game which I think we would if we were in the championship.
christenedinjericho
Level: Chris Maguire
(79 Apps, 22 Gls)
Tbh I don't have the mental strength in my head, hands, and fingers these days to reply to too much on this forum as it is all too easy to Harang and lambast all and sundry but I will rise to the bait of this poster.
Low away following? A reason to be cheerful...On the back of a poor start to still take an average of 1,300 anywhere is still pretty box on in my eyes. Imagine if we had won 2 or 3 of the opening 4 games? Sunderland away whatever is still a bloody long way in anyone's eyes and on the back of a pretty poor start is still a reasonable turnout from any league one club. I'd bet the 1300 take for a southern team in this season's league will only be bettered by a couple of teams. Look at Charlton a southern team with a bigger stadium/bigger crowds/bigger history and with hope and nothing to lose on an opening day didn't have anywhere near OUFC's figure. MarkG where is the logic in this?
We would have easily taken closer to 2000 if the start was better and maybe more as the weather was kind on the day but the fixture list start wasn't kind in a way.
Tbh someone on the forum said that the ticket office had sold 1100 plus tickets at 9.30 on friday morning and if this was true I'll sort of eat my hat twice as the queue for paying between 2.20 and 3.00 was pretty long and annoying as the geezer bless him who was taking the money sales at the turnstile responsible was at least 150 years old and under quite some pressure to get everyone in so perhaps the count wasn't as accurate as it could have been lol. It certainly looked more than Pompey but then again perhaps my eyes need testing so I'm going to cheat tonight and get stopped for speeding so I can have a go at the 20m eye test the Ol' billsworth are bringing in!
As an away supporter of many seasons, I personally have more concerns about getting customers through our own doors....our away support will improve considerably as results improve. I think many teams supporters who are around our stature and size are amazed at our away take year upon year. If you are reading this and you haven't away yet give it a try you'll be hooked.
As another poster said we if we actually got promoted we would easily get 10k at home plus your average 2 to 3k away support guaranteeing 12 to 13k most home weeks subject to our ground having 4 stands and I agree with this. Millwall has an average 12k so do QPR at the moment....what's there not to like....COYY
Paul B
Level: Callum O'Dowda
(106 Apps, 14 Gls)
Good point. I think we still have to take some of the declared away attendances with a pinch of salt.
MarkG
Level: Steve Basham
(189 Apps, 51 Gls)
All i am trying to say is that we’ve been a big fish in a small pond in the conference, most of L2 too. L1 we’re doing well for away attendances with rivals like Pompey and Luton. But then we play Sunderland and i realise that we are a long way from mid table championship. So like playing Blackburn last season.
Deleted member 291
Guest
Interestingly he, like a number of posters on their forum estimated it to look around 2000.
Paul B
Level: Callum O'Dowda
(106 Apps, 14 Gls)
A Sunderland fan has along with wishing us good luck for the rest of the season commented,"Just a small note of reference, the parachute payments Sunderland are due will go directly to Ellis Short the former owner to cover payment for the club. The team won’t benefit in the slightest because of these payments."
I perhaps should have spent a bit of time on the terms of the takeover because they've not actually spent millions. They're obviously a bit biased but this makes interesting reading.
https://www.themag.co.uk/2018/05/re...0m-asking-price-instalments-newcastle-united/
Here's a direct lift from it.
As for paying for the deal, this is going to be painful for Sunderland fans.
As Stewart Donald and minority shareholder Charlie Methven have revealed that they couldn’t afford to pay the £40m up front for Sunderland.
Instead they have been given two years to pay the money.
On top of that, the new owners were forced to admit that the £40m takeover on credit isn’t secured against any of their own assets, instead it has been secured against the club’s parachute payments over the course of the next two years.
After receiving £41m this past (2017/18) season, Sunderland (Stewart Donald and his co-shareholders) will receive in excess of £40m in Premier League parachute payments over the course of the next two years.
The vision Sunderland fans had of mega-rich new owners taking over, is quickly falling apart.
If they continued to struggle, you would have to question the ability of the new owners to be able to fund Sunderland.
Deleted member 222
Guest
Basically they had to off load players to fund this season. If they don’t go straight up then they are in the brown stuff.
MarkG
Level: Steve Basham
(189 Apps, 51 Gls)
They've agreed to pay £40M to Short. Where they get the money from is their concern: perhaps they are selling other assets; borrowing; have other investors; or are hoping to cut costs and increase revenues enough that they can use the parachute payments instead. Short is just making sure he gets it by ringfencing the parachute payments.
It's not that different to what Eales has done with the transfer fees for players sold or on the books when he sold to Tiger.
Except conceptually, I think parachute payments are to give an income for future seasons after relegation from EPL where clubs naturally have a higher player wage bill and other costs that don't go down immediately, whereas tv money will go down and attendances too in general.
Whereas transfer fees due are simply a delayed payment for a past transaction.
Scotchegg
Level: James Constable
(280 Apps, 106 Gls)
You are right that the SD and Tiger deals are basically the same with deferred payments linked to known future income, or other investments. However I would imagine that Tiger could cover the operating costs of Oxford a lot longer than SD can cover Sunderlands without significant additional funding. Without promotion and/or Satori this could go badly pretty soon!
Foley
Level: Colin Harrington
(260 Apps, 30 Gls)
But they have Satori?
I agree that they could struggle if they don't go up this season.
I thought that on Saturday they seemed to have confidence and grit when they had to battle back with 10 men.
Although we were excellent I was a little surprised in their lack of quality on the day.
Scotchegg
Level: James Constable
(280 Apps, 106 Gls)
They have Satori but only for a few quid, miss out on promotion this year and he'll have to dig a lot deeper or they will be in real trouble. They undoubtedly have quality in their side, but we showed that they are far from invincible and they acted like spoilt kids when we wouldn't let them play. How they react after a few defeats will say a lot about their chances this season and any celebrations from the Chinos Kid!
Marked Ox
Level: Mickey Lewis
(351 Apps, 7 Gls)
That can't be the case, Charlie told us what Tiger/DE had done was wrong and outrageous.
HeyMcAleny
Level: Ricardinho
(39 Apps, 3 Gls)
Indeed, and bare in mind that returning players are rarely fans of their previous clubs. They simply have, as you say, some class.
How is taking over a thousand away to your first four away games (we will to Wycombe) after a bad start poor for a side who average 6,000 at home? We will have taken roughly 20/25% of our support to those games in 6 weeks, that’s pretty impressive.
People only have so much time and money, most struggle to make home and a couple of aways a season. As a percentage of home crowds I would bet our away average over the last 4/5 years holds up against most teams in the football league.
People only have so much time and money, most struggle to make home and a couple of aways a season. As a percentage of home crowds I would bet our away average over the last 4/5 years holds up against most teams in the football league.
Reedie8610
Level: Mateo Corbo
(13 Apps, 8 Yellows, 1 Red)
I go to Sunderland regularly as I live in Durham and can't travel down much, very few times have I seen more fans than we had except the top 6 Newcastle and Leeds, reading and Fulham only had about 200 last time they played there even West Ham had less than we did last week
Foley
Level: Colin Harrington
(260 Apps, 30 Gls)
I must admit that I was very surprised at Mark's comments.
I was pleasantly surprised that we took 1300 and it appears that our away crowds are excellent if compared to what we get at home.
