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Crowd trouble?
“We’re getting 44,000 averages in the bottom five – what would we get for a team in the top half?” said Niall Quinn in June 2009.
On Monday night, a Sunderland team with a chance to go 5th in the Premier League, fresh off the back of a famous 3-0 win at Chelsea, was cheered on by a disappointing 37,331 fans against Everton. If Quinn hadn’t offered season ticket holders the chance to buy a further 2 tickets for £10 each, it may have been considerably less.
Certainly, many fans would be put off by the bitter November evening winds, particularly with the chance to watch the game on Sky Sports from the comfort of their own armchairs. But surely an equal number would be tempted to see their Stamford Bridge heroes in the flesh, especially for a third of the price they would usually pay. And the previous home attendance of 36,541 against Stoke points to this becoming a worrying trend, rather than a one-off.
However, although the current side is difficult to beat, the football currently being produced has not been particularly enthralling. Before Monday night’s game, only Wigan had scored fewer home goals. Even after the 4 goal thriller, only Birmingham and Man City fans can lay claim to seeing fewer goals in their home games so far this season.
Draws with Man U and Arsenal, and functional 1-0 wins over Man City and Aston Villa, impressive results though they are, are not the sort of performances to excite the lost crowds. Sunderland fans want flair, and that is something sadly lacking at present. However, if the results continue and dreams of Europe start to become more tangible, the crowds will slowly come back. Of course, a couple of 4-0 wins against West Ham and Bolton would make a much more immediate impact!
UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations come in by 2013-14, meaning if we have any dreams of European football we must be able to at least break even by then. With recent losses reported of £26m, the dwindling crowds are even more of a worry.
All of which probably explains why reports of the sale of young starlet Jordan Henderson have not been met with a particularly firm ‘hands-off’ statement. Bruce’s talk of ‘why would I accept any less than £25m’ sound merely like a starting point for negotiations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him off to Old Trafford for £15-18m come January or July. I’d wish him all the best too – he’d be sorely missed, but he’s a top quality player and if he has ambitions of playing more regularly for England he needs to be playing for a top side and getting experience in competitions like the Champions League.
Posted by Sunderland fan Phillip C
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