Sunderland fans argue as club struggles to sell out home play-off semi-final – Entertaining! | OneFootball

I found this very entertaining, Sunderland fans arguing about the circumstances surrounding their club struggling to sell out the home semi-final Championship play-off against Coventry City.

It is Bristol City v Sheffield United kicking things off on Thursday (8 May) night in the other two-legged semi-final.

Then it is Coventry City v Sunderland in the first leg of their semi-final on Friday (9 May).

However, it is the semi-final second leg at the Stadium of Light that the arguments are all about amongst the Sunderland fans, as with only five days to go until that game, their club struggling to fill the ground for what is their biggest home match of the season.

This is the match schedule that will decide the two-legged semi-finals and then the play-off final itself:

Thursday 8 May

Bristol City v Sheffield United (8pm)

Friday 9 May

Coventry City v Sunderland (8pm)

Monday 12 May

Sheffield United v Bristol City (8pm)

Tuesday 13 May

Sunderland v Coventry City (8pm)

Saturday 24 May

Play-off final at Wembley kick-off time TBC

Comments from Sunderland fans via their RTG message board:

‘Embarrassing if we don’t sell it out mind.’

‘I don’t know why anyone cares about our attendance, still be over 40,000.’

‘It’s our biggest game of the season so far, we’re a big club 40k is f all.’

‘We are massive and I still think we’ll sell out’

‘People bang on about attendances far too much.’

‘When you get over a certain age worrying about how many people go watch a football match becomes a bit trivial.’

‘Attendance is watching the whole match, the early leavers probably put us at league one levels.’

’40k is still an excellent crowd. You would probably find if we had gone into the game with some momentum the demand for tickets would be higher. Sadly i think some fans are sick of the performances and attitude of the players the last few games and genuinely doubt whether the players can raise their game.’

‘The SOL was packed for years.’

‘The attendance does not matter.’

‘The result matters more but a huge crowd can influence that. And it is just good to see the ground full.’

‘Good result Friday and will be sold out Saturday morning.’

‘Got mine. I will fully admit however if it goes as I expect on Friday I cannot see me being inspired to go.’

‘There will be a few waiting on Fridays result before getting tickets imo.’

‘Need to drum up some demand with a bit marketing.’

‘There will be a jump in sales after Friday if we come back from Coventry with a decent result.’

‘Our fans are a mess.

State of it.’

‘Imagine leaving yourself potentially without a ticket for the second leg because you wanted to see the first leg result…’

‘This will be a sellout if we manage a win tomorrow.’

‘Should be anyway. Anyone waiting shouldn’t be allowed in.’

‘Its perfectly reasonable to not want to spend money until they think its gonna be worth it.’

‘If people can afford it it’s a curious scenario waiting for the outcome of the first leg before committing.

What first leg score would convince people it’s not worth it? A one goal deficit, two, three ?

I’d say the side will need the fans even more if we’re chasing a result than if we’re on top in the tie but either way unless money is really tight I can’t conceive a position where id backed the side all season but then wasn’t bothered about a playoff semifinal.’

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‘Two of my family waiting for first leg result. In fairness they’ve not been for years…the fact they’re thinking of going though is positive.’

‘Also know 2 people who are waiting to get tickets. They said they don’t want to put themselves through it if we are 3 nil down.

I can’t understand it personally, but each to their own.’

‘The thing to remember is at least here everyone with a ticket will show up. So 42k here will look chocka compared to the league games of “40k” where there is probably 35k in the ground.’

‘I mean don’t get me wrong, say we got 40k plus for a match you might say to a mate canny crowd mind, but this whole thing about elevating how many people are there to being really important and worse still comparing our attendances to that of other clubs is bloody tragic, means nowt.’

‘Probably another thousand will go before tomorrow night, the rest will depend on the result at their place.’

‘Even with a 1-0 defeat we are still in the tie and should sell a few more.’

‘Really surprised club havn’t pushed this further. If tomorrow doesn’t go well it will be bloody hard to try and sell tickets from that point.’

‘While I think match tickets could and should be more affordable, value for money doesn’t even figure in any decision to get to a game and support the lads.’

‘There’s quite a few examples of people that have bought single seats right in the middle of a 3 when you look at the map, probably unintentionally.

Restricting this would be a good start. Or at the very least, give people the option to ‘seat-swap’ i.e contact current occupier before the game and allowing reallocate to the next seat. You could just do this as you get to your seat of course but keeps it right from a ‘crowd safety’ perspective.’

‘The single seats are a problem like.

They should announce that everyone moves left to their next available seat thus keeping everyone together and probably creating an additional block in the south stand which would sell out anyway 😆 Problem solved.’