Fan Letters: "Sunderland have one of the most dedicated followings in the league!"

Today at 01:00 AM

Thoughts on our home and away support and the thorny issue of Stadium of Light attendance figures are in the RR mailbox today! Got something to say? Email us: RokerReport@yahoo.co.uk

Dear Roker Report,

Guy Whittingham talks shite!

We have the best support home and away in this league. Considering some of the rubbish we've seen over the years, I think our fans are a class above anybody else.

What other club takes nearly seven and a half thousand fans to an away game (that's the population of Portsmouth, isn't it?)

As for atmosphere, how can you compare our cathedral of football to the cow shed at Portsmouth?

A childish reaction to a third-rate footballer, but I like to bite now and then.

John Robson

Dear Roker Report,

I appreciate that fans are entitled to their own opinions and that Roker Report will be seen as a sounding board. However, I fail to understand why supporters go on about the correct attendances.

It's as if they can't think of anything to complain about because the team is doing well. I'm surprised no one has moaned about the hot chocolate not being served with marshmallows and squirty cream over the festive period!

If 39,000 tickets are sold and that's announced as the attendance but only 35,000 attend, so what? The Inland Revenue doesn't say, 'Don't bother paying tax on the money you earned for 4,000 of the tickets sold as we're in agreement that many never tried up for a match'.

I remember the packed Fulwell End at Roker Park and the attendance figures seemed to be on the low side, but that was in the days when you could just turn up at turnstiles and pay in cash.

Peter Welsh

Ed's Note [Phil]: Hi, Peter. Thank you for getting in touch.

I think the issue when it comes to the attendance figures is that the club seems eager, and perhaps too eager, to give off the impression that as many supporters as possible are inside the stadium for any given game.

That's fine in itself, but when there's a clear discrepancy between the figure quoted and the numbers you often see with your eyes, it does seem somewhat jarring, but you're right- we do have far more important things to focus on at this stage!

Dear Roker Report,

Thank you for your balanced, well considered reply to my comments about announcements made by the club relating to crowd sizes.

One or two of your fellow editors, and one in particular, would do well to follow your thoughtful responses to issues raised by people with a shared and long held interest in Sunderland, and my next door neighbour calls it the 'SAFC illness'.

Following some quite basic research into the issue, I have discovered that it's a very common phenomenon throughout Premier League and Championship clubs, with West Ham seemingly being 20,000 out on some occasions!

Clubs (and in my humble opinion they're doing nothing wrong), seemingly base their figures upon tickets sold rather than bums on seats. I.E: season tickets plus tickets sold per match.

Perhaps an editor of RR, seeking to comment upon the matter, could've carried out that basic research, rather than having an uncalled for dig at people he describes as 'armchair supporters'.

The consequence of your own and well-received by yours truly response is that I'll continue to read and contribute to RR rather than ignore or disregard a platform which I've generally followed with interest enjoyed taking part in.

Alan Jackson

Ed's Note [Phil]: Hi, Alan. Thank you for your letter.

As you can imagine, Roker Report tries to be as broad a church as possible when it comes to opinions, and it's fair to say that we sometimes express them forcefully when replying to fan letters, particularly those which cover what some may view as topic of lesser importance.

At the end of the day, we're all Sunderland supporters and we all want to see the club thriving and to eventually establish itself at the level that we all believe it deserves to be.

Does that sometimes lead to conflicts and strong differences of opinion? Yes, but as I said in a previous response, everyone is entitled to support the club by their own means, whether that's attending games and or watching them on TV, and I'm certain that your sixty-plus years of passion for Sunderland isn't diminished as a result of how you choose to view games.

Perhaps we've wrung all we can out of the attendance figure argument during our recent back-and-forths, and moving on might be best for all concerned.