Sunderland confirm plans to relocate away supporters at the Stadium of Light

Visiting supporters to be moved into the lower bowl of the Stadium.

Sunderland have confirmed they plan on moving the away supporters at the Stadium of Light to the lower bowl, probably in time for next season.

The upper tier of the North Stand has housed away fans for the last decade or so. They were initially moved due to clubs bringing few fans leaving blocks of empty seats behind the south stand goal which looked bad on television.

However, there have been unsavoury incidents of late with visiting supporters in the upper tier throwing coins and smoke bombs into the lower bowl below. That has resolved the club to move them back to the lower bowl.

“We need to look at the location of the away fans, the location of the family zone, re-opening the premier concourse and our accessible seating availability for a return to the Premier League,” Sunderland chief operating officer Steve Davison said at the latest Red and White Army meeting.

“We also need to look at how the Club will plan to use netting. Netting may have to be used as a segregation if the away fans move down to the lower section. The Club is not against netting and whereas it won’t stop smaller items such as coins, it can stop larger items.

“With the end goal in mind, we can change the whole configuration of the stadium, and this will then allow us to carry out all the refurbishment required across all concourses.

“We haven’t done any work on this to date, as it didn’t make sense to do this in League One as there were higher priority expenditure items, but we can now work on our longer-term plan consistent with the investment programme.”

Moving the away fans into the upper tier of the north stand in the first place was against Premier League rules at the time, although Sunderland made a successful appeal for special approval to make it happen.

Interestingly, that would no longer apply if – or when – the club returned to the top flight, so changing the location of visiting supporters would be a long-term necessity regardless.

“There had been dispensation for the away end to be in the upper tier when we were last in the Premier League,” Davison explained. “We wouldn’t get this if we returned to the Premier League, as there are now increased safety concerns.

“With that in mind, the conclusion we have come to is that we need to move the away fans to the lower bowl. In the long term this needs doing, so it makes most sense to make this change first.

“We may be able to have the away end across the lower and upper tier, but this also would come with challenges. These are the topics we need to consider and engage on.”

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