How Can Sunderland Improve Their Off-Field Operations?

The club needs to be open and honest about the whole ticketing and membership process, and I would appreciate transparency about its operations even if that's not 100% to my liking because I would then know where I stood.

The whole ticketing system has been very frustrating and quite opaque.

I'm not sure when the "history" information began but mine disappeared, only starting up again in the 2024/2025 season. Likewise, my son's Junior Black Cats stuff disappeared and I failed to re-register him, as it were, but only because I had no communication from the club.

We ended up having problems getting tickets for some games last season when you needed a history. My history worked but my son's didn't, even though you can see it in his account. So of course I used another friend in our group to get him tickets.

This season, that has not been a problem so far, but what has been a problem is applying for the ballot. Three times I've been told that I'm ineligible for the over-65 tickets because I'm 68. Each time, the club has refunded me, but why make extra work for yourself?

Please just tell us how many non-season ticket holders are members and how many tickets are available for each match. I'd also like to know how many people are on the season ticket waiting list and what position we're in. In the earlier version of this, we were quite high up according to the club, but obviously everything was reset.

It would also be nice to see some genuine benefits from being a member — as a bare minimum, I would expect a discount on club merchandise.

I do feel that the club is in the best position it's been in for the fifty-odd years I've been coming.

This is the best team I've seen and probably the best manager we've had in living memory and therefore expectations are high and rightly so. I don't think it's unreasonable or unrealistic for the club to sort this.

To be honest, I would love to see a stadium expansion and make the Roker End like die gelbe Wand at Borussia Dortmund — dream big.

I think the obvious answer is ticketing issues.

We've all experienced issues ourselves or know someone who's had issues, and the recent change in accounts on the website couldn't have gone much worse if the club tried. I had to wait for weeks to be able to access my account; I couldn't request forgotten password emails and the website didn't recognise my email address.

AskSAFC , although a good feature on the whole, was massively delayed due to the amount of people affected, and took almost two weeks to respond, by which point the issues were resolved before the portal even picked up people's submissions.

In previous seasons, I also had issues with my season ticket and direct debits.

Despite being paid successfully, the club decided to email me three months after the final payment to say it hadn't been paid and my account had been suspended.

I had to miss a game because of this, and the result was that the club eventually found the payment. However, we received no apology or any kind of offer from the club for the error or the fact we missed a game due to this, despite it being promised at the time, and they clearly just wanted to forget it ever happened.

Improvements have been made, but there's still a long way to go for the ticketing system to match the quality on the pitch.

Without doubt, the ticket office — most importantly, the lack of human contact.

Just for the hell of it, I've rang other sporting venues in the past, to see how quickly I can speak to someone, and whether it's cricket, rugby, athletics or football, I've found none as infuriating as Sunderland.

Most recently I had course to contact them due to the new directive that every season ticket holder had to have their own email address.

My son has always had his ticket on my phone and I deal with payments, but trying to log onto his account and attach a new email was virtually impossible online.

I left a message with the 'bot' to return my call, yet I heard nothing. I tried another approach, and the recorded voice said, "Please hold…", then it went dead! I know many people who've experienced the same and if the club wants to annoy and alienate their fans, this is a very good way of going about it.

The point of contact for fans virtually doesn't exist in this digital world, and I think it's a crying shame that the hierarchy (who must've heard this complaint for years) deem it not worthy of being fixed.

For me, the answer to the solution to solving Sunderland off-the-field issues is looking into adequately replacing David Bruce.

I have to preface this by pointing out that I'm not intentionally digging out Tom Burwell with this, but as a man in a prominent position, unfortunately the buck eventually stops with him.

Since the turn of the summer, Burwell has overseen a series of programmes that have quite frankly fallen flat on their arse, and the introduction of a convoluted and complicated membership system that as far as most fans can tell offers them very little value for money is just the tip of the iceberg.

Add in notions that due to said memberships, it's become increasingly difficult to introduce new fans to the club, increased corporate packages and travel packages that allow those who can afford such luxuries to bypass both ballot or BCP parameters, and there's a bitter taste being left in the mouth of fans which has a very corporate bang about it.

Of course, Mr Burwell has inherited a series of systems that've been failing for some time — packed concourses, slow service, a stalling ticket office and a ticketing system that's never been plain sailing, so some mitigation should be offered but only sparingly when considering the only touches the club have added this far have been to make these experiences worse.

The solution, however, is multi-faceted.

In my opinion, the club needs to analyse and explore whether those in charge of overseeing these elements of the club are the correct people — not only for the job but the club itself. Losing David Bruce wasn't just the loss of a quality operator but also someone who fundamentally understood the club and what it is to be a fan.

Secondly the club should seek to consult fans as much as possible.

Things such as the membership scheme — which has holes in it such as it being near impossible for season ticket holders to introduce younger family members to the match day experience — could and would've been identified if a more stringent and detailed consultation been made with fans.

All in all, there's plenty of work to do but with the right people in charge, the right people involved and staying true to the club's core values, getting this sorted isn't a Sisyphean task.