Vote with your feet... but do protests work?
TO protest, or not to protest?
That was the question asked on Wearside this week with a Twitter poll conducted by fan site Roker Report indicating more than twothirds of those who voted would favour a demonstration to highlight the club’s on-field and off-field plight.
To cut to the chase, any protest or demonstration would be directed at owner Ellis Short and his austerity policy.
It is not for me, a journalist, to take on the role of rabble-rouser nor play peacemaker by telling fans whether they should or should not stage some kind of protest.
My point is simply that any course of action needs to be fully thought through.
It is not enough to do ‘something,’ just to avoid doing ‘nothing.’
You might just as well shake your fist at the heavens because it is raining.
Any fan movement needs a clear and definable goal and any action taken should be a step towards that goal.
The clear and definable goal for Sunderland fans is easy – they want to see the club under new ownership whch will stop the rot, invest and reverse the long-term decline which has set in.
The more difficult problem is what form of action could help to bring that about.
Protesting against Ellis Short is a waste of time and effort.
He does not attend games, lives thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic and cannot be forced to sell in any case.
Football clubs are not democracies where the will of the people prevails.
They are generally run by autocrats, either people who own the club outright such as Short or at the very least by those who hold controlling stakes which allow them to dictate.
The experience of fans who have gone down the protest route at other clubs suggest they achieve little. You do not have to look far for an example. Newcastle United fans have protested for years against Mike Ashley and his regime at St James’ Park. There have been flags, banners, chants, even a black and white coffin paraded through the streets of Tyneside – you name it. It has gained attention but to what end? Ashley remains in charge - and let’s not constrain this to a Wear-Tyne issue. Look further afield. Protests and demonstrations have not shifted the Allams at Hull City. Nor the Venkys at Blackburn Rovers. An avalanche of tennis balls may have disrupted games at Charlton Athletic but it has failed to dislodge Roland Duchatelet. Remember the ‘green and gold until it is sold’ campaign at Manchester United? Nine years on, the Glazer name is still above the door at Old Trafford. The sad truth is, in this age of billionaire owners, fans are effectively powerless when it comes to bringing about regime change. Short knows Sunderland fans are angry and want him out and they are pushing at an open door - he has been trying to sell the club for years.
The problem is not that he is clinging on but that no serious buyer has yet come along to take the club off his hands.
So what are Sunderland supporters to do?
In my view, fans cannot force out an owner but they CAN help attract a buyer.
Fans have voted with their feet this season by staying away and no sensible person could blame them for that. The irony is reduced attendances only make the situation worse because they put a further dent in the club’s finances.
I have a better - if completely counter-intuitive - idea.
The one thing fans could do to move closer to their goal is to pack the Stadium of Light to the rafters every home game.
It might - if the atmosphere is positive - benefit the team, it would bring in much-needed cash and it would make the club more appealing to a buyer.
The sight and sound of 48,000 people cheering on a team fighting for its life at the foot of the Championship would not be a protest - but the best possible advertisement.
Fans could pack the Stadium of Light to the rafters..it might benefit the team and make the club more appealing to a buyer