Nearly 40k fans off to Cup Final

SUNDERLAND will take almost 40,000 fans to Wembley for the Checkatrade Trophy final – and ticketing details have been confirmed.

The Wearsiders have been allocated 38,979 tickets for the East Stand – the same end which Sunderland fans occupied for the League Cup final in 2014.

All ticketing for the final will be handled by Ticketmaster, and no tickets will be available from the club, the Stadium of Light box office, or the club’s current online ticketing provider.

Ticketmaster have a dedicated call centre and website, both of which can handle extremely large volumes of calls and online traffic and operate extended hours.

Sunderland fans must activate their SAFC account with Ticketmaster.

Supporters need to have their SAFC customer number in order to set up their account.

SAFC season card holders have their customer number listed on their season card for easy reference.

Current season card holders, including 18, 12 and eight-game card holders, and supporters on the SAFC database with a recent ticket purchase history (the previous two seasons, from 2017-18 onwards) have until the end of today to activate their new Ticketmaster account, before the sales process begins.

Accounts can be grouped together during the activation process, allowing friends and family members to apply for seats in the same area (there is a maximum number of nine people per group permitted).

To activate your account click the link www.safc.com/activate and follow the instructions.

Yesterday’s announcement did not give details of the sales process – and some season ticket holders were concerned that supporters who don’t have a season card would have as much chance as them of landing a ticket for the final.

Supporters liaison officer Chris Waters reassured supporters that season card holders would get priority.

He responded to one fan on Twitter saying: “Best not to listen to rumours, just wait for official announcements. We wouldn’t leave any season ticket holder out and they will get the first phase to purchase for this game.”

Anybody experiencing issues can email Chris on chris.waters@ safc.com or the ticket office on ticket.office@safc.com or supporters@safc.com.