Roker End returns as part of bid to reconnect fans with club

THE Roker End is back – by popular demand,

Sunderland have announced the new name for the Stadium of Light’s South Stand, which will take the moniker held by the steep bank of terracing where generations of Wearsiders grew up watching their team at Roker Park.

And, in a quirk of history, the name change echoes that at Roker Park more than a century ago, where the Roker End was originally known as the South End when the ground opened in 1898.

The club has been working with fan group Red and White Army to improve the matchday experience at the Stadium of Light. A survey suggested fans were keen to give the ground a greater sense of identity by renaming the stands, which are named after compass points.

A shortlist of four names was drawn up – the Roker End, the Wearside End, the Colliery End, or the Raich Carter End – and more than 13,000 fans voted, with 70 percent picking the Roker End.

The Black Cats will hold an official renaming ceremony ahead of the Boxing Day fixture against Bradford City, with the unveiling a speciallycommissioned ‘captain’s mural’ within the main concourse.

RAWA chairman Andrew Hird said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for supporters to come together and help give our stadium a greater sense of identity, and they answered the call with thousands participating.

“The Roker Roar is synonymous throughout football for being loud and representative of our city, and we want the Stadium of Light’s Roker End to carry on that tradition and recapture Roker Park’s stirring atmosphere.