Top tier section to re-open for Bantams Boxing Day visit

SUNDERLAND executive director Charlie Methven has announced the Premier Concourse will re-open for the Boxing Day visit of Bradford City.

The top tier of the west stand has been closed all season to concentrate Black Cats fans together now that attendances have dropped since relegation from the Premier League.

It will be a source of great pride for some that demand for seats is so high for the Boxing Day match, the decision has been made to re-open it.

“As of Sunday there are only around 1,500 tickets available for the Bradford game in the main bowl of the Stadium of Light,” Methven told the A Love Supreme fanzine.

“The plan has always been that once the number of seats available drops below 1,500 tickets for the Premier Concourse would go on sale, so (yesterday) morning we will go ahead and do that.”

Led by Methven, the Black Cats have targeted a 40,000 crowd for what is traditionally one of the best-supported dates of the footballing calendar.

More than 36,000 have already been sold, guaranteeing the biggest third-tier crowd since 2012.

After ten matches this season, Sunderland’s average attendance is 29,911 - nearly 12,000 higher than the next best, leaders Portsmouth.

Boxing Day will also see the South Stand officially renamed the Roker End after a fans poll and a “captain’s mural” will be unveiled in its concourse.