Last weekend’s game took place on International Fans’ Day weekend, and Friday night at the Fans Museum was a chance for all of our visitors and some of the Roker Report team to meet up and chat all things Sunderland.
It was my first experience of the IFD; beforehand, I’d only ever listened to episodes of Haway The Podcast as they’ve interviewed our guests and I’ve listened to their fantastic and varied stories behind becoming Lads’ fans.
On the night, had the pleasure of talking to Nancy, whom originally
hailed from Canada and had moved to Netherlands after meeting her husband Erik. She was kindly offering around some delicious caramel-type wafers that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of, because they were delicious!
She’s now a devoted and dedicated Sunderland fan — and I think she said that this was her fifth year of visiting on IFD.
As a younger lad, her husband Erik had gone shopping, and had spotted a ‘cool’ looking football shirt that was predominantly white with a thin red stripe. It turned out to be a Sunderland home shirt and he was hooked from then on!
Each to their own I guess, as this was always my least favourite home strip, but it’s always fascinating to hear how different people get caught up in their own Sunderland story and become as mad and as passionate as anyone else.
I could’ve listened to Nancy all evening, and her memories and stories about being a fan, but it was a different thread that I promised her that I would write about — the decision by Sky TV and the Premier League to move the Tottenham game from Saturday to 2:00pm on Sunday.
I remember on one of the podcast episodes when the moving of games by Sky was being discussed, including the crazy decision to change our game against Bournemouth to a 12:30pm kick off. I’m sure someone said that the Tottenham game wouldn’t be moved as that had already been verified as our International Fans’ Day weekend and match.
It was this point that had Nancy most annoyed, and I couldn’t blame her!
Because of the game being moved from Saturday to Sunday, their stay had to be belatedly rearranged. Ferry bookings had to be altered and an extra hotel stay had to be added.
We’re all used to Sky calling all the shots when it comes to fixtures and fixture changes, as the amount of money they pump into the Premier League is well known, but for this particular game, there seemed to have been a particularly poor defence put up by Sunderland.
As Nancy pointed out (of course, neither of us had the full facts), the club knew this was International Fans’ Day weekend. After all, they do a brilliant job of showing folks around the ground and the Academy, and the fans’ group puts on this annual party for them — in fact, I think Nancy was correct in saying we’re the only club that stages anything like this.
So why didn’t we put in a complaint about the rearranged game? It was obvious that it was going to hinder many people who’d already travelled thousands of miles. Surely another game could’ve been played at that time, or our game moved to a lunchtime kick off slot on the Saturday?
We’re all used to getting no joy out of Sky when fixtures are discussed, but it seems that on the surface, our international fans were let down by the Premier League and to a lesser extent, their own club. There could’ve been other options, as the date for the IFD had been in diaries for many months.
Apart from the inconvenience, Nancy was keen to talk about the revenue that international fans bring in.
Like many ‘tourist’ spectators, they spend more than most at the club shop, but it’s also in their own country that they do a lot of ‘invisible’ advertising and promotion for Sunderland. She has her own experience of this, whereby they’ll discuss the club with friends and family, who also start to follow the club, widening the Sunderland family and fan base.
This is how it works.
Nancy was only there because the passion had been passed on by her husband. Then others buy into our club, buy merchandise and even save to come to a game, and so it continues. Treating our international fans like this was a bad move and even if our hierarchy had no power to change anything, I’d like to think they at least protested, and I’d like to know the definitive response.
As Nancy said, we fans have ultimately a lot of power.
It might not always seem so, but without fans, the game would eventually die. We need to at least record our feelings and thoughts and I’m sure Nancy will be writing to the club herself, but she also appreciated my offer of highlighting this faux pas via Roker Report.
Thank you to all who visited last weekend, and although I wish I’d been able to meet more of you, at least you enjoyed the sunny day, the atmosphere and the great result for once!
Keep the faith, and haway me bonnie lads!
