UP FOR THE CUP?

After years of complaining about only opening one stand for cup games, tomorrow’s third round Carabao Cup game against Hull City is only the third time where at least the whole lower bowl will be open for a cup tie since 2017, the last being for the FA cup tie against Newcastle where the whole ground was open back in 2024. Before that you have to go back to Burnley at home in the FA Cup third round in 2017. Despite this being the excuse for many people not going as they cannot sit in their normal seat, tomorrow’s attendance is still around the 20k mark as it stands, which raises the question, why do Sunderland fans not bother with cup games?

Our highest attendance in the cup a side from that Newcastle game since our relegation to league one was an FA Cup replay in 2023 against Fulham where 29,651 saw an entertaining game where Jack Clarke and Jewison Bennette’s goals weren’t enough to overcome the cottagers. 22,249 turned up to watch us get knocked out of the EFL Cup to Huddersfield last season but aside from that it’s a lot of attendances below 15k and quite a few failing to reach the 10k mark.

In terms of what puts people off, there are the obvious and understandable reasons. In what is going to be a very expensive season with the addition of Europa League tickets and the prices of season tickets going up, a cup game at home to Hull is the easy game to miss and save money for other things. Another reason is of course it’s a midweek game and people will have work and kids who maybe go to the weekend games aren’t allowed to go to these night games.

The ones that confuse me are those who are on waiting lists for season tickets or constantly debating the loyalty point system. These games are the equivalent of ‘stat padding’, it is a free point basically. So, the way I look at it is: if you aren’t going just because you cannot be bothered, you immediately lose your right to complain about not being able to get to the likes of Liverpool away. Those on the waiting list for a season ticket as well should be all over this, as a chance to likely see all our new signings for the first time.

Truthfully, I also think that the club haven’t helped in recent times. We have never taken the cup seriously, making ten changes and getting knocked out fairly early on. Maybe if we were looking at the cup like Newcastle, with the aim of going far and winning it, attendances would be better. Then again, I remember only 31,000 people turning up for the Capital One Cup Semi-Final against Manchester United, so maybe not.

In all honesty I do also think we as a fanbase have about a 25-30,000 core who will turn up regardless of what league we are in, who we are playing or how we are playing. It is part and parcel of football that you will always have a section of fans that are only interested when things are going well. Then again could things be going any better than it is already yet we still cannot get the ground even close to full for a cup game where if we do take seriously there is no reason we cannot go deep in. I am sure we all have people who we have sat next to for years from the league one days to now, and during that time you will have people who coincidentally have spawned in since our return to the top flight.

Ultimately everybody has free will, if you don’t want to go to a cup game which we probably aren’t going to treat very seriously, nobody is going to force you. My point is more those people who will whine about how the system is unfair or that they didn’t get tickets for Milan haven’t got a leg to stand on if they are just simply avoiding the game because they cannot be bothered.

Its just getting a bit boring, the constant back-and-forth every time a cup game comes around. I do though think a club that classes itself as ‘big’ shouldn’t be struggling to get 30k against Premier League opposition when tickets are as decently priced as they are.