How Sunderland’s average attendance this season compares to recent seasons

After only one year back in the Championship, the Black Cats were immediately relegated again to drop to League One.

This was after a decade spent in the top flight, so the fall from grace has been quite dramatic.

That drop-off has been a real test of the Stadium of Light’s roughly 49,000 capacity.

During the Premier League years, the club was routinely averaging more than 40,000 people at every home game, according to figures taken from Transfermarkt, including 41,287 in their relegation season.

In David Moyes’ campaign in charge in 2016-17, the final season for the club in the Premier League, over 41,000 people were attending home games every other week.

That number dropped significantly as the club fell down another division. 

In the second tier, Sunderland managed to bring just 27,635 people to every game at the Stadium of Light.

That is a huge decline in numbers after over a decade of managing over 40,000 tickets sold per match.

The attendance figures actually rose as the team continued their decline to League One, which is an impressive feat.

Over 32,157 supporters backed the team at every home game in the first season in the third tier.

That number dropped to a 30,118 and then again to only 27,994 in the following two campaigns in the division.

Of course there was also the season spent behind closed doors due to the pandemic, which obviously saw no fans attend home games.

So, upon the return of stadiums re-opening to fans, Sunderland saw that 28,000 people were still willing to shuffle into their seats to support the club, which is still an impressive number for a club in League One.

Perhaps if Alex Neil’s side can earn promotion back to the Championship in the next few weeks then the club can start to think about