The minutes from the latest meeting between Sunderland AFC and the supporter collective have been shared
Sunderland's interim CEO Tom Burwell has told supporters that he is 'committed to rebuilding trust' after facing criticism for ongoing issues with the club's ticketing and off-pitch operation.
Burwell and club officials were challenged on a number of issues that fans have faced over the course of the summer at a recent meeting of the supporter collective, including the switch to a new login system and the launch of a widely-criticised membership scheme. The chairman of the club's largest supporter group, the Red & White Army, began the meeting by reading out a statement and noted that it was the first time they had felt compelled to do so since the Black Cats Bar fiasco in 2024.
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The statement recognised progress at the club on the pitch since then and in some key areas such as merchandise, but said the general service was 'not at the standard expected'. In response, Burwell said the club's previous decline had left a challenging legacy and that the move to a single login this summer would improve things in future.
The minutes from the meeting read: "TB accepted the statement but asked fans to consider the wider context. The impact of the club's decline 10 years ago, including its fall down the leagues and the more recent rise back up to the Premier League, cannot be underestimated, and the club recognises that the pace of improvement has not been fast enough.
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"The rollout was not smooth, but it puts the club in a much stronger position to move forward effectively. TB recognises that there is work to do to rebuild trust with supporters, and he is committed to doing so. Our customer service team is stretched at the moment, the club must move towards a more digital approach to help supporters get answers faster. The SAFC App will play a big part in this, giving a more direct way to keep fans informed. Currently only around 20% of club emails are opened, so the club is aware better ways are needed to reach supporters."
Some changes have been made in response to concerns from supporters, with members who win a seat in the ballot for home games now able to select their seat rather than having it allocated for them. This had led to fierce criticism with games at the Stadium of Light this season progressing to the general sale phase, allowing non-members to select their own seat.
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Sunderland acknowledged at the meeting that the rollout of the membership scheme 'did not roll out as effectively as intended', and that this is being addressed. Burwell also said that the sight of thousands of fans queuing outside the ticket office to resolve issues in the summer was 'unacceptable'. In response, Burwell said that communication would occur earlier in future and that new systems would be stress tested by groups of fans before the full rollout.
The club also said they would deliver monthly updates to the supporter collective moving forward.
The minutes read: "In response to the RAWA statement and the concerns raised, Sunderland AFC pledges to deliver monthly, structured updates to the Collective on all identified areas, ensuring transparency and accountability going forward."
The supporter collective meeting was attended by a number of fan groups and the minutes can be read in full here. Fans can also have their say on club matters and the matchday experience in a survey currently being run by the Red & White Army here.
The statement read by the Red & White Army in full
“It is almost 3 years since we have felt the need to open one of these meetings with a statement, the last time being in the days after the FA Cup tie with Newcastle in January 2024. At the time we pointed out what a mess that whole episode was and that it really brought to the forefront a number of off the field matters that had gone on for too long.
Progress has been made on a couple of these, including the merchandise offer both in terms of quality and availability, and investment and pride in the stadium and other infrastructure – although we note there is still more to be done on this. And of course, there has been significant on-field progress, which we are all delighted with.
However, almost 3 years later fans remain quite rightly extremely frustrated with other aspects of the club, particularly around ticketing and communication on key matters. Over the summer, while we have all still been enjoying the success of last season and looking forward to our European adventure, unfortunately off-the-field activities have proven once again to not be at the standard expected of a club of our stature and resources. When a migration of online accounts and the introduction of a membership scheme was announced this summer, sadly I am sure that few of us around this table and across the wider fan base thought it would go smoothly. It didn’t.
Instead, we have had thousands of fans reporting difficulties logging into accounts, resetting passwords, accessing purchase histories and viewing Black Cat Points. We’ve seen queues around the stadium to speak to someone in person after the online and telephone system failed to meet this self-inflicted demand. We had a membership scheme that was soft launched in the local press, poorly communicated, failing to deliver the benefits that it promised and resulting the in frankly ridiculous situation for some where they ended up with more expensive and less desirable tickets than those who didn’t join the scheme and waited a few extra days to be able to pick their seats and pricing category. And for this they paid an additional £48.
The examples of the system not working are too many to cover in this statement or indeed in this meeting. We have provided more detailed information for you. However, things simply must improve. We are entering into a period where tickets are in higher demand than any time in living memory for many. The Europa League, in particular, will have tens of thousands of fans scrambling for tickets and making plans to travel across Europe and to date there is no indication of allocation sizes, likely Black Cat Points requirements or other information that will help fans to plan for a safe journey and the likelihood of securing tickets. Improvements to ticketing, the membership scheme and communications need to be made as a matter of urgency. Actions in these meetings and the relevant subgroups need to be agreed, logged, communicated and updated on regularly to demonstrate progress and restore confidence in this process. Fans and fan groups alike want to enjoy the significant progression the club is making and the new experiences we are having; it’s time for the off-field performance to match those of the on-field achievements.”
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