The EFL have issued a huge Sunderland ticket update ahead of the club’s upcoming League One play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers on May 21.
The Lowdown: Extra ticket allocation
The Black Cats have set up a meeting with Gareth Ainsworth’s side at the end of the month after securing a 2-1 aggregate victory over Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-final, and so will obviously want to have as many fans there backing them as possible.
The Wearside outfit sold an allocation of 43,960 tickets in just a few days, so an additional 2,500 were made available for purchase on Wednesday, with the club confirming that this would be the final distribution.
The Latest: EFL release statement
Despite the capacity of Wembley being approximately 90,000, Wycombe have so far only sold 22,000 tickets, meaning that there is set to be a huge number of empty seats around the ground.
However, in a new update, the EFL have revealed that due to the segregation of supporters, they are unable to offer any more to the Black Cats. As quoted by Sunderland Echo, the statement read:
“Following discussions with Sunderland AFC and Wembley National Stadium over the past 48 hours, the EFL is pleased to confirm that an additional allocation of approximately 2,500 tickets will be made available to Sunderland supporters for this Saturday’s Sky Bet League One Play-Off Final.
“The configuration of Wembley Stadium presents a number of challenges for the event organisers that must be considered while implementing the requirement for the segregation of supporters, but this final allocation ensures that there will be in the region of 46,000 Sunderland supporters attending this fixture.
“The EFL acknowledges that it will be incredibly frustrating for fans who have been unable to secure a ticket to see a number of empty seating blocks on show at the weekend, but the decision by Wembley National Stadium to make this the final allocation of tickets has been taken in the primary interest of supporter safety.”
The Verdict: Positive track record
If Alex Neil’s men manage to sell out their extra allocation, this would mean that there would be over 46,000 fans inside the ground on the day urging their team to try and gain promotion to the Championship.
Sunderland have got a good track record against their opponents, having secured a 3-1 win at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season, followed by a 3-3 draw in the reverse fixture.
Yet to be defeated by Wycombe this campaign, the Black Cats should be going into this game with the confidence that they are more than capable of pulling off another big result on the one day that it matters most, and the only shame is there won't be even more Wearsiders down South to enjoy it in the flesh.