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walks of life around the city was unable to be that place for people to come to.
So instead, they went out into the community, delivering packed lunches to the most vulnerable people in the city. When there was no football to go to, the volunteers made sure that those in need did not go without. To call them a credit to the city of Sunderland would be a significant understatement.
As we made our way out of lockdowns and once supporters were allowed back to stadiums, the fans museum had its chance to come alive once again. Sunderland kicked off their 2021-22 campaign at home to Wigan Athletic in August in what was perhaps the most eagerly anticipated season opener ever to take place on Wearside.
Almost 18 months had come and gone since an unrestricted crowd was allowed into the Stadium of Light, and when over 31,500 attended this first match of the season a fair share dropped into the museum to check it out and take in a unique matchday experience.
Since then, each home game has continued to see a large number of fans attend both the stadium and the museum. The atmosphere is similar to what you might find in a pub or club on matchday, but the chance to take in hundreds of artefacts from football sides of days gone by gives it the kind of edge which no other drinking establishment in the city has.
If you can’t get in pre match, they stay open until sometimes late into a Saturday evening as a place to celebrate the match or to drown your sorrows, depending on how the game has panned out.
Regardless of the result, however, you know that you’re never on your own. Safety in numbers is often applicable in sport, and it has applied to SAFC more times in my lifetime than I can count.
Being at the museum after a win is great, even after a defeat you can look around at the various debriefs of the match and haveone last pint before hitting the road. For many people, football is a matter of life and death. But places like the fans museum makes you realise, in glorious detail, that it really is the supporters who make football.
During the lockdown, fans couldn’t go to the games or
visit the museum. Both the club and the venue suffered and whilst Sunderland’s progression on the pitch remains uncertain, the strides the museum is taking as a social hub and community focal point are big and are getting bigger almost by the week.
There is such a genuine feeling of warmth and community when visiting this place, and from the joy of knowing a historic building has been saved and recommissioned as something for the local area to the dozens of friendly faces you see when milling around, the venue is one that makes me proud to be a Mackem.
It is a reminder that whatever happens on the pitch, there will always be a hardy bunch of locals behind the
scenes going out of their way to make life better for
their fellow supporters not just on match days but every day of the week.
The visit of Coventry City will see Championship football return to the SoL for the first time in over four years, and this iconic piece of Sunderland history will experience second tier football for the first time.
ALOVESUPREME
ISSUE259
39
BY PADDY HOLLIS