The Stadium of Light is quite a new stadium which opened in
1997, it has a capacity of 49,000.
On November 13, 1995, then Sunderland Chairman Bob Murray finally
announced that the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation (TWDC) had
approved plans for Sunderland to build a 34,000-seater stadium on
the site.
Ballast Wiltshier PLC (which had built the Amsterdam Arena) was
contracted to build the stadium at an initial cost of £15 million.
In June 1996, as the planned capacity rose to 40,000, construction
work began. The capacity was revised again in early 1997, and the
stadium was completed on time, with a capacity of 42,000. Due to
the simple bowl design, and ample surrounding space, the stadium
could be extended in stages to hold a maximum 72,000. Having been
graded a 4 star ranked stadium by UEFA, the Sunderland Stadium of
Light was expanded to 48,300, offering a world class range of
banqueting facilities leading to UEFA reassessing the stadium's
rating. The Stadium of Light is now one of only 8 5* stadiums in
Europe.
In 2002, permission was given to expand the Stadium of Light by
7,200 seats by adding another tier to the South Stand taking the
capacity to over 55,500. But the following year, Sunderland were
relegated and the plans were shelved. Sunderland were promoted back
to the Premiership two years after this setback and added a few
hundred extra seats taking the capacity to just under 49,000, but
were relegated again after just one season. Since promotion back to
the Premiership in 2007 Niall Quinn following huge season ticket
sales of over 30,000 has hinted that if Sunderland games over the
next season are played in front of sell out crowds they will
seriously consider going ahead with the planned extension.
