Nearest station to The Stadium of Light is NOT the Stadium of Light Station

I was on the Tyne & Wear Metro today travelling to Sunderland, from Newcastle.

The train pulled in to the station "Stadium of Light" which is all red & white, to match the colours of Sunderland A.F.C. the stadium was nowhere to be seen

The next station is "St. Peters" and quite nearby, in clear sight is Sunderland's stadium, The Stadium of Light.

Why did they select the wrong station to be named after the stadium ?

Even Google Maps suggests taking the metro, passing S of L station and getting off at St. P

Willie Bee said:

I was on the Tyne & Wear Metro today travelling to Sunderland, from Newcastle.

The train pulled in to the station "Stadium of Light" which is all red & white, to match the colours of Sunderland A.F.C. the stadium was nowhere to be seen

The next station is "St. Peters" and quite nearby, in clear sight is Sunderland's stadium, The Stadium of Light.

Why did they select the wrong station to be named after the stadium ?

Even Google Maps suggests taking the metro, passing S of L station and getting off at St. P

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Both are used for the stadium - I believe afterwards, the usual procedure is that northbound passengers board at Stadium of Light and southbound passengers at St Peter's. Also the ground is sufficiently large that some parts of the ground will be closer to SoL than St Peter's!

Anecdotally I've always found (on non match days) Stadium to be much busier, as it also serves more residential areas towards Roker, and a very large Tesco supermarket. St Peter's serves rather less, though is in more of a regenerating area so this may change in the years to come.

The locals will know to use St Peters and the away supporters will use Stadium of Light. If it is like Crystal Palace (Selhurst and Norwood Junction) it will be the method for keeping the away and home supporters separated from each other. So in the case of Sunderland the Sunderland supporters will mostly head South from St. Peters to Sunderland and almost all the away supporters will be heading in the opposite direction from Stadium of Light to Newcastle.

I wonder, @NorthOxonian, if the away end of the ground is the nearest part to Stadium of Light ?.

I think they we're going to call it 'Roker' originally... either way it works quite well for separating passengers travelling North and South

During events, it's also been known for northbound passengers to be split between the two stations (so each has a manageable crowd). One carriage will then get loaded at St Peters, then the other at Stadium of Light.

Peter Sarf said:

The locals will know to use St Peters and the away supporters will use Stadium of Light. If it is like Crystal Palace (Selhurst and Norwood Junction) it will be the method for keeping the away and home supporters separated from each other. So in the case of Sunderland the Sunderland supporters will mostly head South from St. Peters to Sunderland and almost all the away supporters will be heading in the opposite direction from Stadium of Light to Newcastle.

I wonder, @NorthOxonian, if the away end of the ground is the nearest part to Stadium of Light ?.

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Yes it is, away supporters are currently housed in the upper tier of the North Stand which is at the SOL station end of the ground.

After the match they do indeed tell people travelling towards Newcastle to use SOL and those travelling towards Sunderland city centre and South Hylton to use St Peter’s, but there are usually more than a few away supporters on the Grand Central train, I suspect many of them will, like me, simply have walked from the ground to the city centre.

londonbridge said:

Yes it is, away supporters are currently housed in the upper tier of the North Stand which is at the SOL station end of the ground

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....although there's talk of changing it for next season. Season ticket holders in some other parts of the ground have been told they can't renew in the same seats

SuspectUsual said:

....although there's talk of changing it for next season. Season ticket holders in some other parts of the ground have been told they can't renew in the same seats

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That may because they are required to make 3,000 seats available for away fans in the Premier League, rather than to move away supporters. Although I think there is also supposed to be a requirement to make some pitchside seats available to away fans (not that it seems to be the case at Newcastle).

Haywain said:

That may because they are required to make 3,000 seats available for away fans in the Premier League, rather than to move away supporters. Although I think there is also supposed to be a requirement to make some pitchside seats available to away fans (not that it seems to be the case at Newcastle).

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The existing away area in the gods is already over 3,000 - the issue is more around fan safety I believe

Haywain said:

That may because they are required to make 3,000 seats available for away fans in the Premier League, rather than to move away supporters. Although I think there is also supposed to be a requirement to make some pitchside seats available to away fans (not that it seems to be the case at Newcastle).

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I believe the reasoning for that at St James is by request of the police as the entrances and exits for that section are easier to keep the away fans segregated from the home ones.

SuspectUsual said:

....although there's talk of changing it for next season. Season ticket holders in some other parts of the ground have been told they can't renew in the same seats

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Away fans were previously housed in the South Stand behind the goal, part of the reasoning behind moving them to the North Upper was to put them out of sight of the tv cameras, as when there was a small away contingent it did look ridiculous on tv with empty seats everywhere. However in recent years there’s been an increase in away fans from certain clubs throwing coins and other missles down into the North Upper, with several serious injuries as a result. Fan safety is another aspect in working out where to house them. Then you’ve got the reopening of the Premier Concourse, when we dropped down to league one and attendances were down the Premier Concourse was closed and season ticket holders who sat there were relocated, with the option of first refusal on their old seats should it be opened up again.Now of course we’re seeing an increase in season ticket sales, but on top of that this summer we’ve got the issue of moving everyone’s ticketing accounts from Ticketmaster to Seatgeek, who have replaced the former as the clubs ticketing partner, you can bet there’ll be gremlins and things going wrong there as well.