This week’s North East Notes highlights the goalkeepers from Newcastle and Middlesbrough, but first, let’s focus on Sunderland, who have had an eventful week at the Stadium of Light.
Hummel has rejoined forces with the Black Cats and has taken extraordinary measures to create a unique shirt specifically for Sunderland. On Friday morning, anticipation ran high as queues wound around the car park in anticipation of the official store opening.
“It’s mind blowing to see so many people queuing to get the new home shirt,” said Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, who was at the launch of the store on Thursday evening and returned on Friday morning and dished out pink slices to fans.
“Now I’m glad we put in so much effort in the last six months because you can see what it means to people.”
The away and third kits are still to come, with chief business officer David Bruce promising something “really, really special”.
But Bruce and his team behind the scenes won’t stop there.
“Soon to come on the heels of this is what we’re doing with our ticketing business and moving that operation to the stadium, a custom built space for ticketing at the North West corner,” he explained.
“Some of the tech and platforms we’re putting in place around ticketing will enable us to deal with customer fan issues and queries in real time.
“There will be more points of contact for customers to ask questions around ticketing, so they’re not necessarily having to come to the stadium to get an answer.”