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Vaux adverts were a regular feature in 1972-73 editions of the Roker Review
A pre-kick off pint on Stadium of Light concourses is a match day ritual for many Sunderland supporters, whilst the possibility of fans being allowed to drink alcohol in the actual stands was recently brought up again by Andy Burnham in the days before he was confirmed as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Being able to buy booze in grounds has not always been as common a prospect however, and in 1972, the landscape at football clubs was very different.
It was on this day therefore that Sunderland — or more pertinently, an extremely popular local brewery, revealed plans that would see Roker Park becoming one of the first stadiums in England to sell beer to people coming through the regular turnstiles for first team fixtures.
Vaux and Associated Breweries Ltd., one of Wearside’s most famed brands, were to apply to the Sunderland Licensing Justices for a license to serve for a short period before games, at half time and for a period after the final whistle. If approved, they were to provide four outlets and supply them all with keg beer and plastic cups for this purpose.
The nearest club with such an offering already was Leeds United, with around nine others understood to have similar arrangements, and a Vaux spokesman was keen to express the benefits in a statement outlining their proposals, which they expected would slow the growing trend of individuals trying to sneak in bottles and cans whilst also reducing congestion at the gates due to drinkers no longer needing to rush over from local pubs as the players were coming onto the pitch.
Despite the potential upsides however, when the Justices sat later in the month, Vaux’s application was denied.
Representatives insisted during the hearing that people under eighteen wouldn’t be supplied and that only beer and soft drinks, not spirits, would be sold, although their assurances weren’t enough to convince the magistrates, some of whom had concerns about alcohol consumption leading to instances of hooliganism.
This came even after Supt. Jack Norris, deputy police commander, confirmed that the force wouldn’t oppose the application, and the provision of statistics showing that of the sixty one arrests made over the past two seasons, there was little evidence of drink being a factor in any of them.
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Chairman of the committee Mr A.G McClellan stated afterwards that “We have not had an easy problem to decide on”m yet Vaux were left unimpressed by the outcome seemingly and so too was Sunderland’s board of directors, who according to the local press in the aftermath, had claimed during the process that they’d been “anxious to provide spectators with every possible facility in a bid to build the club up to its former glory”.
Sunderland secretary Ron Linney also disagreed, asserting that many other clubs had sold drink at matches without any increase in violence or vandalism being noted — and given the magical cup run that was about to take place during the coming season, surely fans would have been toasting success rather than wanting to drown their sorrows.
When Sunderland won the FA Cup at the end of 1973, the pubs and clubs of the town certainly did a roaring trade, even though Roker Park couldn’t.
The magnificent achievement emulated the efforts of the squad in 1937, when the Lads won the competition for the first time ever and could claim to be the best side in the country, but whilst these were times of great joy, not everybody in the area was impressed.
Also on 2 August, a few weeks before the start of the 1937/1938 campaign, a contributor to the Sunderland Echo & Shipping Gazette had the following letter printed in that day’s edition’s What Our Readers Say feature, alongside other missives about various issues such as the tram service on Durham Road, the mining industry being brought under national ownership, and modesty on local beaches and house rents in Castletown.
To the editor of The Sunderland Echo
Sir – On Wednesday one of your reporters write that the “Ha-way, ha-way, ha’way” season would soon be here.
Had he written the “silly season”, I would have agreed with him. In a few weeks’ time we will be hearing of nothing but football, football and football. In shops, cafés, cinemas, and at all social functions the main topic will be football.
Wearsiders have got it on the brain. They have it with their meals, and they probably dream about football. Last season, despite the fact the Sunderland team did so well, I must confess that I was mentally sick at the very sound of the word football.
To try and introduce a more serious topic last winter, especially during the cup-ties, was like getting blood from a stone. Wearsiders, do please try to hold a fair balance with everything in life! There are many things beside football which will give much more pleasure if properly studied.
Fed Up Already.
If ‘Fed Up Already’ could see the amount of discourse the team still garners almost a century later, they themselves may have been driven to violence!
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