Planning and Construction
Following the release of the Taylor Report in January 1990, Sunderland was obliged to make plans to turn their Roker Park home into an all-seater stadium. Roker Park was a ground that mainly consisted of standing terraces, and if converted into all-seater it would have held far fewer spectators than before. Enclosed by residential streets on all sides, expansion was practically impossible. So, by 1991, Sunderland chairman Bob Murray began investigating the possibility of relocation to a new stadium.
The front-runner that emerged was a proposed stadium located on an area of land adjacent to the Nissan car plant. The 48,000 all-seater ground was labelled "the Wembley of the North" - a capacity that not even Manchester United's Old Trafford exceeded until 1996. The plans did not come to fruition. Shortly after the plans were announced in 1992, Nissan launched an official objection, ultimately forcing Sunderland to abandon the idea. In 1995, Sunderland put forward a plan to build a stadium on the former site of Wearmouth Colliery. The area, on the north bank of the River Wear in the Sheepfolds district of Sunderland, was only a few hundred yards from Roker Park, and close to the centre of the city. On 13 November 1995, the Sunderland Chairman Bob Murray announced that the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation had approved plans for Sunderland to build a 34,000-seater stadium on the site.
Ballast Wiltshier plc, a contracting company that 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. The stadium's design allows possible expansion of a further tier; completed expansion of the whole upper tier would produce a capacity of 63,000. During construction, the stadium had not adopted an official name, and had been known colloquially as the "Wearside Stadium" and "New Roker Park". The name was eventually revealed as the Stadium of Light, a reference to a miner's lamp (the stadium is built on the site of the old Wearmouth Colliery, and many Sunderland fans have worked in the region's mines). To emphasise the fact, a Davy lamp is located in front of the stadium's ticket office, adjacent to the stadium. The stadium was opened on 30 July 1997 by Prince Andrew, Duke of York, with bands such as U2, Status Quo, Upside Down and Kavana playing. To celebrate the opening of the stadium, Sunderland played a friendly against Ajax, which was drawn 0–0.
The North Stand was extended in 2000 to bring the capacity to 49,000, costing the club a further £7 million, making the final cost of the stadium £23 million. On 18 July 2006, a statue of 1973 FA Cup Final winning manager Bob Stokoe was unveiled. At the end of season Football League awards, the Stadium of Light was named the Best Away Ground, with other contenders including Crewe Alexandra's Alexandra Stadium and Plymouth Argyle's Home Park. Sunderland celebrated the tenth anniversary of the stadium with a pre-season friendly against Juventus on 6 August 2007; the game was drawn 1–1.
In November 2011, the club announced that the away supporters' section would be moved from the South Stand to the North Stand Upper from the beginning of the 2012–13 season. As a result, minor modifications to the ground will be necessary.
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