The Stadium of Light opened in 1997 on the former Wearmouth Colliery site and quickly became one of the largest club grounds in England. Its return to Premier League football gives Sunderland one of the biggest matchday workforces outside the traditional top-six venues.
What happens here
- Sunderland AFC Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup home matches.
- Sunderland Women and academy fixtures where scheduled.
- Major concerts and large-scale summer events.
- Conferences, banqueting and private hire.
Who runs hospitality and catering
Sunderland AFC and its stadium partners recruit across hospitality, kiosks, bars, retail, stewarding, cleaning and event operations. The ground’s scale means casual staff demand can be significant, especially for derby fixtures, cup ties and concerts.
What’s it like to work here
The Stadium of Light is built for big crowds, with strong Metro access and a regional fanbase that travels in from across Wearside, County Durham and South Tyneside. For matchday workers, that means high-volume service, clear crowd flows and busy pre-match and half-time peaks.
The return of the Tyne-Wear derby also adds a handful of especially high-profile shifts to the calendar whenever Newcastle and Sunderland share a division.
Other operators
Concerts and large non-football events often use additional event-security, cleaning, traffic and staging contractors.
