wouldn't this attendance thing be easy to put to bed by just putting the average attendances of both clubs next to each other season by season? (someone other than me, obviously)
Average attendances from 1970 to 1992 (NUFC Inception)
Newcastle - 25,906
Sunderland - 21,224
any significant shifts in their favour during individual sustained periods of either their success or our decline? i'd imagine the post-'92 figures make some horrible reading for them too