Bradford City are heading for their best crowd for 30 years when they play Sunderland at Valley Parade on Boxing Day.

The match will mark the opening of the new North West Corner stand which will lift the capacity of Valley Parade to 20,400, the highest since 1970.

Sunderland have sold their 4,000 allocation and City have only 1,800 tickets left so the best Premiership home crowd of 18,276 - last season's capacity - seems sure to be beaten.

City are hoping the improved form of the team under new manager Jim Jefferies and an attractive fixture on what is traditionally one of the best days for crowds will mean all remaining tickets will go.

Two other Premiership matches at Valley Parade in the near future could also attract capacity crowds.

City have only 1,700 tickets left for the home match against Liverpool on Saturday, December 30 and 1,600 for the Manchester United game on Saturday, January 13. Both Liverpool and United are expected to sell their 4,000 allocations.

Big crowds at these three matches will be a boost to City whose gates are down on last season. Their best crowd so far was at their first home match - 17,872 to see them beat Chelsea 2-0 on Tuesday, August 22.

In contrast, the crowd for their only other win was their lowest since they gained promotion to the Premiership 18 months ago, just 15,523 against Coventry.

City averaged 18,030 in the Premiership last season. This time their average crowd is 16,931.

For these big games away fans are being accommodated in the Symphony Stand which holds 1,800 and the North West Corner which has a capacity of 2,200.

Managing director Shaun Harvey said: "The fact we have got the capacity is a great boost."

The latest development scheme on the west side of Valley Parade includes new offices and a shop, the North West Corner stand and the Sunwin Stand extension at a total cost of £7.4million.

When the work is complete Valley Parade will have a capacity of 25,000, and there are plans to extend other areas of the ground to bring the capacity up to 35,000.

The work has been delayed by the weather, but Harvey said: "We hope the stand will be completed well before the end of the season."

City's ticket office will be open from 9am-5pm on Christmas Eve, 9am-3pm on Boxing Day and after the Sunderland game.