Enough is enough

I am usually one of the more positive posters on SZ but I am far from optimistic about the future of the club at present.If it has not been possible to attract an independent sponsor for our shirts rather than what I see as Crevette Clothing Mk2, it would suggest that the business world has little faith in the football club. What is putting them off? Phil Brown has stated on more than one occasion that the construction of the new stadium was part and parcel of the deal that brought him to the club. Is he stalling over an extension to his contract because he is losing faith in the club's progress towards the realisation of the new stadium project? Last season's results will certainly have convinced other clubs that Mr Brown could do a job for them, so will he soon be off to a more attractive club if the opportunity presents itself? Could it be that, like potential shirt sponsors, businesses are unwilling to commit to taking up their options at the proposed new stadium because they fear that it might not be a sound investment? If the new stadium project continues to fail to get off the ground and Sainsbury lose patience and pull out of the Roots Hall redevelopment, how would the club ever find the cash to pay back the money that Sainsbury have advanced already? I hope it's just the hot weather that's making me feel so pessimistic but I fear it isn't.

leeblue said:

Im long done with the whole stadium debacle.....and in fact the ron martin debate. ...I protested my little butt off when trying to get rid of Vic Jobson.......we are stuck with the man and his plan......especially with no obvious alternative.
I have simplified it all.....I love going to roots hall and cheering on the boys...end of
I really like the new home kit so I will buy it....if I dont buy it ron will still be in charge.

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Post of the year Lee,green on it's way.

Yeah, I saw it, getting some touch of paint, It's simple, don't order any pizza from Pizza place! and hope they struggle for profits.

SouthUpperShrimper said:

The reasons MD is the sponsor is twofold - firstly no one is willing to pay the asking price for the sponsorship, and secondly it is beneficial to him to do it from a tax perspective as it counts as a cost to MD even though the money doesn't change hands.

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As I asked the other person who used this argument, what tax liabilities would you expect a loss making company to have ?

Smiffy said:

Very brave post! :thumbsup:

I too would welcome a proper update on what the hell is going on regarding FF.

But the fans will buy the shirt regardless, the club know this hence the price rise.

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I won't be buying anything carrying that men's name, indirectly or otherwise. I'd rather continue to give a decent local firm like Insure and Go more free exposure via the old shirt.
If you read Twitter, you'll be disturbed to find out that a majority of our, particularly younger fans haven't a clue what the fundamental issue with this deal - it stinks to high heaven, but I'd expect to see no real drop in shirt sales on that basis.

leeblue said:

Im long done with the whole stadium debacle.....and in fact the ron martin debate. ...I protested my little butt off when trying to get rid of Vic Jobson.......we are stuck with the man and his plan......especially with no obvious alternative.
I have simplified it all.....I love going to roots hall and cheering on the boys...end of
I really like the new home kit so I will buy it....if I dont buy it ron will still be in charge.

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Good point. A boycott wont achieve anything.

Think it proves that taking any form of direct action (however limited) divides opinion here as in all walks of life. In terms of those that are against they too seem divided between those that choose to have blind faith in the current regime and those that are frankly apathetic towards the clubs plight. All I know is that while we still have a significant proportion of supporters in either of these two camps it will not change the way ALL supporters are treated.

I can say with my hand on heart that I hope that I'm wrong on this one and that this man need not and should not be held to account for the outrageous lack of information we receive on the future of OUR football club. As another poster put it I can deal with good news and bad news in equal measure. What I find difficult to accept and leads me to have the huge reservations I have about the integrity of the owner is a startling lack of ANY news around something that we have been told since day one is fundamental to the club's hopes of survival.

Brett Angle said:

Think it proves that taking any form of direct action (however limited) divides opinion here as in all walks of life. In terms of those that are against they too seem divided between those that choose to have blind faith in the current regime and those that are frankly apathetic towards the clubs plight. All I know is that while we still have a significant proportion of supporters in either of these two camps it will not change the way ALL supporters are treated.

I can say with my hand on heart that I hope that I'm wrong on this one and that this man need not and should not be held to account for the outrageous lack of information we receive on the future of OUR football club. As another poster put it I can deal with good news and bad news in equal measure. What I find difficult to accept and leads me to have the huge reservations I have about the integrity of the owner is a startling lack of ANY news around something that we have been told since day one is fundamental to the club's hopes of survival.

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Plus the third group like me who arent happy with how the club has been run but doesnt see the point in making protests that will financially harm the club when trying to get ready for getting promoted Champions by 18 points.

Ive voiced massive frustrations about lack of information in the past, and it continues to frustrate me. I however find it hard to grab the pitchfork when financially we appear to be fairly stable at the moment. To suggest boycotting buying things and undermining any stability we do have is crazy in my opinion, it's cutting your nose of to spite your face.

Jam_Man said:

Plus the third group like me who arent happy with how the club has been run but doesnt see the point in making protests that will financially harm the club when trying to get ready for getting promoted Champions by 18 points.

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Well you find me a way to get the attention of the man without affecting his bottom line and I'd look past the act that worrying about promotion to League 1, what the latest kit looks like, who we have/have not signed, clarification around rule changes, formations etc. matters a jot if the club isn't here in 3 years time.

Look the only way HMRC focussed his attention was around £££ and CRITICALLY making the whole issue very public. Something like boycotting the purchase of new shirts (like the furore around Newcastle and the 'Wonga' brand last season) has the potential to be used to our log term advantage. All I'm saying is perhaps we can learn something here.

Brett Angle said:

Well you find me a way to get the attention of the man without affecting his bottom line and I'd look past the act that worrying about promotion to League 1, what the latest kit looks like, who we have/have not signed, clarification around rule changes, formations etc. matters a jot if the club isn't here in 3 years time.

Look the only way HMRC focussed his attention was around £££ and CRITICALLY making the whole issue very public. Something like boycotting the purchase of new shirts (like the furore around Newcastle and the 'Wonga' brand last season) has the potential to be used to our log term advantage. All I'm saying is perhaps we can learn something here.

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There's nothing much wrong with the theory of your idea, but for it to grab Ron's attention there would need to be a mass boycott of this year's shirts, and in practice I really can't see that happening for two reasons; 1 - not all shirt buyers are Shrimper Zone members, so the idea only has a limited audience; 2 - Not everyone on the Zone agrees with your suggestion and therefore the audience is smaller still. Full marks for posting this as a discussion item though, it shows you care.

as mentioned above any kind of boycott or action against Ron needs to involve large numbers and prolonged. If crowds dipped to the 1500 mark......if only a few shirts were sold then this would actually have an impact but about 15/20 people on here moaning about the sponsor is hardly a movement. i know there's a small number who do not attend the hall now...again unless its thousands doing this ...no effect on Ron. Why there isn't a bigger movement is easy to gauge......SUFC fans seem splintered....with the majority focussing on purely football matters

SouthUpperShrimper said:

All this about 'penalising' and 'robbing' the club is nonsense - the money goes straight into Ron's back pocket. When was the last time he paid for a player - what happened to the money from the likes of Kane Ferdinand?

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This is league 2, most teams don't pay money for players the money for Ferdinand went towards our debts, I don't understand how fans can complain about how much debt we have and then act shocked when the money we earn from player sales is used to pay off that debt rather than put us into more debt by buying players, it's simple logic.

When was the last time we paid for a player?

Was it Strakes from Aldershot?

leeblue said:

as mentioned above any kind of boycott or action against Ron needs to involve large numbers and prolonged. If crowds dipped to the 1500 mark......if only a few shirts were sold then this would actually have an impact but about 15/20 people on here moaning about the sponsor is hardly a movement. i know there's a small number who do not attend the hall now...again unless its thousands doing this ...no effect on Ron. Why there isn't a bigger movement is easy to gauge......SUFC fans seem splintered....with the majority focussing on purely football matters

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Agreed and for those fans who don't want to accept that the two are intrinsically linked - lets hope it is not another case of 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned'. :'(

An action group would need to be formed with at least a couple of thousand involved.

Something like a walk out protest at half-time or sit down protest after every home game for a couple of hours.

Its no good 100 protesting for 30mins in the car park once a season. It needs to be large, organised, with purpose and non-stop.

Problem is we are divided (well done Ron) and not enough are on the same page or really want to do anything about it. Where is the fight?....cant imagine Leeds, Millwall etc putting up with it like we have.

As I have posted on the away shirt poll thread in more detail as sponsorship counts as revenue channelling inter co support (which is not) through sponsorship at more than the alternative 50k will increase what we can spend on wages.

If we would instead like to pick a higher earner or two we would rather let go as preferable then it's a pretty sad state of affairs.

Smiffy said:

An action group would need to be formed with at least a couple of thousand involved.

Something like a walk out protest at half-time or sit down protest after every home game for a couple of hours.

Its no good 100 protesting for 30mins in the car park once a season. It needs to be large, organised, with purpose and non-stop.

Problem is we are divided (well done Ron) and not enough are on the same page or really want to do anything about it. Where is the fight?....cant imagine Leeds, Millwall etc putting up with it like we have.

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This should of been done a few years ago. I was well for it then.

Im by far happy with the way the club is being run but don't agree with doing it now when it could effect our start to the season.

Do it now and you can kiss any thoughts of promotion GOODBYE.I agree that Dawn whatever being RM company should not be the sponsor. T he sponsor should be a company outside of any one that owns SUFC.ALL RM is doing is putting money in his own pocket as i see it
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Thinking about it its certainly a tax dodge for his company though lol
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Guys, I'm not a Ron fan but regarding having MD on our shirts, it kind of depends what else is on the table, doesn't it. If we'd been able to attract a company that would chuck a decent amount of money in, clearly the club would have taken that. If no one was offering proper money, rather than have a mickey mouse sponsor who pays peanuts, I can understand why Ron may consider he's better off listing his own company. It's a business decision, nothing more. When they get a decent sponsor I'm sure MD will back out as they did last time. There is so much more to worry about than this.