Angell Delight
Life President
It's times like this I wish my parents hadn't christened me George Agdgdgwngo, and my address wasn't the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lol...... :D ;)
It's times like this I wish my parents hadn't christened me George Agdgdgwngo, and my address wasn't the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dear Mr King
Do you and Sainsbury's care about my football club, Southend United?
Your company has agreed to buy my team's football ground (Roots Hall, Southend-on-Sea), and have already paid several substantial amounts of money into my club. However do you care that there may soon be no football league team left to play there ,or in fact anywhere, in Southend? Do you simply plan to re-develop Roots Hall regardless and not worry about my team? I desperately hope not, and hence me writing to you today.
I hope that my letter today does not feel on deaf ears, and that you can appreciate the need for writing to you direct. I know that you are a football fan yourself and are involved in sports in a variety of ways, not least the 2012 Olympics. I hope you understand the passion of Southend fans about their club and feel compassion towards our plight.
Did you know that my club has only 9 contracted professionals reporting back for pre-season training? Several of these have made it clear they want to leave the club due to regular late and non-payment of wages. The first game of the season is on Saturday 7th August, and my club are unable to sign new players because we are under an embargo put in place by the PFA as we have failed to repay a loan to them.
There are thousands of fans within the town and beyond, we maintained an average attendance of nearly 8,000 people last season and took over 17,000 local people to Cardiff for the LDV final in 2004. The club is a focal point in the local community and have won awards to their contributions to the people of Southend. It would be devastating for everyone if at any point, and for any reason, the club ceased to exist.
There is a REAL concern that we may not have enough players to field a team in the first game of the season, let alone be competitive in the league or even finish the competition. There is a real feeling of desperation and despair at the moment. Our Chairman, Ron Martin, who has lead the transactions and sale with Sainsbury's, has let us down and continues to fail to reassure us adequately.
Our local newspaper, the Echo produced a series of articles on Monday 28th June 2010 that indicated that Sainsbury's effectively control the majority of shares in SUFC. The detailed article on the club's and current owner's finances gave a worrying account of the club's finances.
We have heard lots of promises about our new stadium, which apparently needs to be built before you can start work on your store at Roots Hall, but we seem no nearer to moving or building work starting. In the immediate, we cannot afford to play players and run a team.
I know it is a big ask, but please intervene and help in any way you can within your powers to ensure that my team, Southend United, can survive this most difficult period in our history.
We all look forward to the news Sainsbury's store being built, because the promise has always been that when it is, we will be in our new stadium as a successful team, filled with potential. Please don't let my club be a casualty of your store
Your direct involvement would be a massive boost to myself and many others in the community, and we would be forever grateful.
Please give this matter your urgent attention; it feels like time is already running out at Southend United.
Yours sincerely
A Lewis
----------------------
Andy Lewis
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Woodland Drive
Colchester
Essex CO3 XXX
07739 XXXXXX
01206 XXXXXX
As some one who does a bit of letter/email writing.... it will have little effect if everyone sends the SAME letter.
Change it and personalise it - and then people will start to take note - the magic figure given is 50 DIFFERENT letters in a week on the same topic for MPs...
Do you think adding a few pictures as well would help?
Of what....?
Only if they really add weight to the argument.... it's hard to take a picture of our lack of players, unless Scriv has already done the team photo before anyone else leaves.
If they are of yourself in compromising poses... perhaps not ;)
Dear Mr King
The Shrimpers
I suspect that just now you are getting rather a lot of letters and emails from Very Worried Southend United fans, asking: Does Sainsbury's care about my football club?
I am sure that you do care, but can and will you do something to help us? I have supported the Blues since 1966, and over those years I have seen owners come and go, I have seen some fantastic times and some dire times, but never have I been as worried as I am at the moment. As you are being told, correctly, my club has only 9 contracted professionals reporting back for training on Monday, and many of those have made it clear that they want to leave, as they have regularly gone without their wages over the last year. Our first league match of the season is on Saturday 7th August. At the moment, we cannot sign any new players as we are under a transfer embargo because of our ongoing indebtedness. The club has thousands of supporters, is a focal point in the local community, and has recently won awards for its educational work with teenagers who have been excluded from main stream education, but that will all count for little if we can't even field a team this season.
My understanding is that your company effectively control the majority of shares in SUFC. The local paper has been regaling us with stories of how perilous our position is. Despite lots of talk about the new stadium, we seem no nearer to moving and soon it seems there won't be a Club to move.
Please may I urge you to intervene in any way within your powers to ensure that Southend United survive and prosper, regardless of ultimate ownership, ready to move into their new Stadium so that when the new Sainsbury's store opens at Roots Hall, it isn't built on the ashes of a 100 year old and much loved Football club? Please don't let The Shrimpers just die!
Yours Sincerely
Tom Lister
For anyone sending e-mails, can I suggest you Cc in media outlets such as BBC, The Times, The Sun etc etc. Certainly a way of gaining national attention.
DO you have relevant and non-generic addresses?
mark.thompson@bbc.co.uk - Director General
james.harding@thetimes.co.uk - Editor
adam.crozier@itv.com - Excellent person to write to considering his background.
http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html - This is the website for various major CEOs.
If I've done anything not agreable to SZ policy please remove this post.