Crowd funding to save Southend?

[hlane17]

I actually run the Ron Martin Out account. I have kept quiet on my opinions of Ron just because it's controversial on these pages.

I think if we could get some big historic names from the club's history to share something like #SaveSouthend it could raise awareness?

 

[Chalky]

Ron's Pockets = Club

No-one is suggesting that Ron is pilfering.

Well say club then not "Ron's pockets", which by basic english, incites for his own gain.

 

[euroshrimper]

I wouldn't trust Ron with the money.


Although I bought a season ticket. So what do I know..

Yes I would donate my money to "saving Southend" but I have no confidence that our owner would use it wisely as far too many years of mismanagement in my opinion........

 

[amsemp]

Redonate to help Wigan Athletic's local community

Redonate and all pledges will used to support good causes relating to Wigan Athletic, community projects and charities in the local area

www.crowdfunder.co.uk

Wigan did a crowdfunder and raised £660k. Maybe we should do something similar?

 

[Ricey]

I’m at a crossroads with this, do I want to help fund the man who is slowly destroying this club or would I rather support a fund for the future when we do a Bury?

I didn’t buy a season ticket because he priced them so high for new season ticket holders. I haven’t bought shirts yet as I want to see them (I can’t and I will buy all 3). I want to watch games but at the moment it’s so depressing to watch I’d rather listen on the radio for free and save my £10 and moan on here about how **** we sound!

Im probably not helping, but I’ve sunk a hell of a lot of my money (nowhere near as much as others but still) to this club all within Ron’s tenure and he’s continued to let us rot!

Tales of a new stadium, listening to him spout his usual ****e about paying the bills, signings etc etc! I’m done with it! I’m done with him!

I’ve tried so many times to defend him and stick with him but in recent years it’s broken me down. And this is well the cherry on top of the icing on the cake!

I’ve waffled on and still don’t know what I would do with Yorkshire Blue’s original post! We shall see on Saturday!

 

[Danshrimper]

What is needed is Ron to wipe off any debt owed to his companies and put the club up for sale for £1 with other debts included. Then a buyer is found quick. That's the only way i can see it surviving.

He has well and truly destroyed our football club.

Why would he write off millions of pound of debt owed to him and sell the club for £1? Would never happen.

 

[hlane17]

Redonate to help Wigan Athletic's local community

Redonate and all pledges will used to support good causes relating to Wigan Athletic, community projects and charities in the local area

www.crowdfunder.co.uk

Wigan did a crowdfunder and raised £660k. Maybe we should do something similar?

I'm trying to gather followers on Twitter at the moment and I think the focus should be getting into contact with the Shrimpers Trust or The Blue Voice for a coordinated effort. We cannot all divide up and contradict each other. We need a group to step up and take ownership of this effort

 

[BriggBlue]

I've just posted something similar on the winding up order thread, I would feel more comfortable pledging money to an organisation like the trust that will loan the money to Ron interest free for the payment of this debt and this debt alone, that would then be paid back into the trusts accounts when FF is funded giving the trust something of a fighting fund for the future. I'm not sure if this is feasible legally but it seems like a cleaner approach than the iFollow as they will take a slice

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Why would he write off millions of pound of debt owed to him and sell the club for £1? Would never happen.

Of course he won't but that would be the only way to entice a quick buyer.

 

[londonblue]

How about a social media campaign to save Southend by purchasing a iFollow ticket to a match?

We'd need to get 100,000 football fans to purchase a ticket and they'd get to watch a live match so there's something in it for them as well. It seems to me like the type of thing that could catch on quickly - never before has one of these types of fundraisers for football clubs been able to offer something in return to such a wide audience for such a small contribution as a tenner.

Next Saturday's game is a 1pm kick-off meaning it doesn't clash with most other teams games so is a prime game to target but it could be a ticket to any of our games before the end of October.

We'd need someone social media savvy to run the campaign and get celebrity retweets etc and a good slogan e.g. #aGameToSaveSouthend - but I'm sure others could come up with better.

You can pretty much guarantee them plenty of goals too.

 

[Beefy]

Why would he write off millions of pound of debt owed to him and sell the club for £1? Would never happen.

There's no scenario in which he sees a penny of that money. Any money he or his companies have put in is long gone and he knows that.

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Crowd fund for the Trust. Don’t give the money to the man running the club into the ground. Money that was raised for LOFT was used to help send representatives of the fans to investigate and negotiate with the potential - and eventually the preferred - bidder who took over the club. Get someone to do an investigative deep dive into Martin’s companies and finances. Make noise in the media. Stand up for yourselves.

 

[Jim Levenstein]

There's no scenario in which he sees a penny of that money. Any money he or his companies have put in is long gone and he knows that.

Well there is... he builds a stadium on site with 500 houses and develops old Roots Hall land. That is how he gets back his money

 

[Smiffy]

Crowd fund for the Trust. Don’t give the money to the man running the club into the ground. Money that was raised for LOFT was used to help send representatives of the fans to investigate and negotiate with the potential - and eventually the preferred - bidder who took over the club. Get someone to do an investigative deep dive into Martin’s companies and finances. Make noise in the media. Stand up for yourselves.

Jonny boy is bang on here.

 

[Jai]

I've just posted something similar on the winding up order thread, I would feel more comfortable pledging money to an organisation like the trust that will loan the money to Ron interest free for the payment of this debt and this debt alone, that would then be paid back into the trusts accounts when FF is funded giving the trust something of a fighting fund for the future. I'm not sure if this is feasible legally but it seems like a cleaner approach than the iFollow as they will take a slice

This. It's what the Shrimpers Trust was set up for. But let's wait for the statement. We need to know what Ron's plan is, not only to keep the club afloat, but to keep it in the Football League.

 

[GBJ]

What is needed is Ron to wipe off any debt owed to his companies and put the club up for sale for £1 with other debts included. Then a buyer is found quick. That's the only way i can see it surviving.

He has well and truly destroyed our football club.

Doesn’t it worry you who may come in, in that scenario though?

Ron wouldn’t sell the club without Roots Hall, B&L and probably FF too. There’s a lot of money to be made off of us right there, and whilst Ron might not be a great chairman, (understatement) at least we can see he’s not intent on liquidating the club. Well, not yet anyway.

I’d be very wary of someone coming in and doing just that

 

[Pak Power]

We ( the good people of Southend) bought the ground in the first place.
(the only asset the club , or its myriad of companies has, and the only reason we have a property developer chairman.

The people, (and local company donations built the stadium)
Then got it taken from Southend United football supporters club, to SUFC ltd.

How much more do we (southend folk) have to do

 

[GBJ]

We ( the good people of Southend) bought the ground in the first place.
(the only asset the club , or its myriad of companies has, and the only reason we have a property developer chairman.

The people, (and local company donations built the stadium)
Then got it taken from Southend United football supporters club, to SUFC ltd.

How much more do we (southend folk) have to do

You make fair, unarguable points, but the sad truth is we lost all say on the ground, the minute Ron bought it. It’s his now, regardless of what went before.

 

[Cricko]

Never, People forget RM and the club are the same thing..You might aswell go and stick tenners in his pocket. Whatever money has ever come into the club has been used by RM as he sees fit whether it be for the odd helicopter ride to actually do something for the club or to finance something else. For sure the end of the rainbow when all the housing is built is where he makes his money,, but ask yourself this..

How has he survived so long with just the club and the very occasional small land deal. The assets that were previoulsy owned by the fans are being used to gain capital from outside sources. add fans money, sponsors, EFL money, dealing in the transfer market etc etc provided the rest....Anybody who thinks he personally digs his hand in his pocket to pay off debts is off their rocker. It may seem that way when he shouts out the parent company has stepped in once more (heroes to the end) but its all smoke and mirrors. He is waiting for more money to come in from outside investment against the housing developments to pay the debt simple as that and without the huge old assets of the club none of his rainbow would be happening at all. Add to that he has saddled us with 12 mill debt to.

Up to you guys if you wish to line his pockets once more, where would the guarantee be that the money raised would not just join the RM fund of rob peter to pay paul.

Of course I am glad we are still in existence, but today does not help anything, especially on the playing side.

Thats my pennies worth, up to you what you guys think.

 

[joffonon]

Crowd fund for the Trust. Don’t give the money to the man running the club into the ground. Money that was raised for LOFT was used to help send representatives of the fans to investigate and negotiate with the potential - and eventually the preferred - bidder who took over the club. Get someone to do an investigative deep dive into Martin’s companies and finances. Make noise in the media. Stand up for yourselves.

Hello, lurking Leyton Orient fan here in peace (I live in Westcliff). Also a LOFT board member, so I do need to clarify the bit in bold above, as some O's fans still hold grudges that we raised money but haven't given it to the club/charity/Academy/other club's fundraisers etc.

Yes we did speak to the best-suited potential owner, but not using the fund. In fact we still have the bulk of it as an 'emergency fund' after refunding some donations as promised in the fund mandate, as we set out specific circumstances we'd use the fund which haven't materialised. Other than that, not a penny has been spent until either LOFC has another crisis (I hope not) or our members vote to do something different with the money.

Fundraising is a double-edged sword, and I say that with experience. With hindsight we would have spent longer on what we'd do if the proposed uses didn't come about, as it cost a lot of time and effort to make sure we acted legally with the fund post-takeover. But if the Shrimpers Trust decided it needed to fundraise a 'fighting fund' of some sort, it could help galvanise the fanbase and we at LOFT would certainly support and help where we could.

And I echo the rest of Jonny Stokes' post; one thing that helped Orient's 'principal investor' come on board with Nigel Travis was the noise O's fans made, both us getting in the media and later the collective action like pitch invasions.