Question From SUFC --- Do you feel loved and Engaged ?

[MK Shrimper]

4

The current attendances are a reflection on the football being played, a dislike , in certain quarters, for Brown, and for Ron and frustration at the new stadium (or lack of) . Address the new stadium issue , this is one area where communication could be dramatically improved, anything else at this current stage is just condescending lip service.

If we're in a top 6 spot come March, attendances will pick up. They always do when we're pushing for promotion.

 

[AndyT]

The current attendances are a reflection on the football being played

Not sure I would agree on this.

People not attending at the moment are missing out, IMHO.

 

[Tampa Blue]

Not sure I would agree on this.

People not attending at the moment are missing out, IMHO.

Yep, I agree with this.

On the pitch it's looking very positive.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Voted 7 - the vast majority of the club's 136 (137 - Uncle Ron) are making great efforts to engage with the fans, it is a friendly and relaxed place and the match day experience (including the tannoy music) is fine within the confines of the limited resources of dear old Roots Hall. A Coventry fan mate said to me on arrival on Saturday "Wow, this place is brilliant". He was of course referring to our characterful surroundings v the modern concrete bowls of today. It's simple things too - being allowed to just hang around on the edge of the pitch with Ed Wood on Saturday after our pic with PB and then afterwards the willingness of a friendly steward in having his pic taken with Ed on the pitch to meet one of the criteria Ed has to meet for each of his world record visits. All stuff you maybe wouldn't get from a bigger club.

We may need our own 'concrete bowl' to survive, and still in my own blinkered world the lack of thought over the years to make Roots Hall a better place instead (other clubs have done this effectively eg PNE, Notts County) grates, but the consistent lack of proper transparent communication re it all from the very top is dire. And that is important.

 

[Its Only A Game]

Gone for a 6.

Don't understand the "do you feel loved" question. Why would anyone want to be loved by their club?

Engaged....partly. I rarely visit the website as I find the news I want to bother reading about on here quicker. Don't do twitter so I've no idea what the club are like with that but the facebook updates for signings etc do what they need to do.

As with many posters before, I think a bit more communication on FF wouldn't go amiss. There are probably many commercial reasons why certain things can't be disclosed but I'm sure there must be some updates that we could have had over the last few years rather than leaving it to an angry mob on a forum to argue about.

To all the people that moan about RM, have you ever tried contacting him? I've emailed him before and he's looked me up on the database and called me back. I remember having a long discussion with him just after the sacking of Paul Brush. Chairmen don't need to do that so yes I do feel engaged by the club.

 

[MK Shrimper]

I went for 3.141529 because I fancied a pi for lunch.

 

[Smiffy]

Couldn't give a toss about being loved and engaged. I want our elusive "Owner" to explain WTF is going on with the new stadium. The silence and lack of movement on this over the last decade is simply not acceptable.

 

[Firestorm]

I suspect this is about trying to get attendances up , so the question could be more appropriately worded as "how much more engagement does the club have to do to get you to come and watch Southend"

Many have mentioned FF, honestly , would a status update actually get those boycotting back to RH ?

If the club want to get attendances up , maybe a blanket, "why don't you attend southend games" questionnaire would be helpful,

If it was answered honestly (opposed to someone preferring to say "I don't like RM" when in reality its because they have a wife and kids and cant spare the time) I would expect the club to learn that there is little they can do about it (other than on the pitch success) , engagement with fans is not really an issue and that the majority of people in the borough support other teams.

 

[rigsby]

I'm to frightened to vote as I don't want to be singled out by a moderator who demands I explain myself, like last time. I would vote 10 because the more love you give the more you get back and your whole life improves.

 

[in the know]

I go to most home games but would like more things to entice and warrant more family coming. Pop up cbars or stalls in the grounds. Maybe a live band on matchdays around the ground or inside the ground. Food stalls with different food along the lines of christmas fairs. Last Saturday there were goody bags which was good to see. It wasn't the content that I found important but the atmosphere created in handing them out. More things to encourage families like the sideshows at summer fetes on matchdays maybe. I liked the visiting world record attempt idea last week but it seemed it wasn't wasn't focused on by the club itself. I'm not looking to replace the traditional dancing girls or pre match pints. but to enhance the experience and bring in more crowds

 

[Fairport]

I will vote 6, overall the club engages with its fans probably no better or worse than most other clubs.
No news on the stadium is irritating but potential business deals don't usually get discussed in public. Roots Hall is in a shocking state but although I appreciate that it is not worth spending a fortune on, things like the toilets should be upgraded.

 

[David Icke]

I feel no love from the club, and Ron has offered me no engagement ring as yet. So it's nil points. The love is one way.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Was surprised when I didn't renew my season ticket last season and the club made no attempt to entice me back. The days of Tilly phone calls are long gone.

This year though there's been plenty of emails trying to get me to attend so I'll give marks for effort to the Commercial Department.

I did volunteer to try and help spruce up Roots Hall over the summer, but that offer seemingly fell on deaf ears.

I still don't feel much of a connection with the team, despite a valiant attempt from the manager to pack it with my generation. There's a transient feel to much of the squad. The ones with closest links to the area have all played previously for our local rivals eg Anton Ferdinand at W*** H** or Wordsworth at Col Ewe which makes it hard to connect with them, whilst Lenny and Adam Thompson aside there aren't any players who have developed as players since signing that we can take pride in Southend being the ones that made them. I suppose Ranger is an underdog we can support (if we gloss over what made him an underdog) and Coker for his diabetes but it's thin pickings.

I'm still in the dark as to the club's future. It's not just what's happening with the new stadium but what's happening with that dome we paid all the money for. What's happening with the Payne and Bentley transfers? I don't feel like a stakeholder in the club's future.

The most positive thing seems to be OBL's work with the Junior Blues. I'm going to sign my nephew up for that for Christmas.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Have the club just re-written the question?

Following the latest website announcement ( http://www.southendunited.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/recommend-a-friend-earn-25-3466532.aspx ) is the question not now "Would £25 make you feel loved?"?

An inventive idea, no prob with that, tho at the end of the day they'll get more bums on seats by just keeping on winning than by us all trying to sell our friends to Ron for a score plus a non-vegetarian fiver.

 

[AndyT]

Well, I love my club. We are making great strides on the pitch and there's a lot of unsung work behind the scenes going on. Some of which I only became aware of the other day.

The old gal might be crumbling around us, but it's still our old gal and we love the place. Warts and all.

I was standing in the queue for a coffee at half time on Saturday (the tea bar in the South East corner) and, looking up at the cracked windows and decaying East Stand with the floodlights shining on it, took me back to those days when I was younger and felt drawn to it like it's a place I belonged to. That old tea bar was then part of the huge South Bank, of course.

'TTS' summed it up beautifully, earlier. The football is one thing, but the bonding and relationship it gives, memories and stories of friends and family attending, some no longer with us, is irreplaceable.

No amount of emails, updates and so on, will ever matter to me. My club doesn't have to communicate with me at all. Just so long as it sticks around and remains part of our community. Giving us a soul. That's all it ever needs to be.

 

[TTS]

Was surprised when I didn't renew my season ticket last season and the club made no attempt to entice me back. The days of Tilly phone calls are long gone.

This year though there's been plenty of emails trying to get me to attend so I'll give marks for effort to the Commercial Department.

I did volunteer to try and help spruce up Roots Hall over the summer, but that offer seemingly fell on deaf ears.

I still don't feel much of a connection with the team, despite a valiant attempt from the manager to pack it with my generation. There's a transient feel to much of the squad. The ones with closest links to the area have all played previously for our local rivals eg Anton Ferdinand at W*** H** or Wordsworth at Col Ewe which makes it hard to connect with them, whilst Lenny and Adam Thompson aside there aren't any players who have developed as players since signing that we can take pride in Southend being the ones that made them. I suppose Ranger is an underdog we can support (if we gloss over what made him an underdog) and Coker for his diabetes but it's thin pickings.

I'm still in the dark as to the club's future. It's not just what's happening with the new stadium but what's happening with that dome we paid all the money for. What's happening with the Payne and Bentley transfers? I don't feel like a stakeholder in the club's future.

The most positive thing seems to be OBL's work with the Junior Blues. I'm going to sign my nephew up for that for Christmas.

After reading this I can understand why you've not recieved a phone call to renew ! :winking:

 

[AndyT]

^
HBF! :smile:

 

[mattitouk]

A 6* from me, (which I think is a bit generous in hindsight). I should have given it a 5* rating.

I wouldn't say I feel "Loved by the club" (as others have said.. I feel either no worse or better treated as a fan, than any other football club).

Do I feel engaged? not particularly.. Other than a monthly e-newsletter from the club... (with all the articles, that I have already read during the month from Chris Phillips Echo articles) I rarely receive any further correspondences from them.

Although, It doesn't apply to me personally, I think Southend United do a good job with engaging with the youth community, such as hospital visits, the Junior Blues, meet the players day, Kids parties etc etc.. But to be fair, if it wasn't for the hard work Kay put's into the kids effort (especially), I do really wonder if it would be half as successful as it was.

Not to mention along with other members of this forum that take time out of their own personal schedules to chair / attend meetings between the fans & the club to keep us all informed on here on current events within Southend United, I'm certain information coming directly from our club would practically be non-existence.

Looking back at some of the fundraisers & notable events in recent times (off the top of my head), the Charity run of Tom Leggett for his sick son, to the WW1 Veteran on the pitch last month, & Suffolk Shrimper helping out a fellow football supporter trying to break a world record.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, with out the help of certain fans, I doubt the club would never have even been aware of it, and left to there own devices, none of the above would have even got off the ground. (A bit like Ron's Fossets Farm project) :smile:

However all being said, Through all the good times and bad times....Southend Utd, is still my true love, and surely that deserves a bonus point at least!

UTB
:loyalsupporter:

 

[Ironshrimper]

Speakers were not working in the West Stand again on Saturday so it was nice not to be blasted with the music, but did miss not having the team line ups read out.

As for engagement quite low from me mainly due to the lack of info regarding the new ground. The Exhibition thing was over a year ago now and not a word since then. Come on Ron a yearly update would be nice!

And them toilets, dirty nothing works (but you can still wash your hands, please do it you dirty lot....hardly anyone does.. (says a lot for southend people)

 

[Ironshrimper]

I voted a 9, I suppose I'm in a pretty privileged position in that I know and work with a lot of people at the club on the Junior Blues and as a part of the Trust Board. Only reason it's not a full 10 for me is the lack of information from the man at the top, but that's not necessarily a criticism as he can't win either way - I just wish there was a bit more transparency.

Go in the gents in the west, you will see how much the club loves its fans..it would not take a lot of money.