• Welcome to the ShrimperZone forums.
    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which only gives you limited access.

    Existing Users:.
    Please log-in using your existing username and password. If you have any problems, please see below.

    New Users:
    Join our free community now and gain access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and free. Click here to join.

    Fans from other clubs
    We welcome and appreciate supporters from other clubs who wish to engage in sensible discussion. Please feel free to join as above but understand that this is a moderated site and those who cannot play nicely will be quickly removed.

    Assistance Required
    For help with the registration process or accessing your account, please send a note using the Contact us link in the footer, please include your account name. We can then provide you with a new password and verification to get you on the site.

I don't understand the "be careful what you wish for", view. We are losing huge amounts of money every month. We could go bust at any moment. RH is knackered. FF seems to be a pipe dream. What could be any worse ?
 
I would love something to change, but realistically, there are a lot of fans who do care deeply but have neither the time or the significant amount of money to take this forward. :stunned: The other missing piece is not just the time and money, but also the expertise - people with all three attributes who just happen to be Southend fans are in very short supply!

Given that the ownership of the club is deeply intertwined with RMs companies that seem to owe significant sums to one another with RM ultimately being the beneficiary of that "debt", his secrecy around his financial affairs and his reluctance to let any of it go say to me that before you ever start looking at new grounds and infrastructure, a forensic accountant would need to unravel the mess. Without access to this information, this is nigh on impossible. It is also highly unlikely that investors with serious cash would take the risks that come with working with an organisation whose finances are not transparent and the level of true and paper debt is unknown. No surprises that earlier investment partnerships have not gone so well and have collapsed for various reasons.

the same web of ownership was in place at Chelmsford City racecourse, which was in a massive mess before the original owner was ousted by the banks pulling the plug and the place was closed down for a few years. Not sure of the whole story, but that all got sorted eventually, and it is now under new ownership and seemingly doing pretty well now.

i very much suspect that RM will not let the club go willingly, as he is in too deep to walk away without cashing in his chips, and the pay day that he is expecting is growing year on year in terms of the club's debts to his companies. I suspect that most of the debt is on paper rather than in terms of hard cash, and meanwhile the club is kept going on a relative shoestring. There really is no incentive for Ron to give the club up, because no one will pay him the £15-20m he would want as a sale price - because there are no tangible assets or capital. And you would still need to buy back Roots Hall or redevelop a ground for the club to play in, which would cost at least the same again. Unless there is proof of money laundering or fraud, there is no easy answer, unless someone knows of someone who has at least £30m to spare to buy a football club...

the other point here, is despite all the issues, the fact remains that the club is still owned locally by someone who lives locally in the same community as the rest of us. How would you feel if the club belonged to overseas investors who really couldn't give a monkeys about the fans and the local community - two examples off the top of my head are the Glaziers at Man U and the debacle that went on at Notts County?

So to answer the question about what could / should be done - I am not convinced that there is much that can be done as a smallish group of ranting fans with not enough in the way of resources!

An interesting point you make regarding Chelmsford City Racecourse. This opened as Great Leighs racecourse in 2008 owned by an Essex based bloke called John Holmes.He did not have deep enough pockets to see the project through and it closed down within a year with massive debts. After years of negotiations the site was taken over by Betfred who have made excellent facilities and the racecourse is well established and well worth a visit. I always thought that Ron was similar to John Holmes, an Essex man with grand ideas but not enough wealth. The moral is that you need an individual or organisation with financial clout (Betfred) to realistically fulfill these big project dreams.
 
I don't understand the "be careful what you wish for", view. We are losing huge amounts of money every month. We could go bust at any moment. RH is knackered. FF seems to be a pipe dream. What could be any worse ?

That's simple. Having no Southend United.
 
An interesting point you make regarding Chelmsford City Racecourse. This opened as Great Leighs racecourse in 2008 owned by an Essex based bloke called John Holmes.He did not have deep enough pockets to see the project through and it closed down within a year with massive debts. After years of negotiations the site was taken over by Betfred who have made excellent facilities and the racecourse is well established and well worth a visit. I always thought that Ron was similar to John Holmes, an Essex man with grand ideas but not enough wealth. The moral is that you need an individual or organisation with financial clout (Betfred) to realistically fulfill these big project dreams.

Absolutely agree.

The sad fact is that the racecourse was closed for a number of years before it rose from the ashes to be the fabulous venue it is now, and my fear is that our football club could easily disappear into obscurity. There is a way back, as shown by Accrington Stanley and other clubs, but without the ground and infrastructure under the club's ownership from the reset the rise from the ashes could be a long time coming!
 
I don't see any Essex Millionaires wanting to buy the Club... All to interested in supporting London Clubs sitting in there 15k Boxes

No knight in Shining Armour to our rescue on the horizon

Why does it have to be someone from Essex ? Why does is have to be a blues supporters consortium ?
It just needs to be somebody (or a company) with wealth, that has the resources to build the stadium then make a handsome profit on the land at RH.

But it seems Ron wants all the cake at the end, even though other people will be supplying most of the ingredients to make it. How about, he lets somebody with all the ingredients bake the cake and he takes a slice ?
 
All this 'be careful what you wish for' is nonsense. Those who don't want change in ownership are advocating the increase in debt against Southend United FC. That means there is more chance of the club getting to a position it will never come back from and fold. That's not a good way of supporting the club in my opinion.

Change was needed since 6 years ago when Ron's finances come to a stalemate!
 
All this 'be careful what you wish for' is nonsense. Those who don't want change in ownership are advocating the increase in debt against Southend United FC. That means there is more chance of the club getting to a position it will never come back from and fold. That's not a good way of supporting the club in my opinion.

Change was needed since 6 years ago when Ron's finances come to a stalemate!
Very true. That situation is not too far ahead in my opinion. Without change in ownership, a major investment from another co-partner to RM or the very unlikely that FF comes to fruition very soon then the outlook is very bleak.
 
Back
Top