Only one Roots Hall

[rabbloke]

If we are to have a new stadium, why?. Roots Hall is our ancestral home. As the South stand has already been done, the remaining three stands could be demolished and rebuilt in phases over the next few years. Ultimately we could end up with a modern stadium to be proud of. Cost? Well the FF site could then be developed for commercial/retail/leisure/housing. Why not? Well its clear that as a property the Hall must be infinitely more valuable to the developers than FF. This leads us to the stark conclusion that they are not wonderful landlords, supporters of the The Blues, but merely turning every trick to get their hands on a more valuable piece of land. If a new stadium materialises, I bet it will be to the minimum requirement and when we are there our 'benefactors will lose all interest in football and flog the club to whoever will buy it. Business is a harsh world, no room for sentiment or charity. Football depends upon a mixture of corporate ability and passion, a rare mix and something I am yet to accept exists within the heart of our landlord. Those on this site that advocate patience and are confident for our future should question deeper the possible motives of our landlords and whether passion and desire is currently the domain of fans only.

 

[sufcintheprem]

I think that you are overlooking a big issue here.

The Roots Hall site is very centrally placed in Southend and worth a great deal of money, especially given the recent increase in land prices in the Southend area. FF is much further from the centre and I would imagine that the land would be considerably cheaper out there.

On top of that, think further about the cost. If we re-build the stands, we have to:

a) knock down the stands as well as rebuilding them, costing more money.
b) play with 3/4 capacity for three/four seasons. Not a problem most of the time admittedly but that's a very negative way of looking at it.
c) Forego non-footballing developments that can supplement the income of the football club.
d) Look like a blue version of Brisbane Road.
e) Get planning permission. This will most likely be pretty tough in a residental area.

I would like to stay at Roots Hall, I really would, but I feel that a new stadium is the only conceivable way forwards

 

[rabbloke]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ Sep. 15 2004,13:55)]I think that you are overlooking a big issue here.

The Roots Hall site is very centrally placed in Southend and worth a great deal of money, especially given the recent increase in land prices in the Southend area.  FF is much further from the centre and I would imagine that the land would be considerably cheaper out there.

On top of that, think further about the cost.  If we re-build the stands, we have to:

a) knock down the stands as well as rebuilding them, costing more money.
b) play with 3/4 capacity for three/four seasons.  Not a problem most of the time admittedly but that's a very negative way of looking at it.
c) Forego non-footballing developments that can supplement the income of the football club.
d) Look like a blue version of Brisbane Road.
e) Get planning permission.  This will most likely be pretty tough in a residental area.

I would like to stay at Roots Hall, I really would, but I feel that a new stadium is the only conceivable way forwards

To be honest I have not overlooked the points you made.
a) knock down stands to rebuild would be cheaper than putting into place the infrastructure required for a new development.
b) play with 3/4 capacity. We do now and less.
c) non-football developments affected how?
d) I dont care how it looks in transition.
e) Planning for alterations would be as easy if not easier than planning a new construction elsewhere. The Hall may be in a residential area but it is already there. I am sure most objective feeling would appreciate a better looking stadium than what is there at the moment.
Further to that point, would the residents prefer the problems of a stadium once or twice a fortnight or the congestion of a superstore every day?

 

[sufcintheprem]

a) knock down stands to rebuild would be cheaper than putting into place the infrastructure required for a new development.

We would need to buy the land back though and this would surely cost a lot more. As for the current 50 year old infrastructure being sufficient for new (and presumably bigger or expandable) stands, I really doubt it. We would need to build the stands lock, stock and barrel IMO. Admittedly, I've never built a stadium but this seems necessary to me.

b) play with 3/4 capacity. We do now and less.

Granted for most games yes, but if we get big games and sell out the stadium (e.g. ColU last year, Canvey in cup, any Prem team in the cup), we'd be denying fans a chance to see the game and foregoing income. But, like you say, there's not going to be a huge amount of revenue lost.

c) non-football developments affected how?

At the moment, the only non-footballing activity seems to be the market, not the greatest money spinner. From what I could gather, there are plans to build a hotel on the site and other land can be leased out

d) I dont care how it looks in transition.

No, that was more a joke than anything

e) Planning for alterations would be as easy if not easier than planning a new construction elsewhere. The Hall may be in a residential area but it is already there. I am sure most objective feeling would appreciate a better looking stadium than what is there at the moment.
Further to that point, would the residents prefer the problems of a stadium once or twice a fortnight or the congestion of a superstore every day?

They're planning to build housing on there. It's not the issue of the once or twice a fortnight but more the four year construction sute they would have to endure.

I don't really know enough about planning permission but it seems that we have already acquired a solution to this for FF. I know that in residential areas, you need to register everything from large trees to fences with the Land Registrar and perhaps this would be a big problem

 

[Gremlin]

Quote[/b] (rabbloke @ Sep. 15 2004,13:33)]Roots Hall is our ancestral home.

No it's not. It's just our most recent home.

 

[Firestorm]

Boots & Laces is earmarked in the borough Plan for a "Sports Stadium", there has been a concession made in that the B&Q development will take an element of B&L as long as there is contingency for a sports stadium in the immediate vicinity, so we trade our ownership of B&L for Lansburys ownership of FF, B&Q, Access road and Stadium all get built.

If there is no Stadium to be built, then nothing else can be built on Boots & Laces (the bit SEL own)

So we must move to realise our assets,

the question I have had for some while now is where will the team train and where will the youth sides play without B&L ?

 

[The Fitter]

Quote[/b] (rabbloke @ Sep. 15 2004,13:33)]If we are to have a new stadium, why?. Roots Hall is our ancestral home. As the South stand has already been done, the remaining three stands could be demolished and rebuilt in phases over the next few years. Ultimately we could end up with a modern stadium to be proud of.

I thought the whole point of a new stadium was simply because Southend United football club cannot survive on the income from football alone. If we only wanted a nice stadium Roots Hall is fine. It's all the other commercial goodies that will be part of the FF package that we need to survive.

 

[nnatt76]

God some people don't like change do they.

I don't buy in to this ancestra home crap.

I'm blue to the core but i don't care where we play as long as its in or about the borough of southend.

Don't kid yourselfs that the hall is like the Old Den or Anfield, there is no advantage to staying there......god on present form its more of a hinderance.

If you wanna stay in the safety of Fortress Roots hall thats fine.

i for one will be happy to move to a brand new gleaming stadium.......

a few years ago you would have been smashing up spinning Jennys i dare say.

Move on !!!

 

[Groyne Strain]

I'll miss calling Southend's home Roots Hall though.  It's very distinctive and, in my humble opinion, one of the best named grounds in the country.  Fossetts Farm just sounds like something that's on CBeebies after Balamory's finished.

For that reason alone we should stay where we are.

 

[londonblue]

I think people seem to be overlooking the funding issue too. Even if we could afford to buy it back, we can't afford to develop Roots Hall. The only way to fund a new stadium is to sell Roots Hall and use the money to fund the new stadium. If we stay at Roots Hall this can't be done.

 

[Napster]

Quote[/b] (Gremlin @ Sep. 15 2004,13:54)]

Quote[/b] (rabbloke @ Sep. 15 2004,13:33)]Roots Hall is our ancestral home.

No it's not.  It's just our most recent home.

actually, it is our ancestral home. check the history records.

 

[tommytwoholes]

Well this is a debate that could go on forever. Basicly the owners (ie) Martin Dawn are saying that to make the club profitable we need extra revenue from seperate venues. Now i can see how this makes sense, but whats to say that the company are only using southend united and as soon as everything is place they will drop us and we will just be left with a new ground. That might not happen and probably wouldnt be the end of the world anyway. Personally i dont see why we cant redevelop roots hall in the same way that plymouth have with home park. We do need a better stadium to attract more fans but equaly we need the team to perform. I am very sceptical about the whole thing even more so now than before. I think that the plans will be massively downgraded on what we had originaly, and it will be blamed on escalating costs etc. I hope i am proved wrong, but since when has it been easy being a southend supporter.

 

[steveh1510]

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the bus go round and round, all day long.

 

[Wessex Blue]

Quote[/b] (Groyne Strain @ Sep. 15 2004,15:24)]I'll miss calling Southend's home Roots Hall though.  It's very distinctive and, in my humble opinion, one of the best named grounds in the country.  Fossetts Farm just sounds like something that's on CBeebies after Balamory's finished.

For that reason alone we should stay where we are.

Ah but they wouldn't call it FF, it'd end up being sponsored so you would end up going to the Burger King flame grilled whopper arena or the Totes toasties stadium every fortnight.
Nice.....!

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Firestorm @ Sep. 15 2004,13:59)]the question I have had for some while now is where will the team train and where will the youth sides play without B&L ?

I presume the new stadium will have training ground facilities built in a la Rushden & Diamonds and Yeovil Town. Both of those sides have around three pitches used for training and youth team purposes, and they save on having to rent any extra ground out.

 

[Jai]

Doubtless there will be some kind of sponsorship deal behind the name, but as it has been called Fossetts Farm for some years, IF it does ever get built, I will be calling it that and not the 'Martin Dawn PLC velodrome' or whatever.

I sincerely hope the rest of our fans will do the same. For example, Brisbane Road is officially 'The Matchroom Stadium' but nobody calls it that.

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Jai @ Sep. 15 2004,14:46)]Doubtless there will be some kind of sponsorship deal behind the name, but as it has been called Fossetts Farm for some years, IF it does ever get built, I will be calling it that and not the 'Martin Dawn PLC velodrome' or whatever.

I sincerely hope the rest of our fans will do the same. For example, Brisbane Road is officially 'The Matchroom Stadium' but nobody calls it that.

You might be lucky, but the trouble is that the branding/naming of the stadium often ends up catching on. Orient is a good example of a ground where it hasn't, but when we did a poll on TLG asking whether people wanted us to call the division we are currently in Football League Division Three or Coca-Cola League Two, they went with the latter. People want websites, as a general rule, to give stadiums/divisions/teams their proper name. It would take a conciencious decision from ALL of the unofficial websites (there's not much hope of it happening on the official one), fanzines and local media outlets to not name it by the branded name for it to work IMHO.

 

[Ron Manager]

Quote[/b] (Exiled Shrimper @ Sep. 15 2004,15:58)]when we did a poll on TLG asking whether people wanted us to call the division we are currently in Football League Division Three or Coca-Cola League Two, they went with the latter.

It's Division 4!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Ron Manager @ Sep. 15 2004,15:04)]It's Division 4!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, exactly - look how quickly Division Four slipped away from the public eye? There wasn't even any point in including it in the poll - many people would have simply gone 'eh?'. That said, I probably use the term 'basement division' more now than I ever have.

 

[Ron Manager]

Quote[/b] (Exiled Shrimper @ Sep. 15 2004,16:13)]

Quote[/b] (Ron Manager @ Sep. 15 2004,15:04)]It's Division 4!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, exactly - look how quickly Division Four slipped away from the public eye? There wasn't even any point in including it in the poll - many people would have simply gone 'eh?'. That said, I probably use the term 'basement division' more now than I ever have.

I'm probably just showing my age to be honest.