Echo News Southend United chairman Ron Martin explains how club would be boosted by new ground

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United chairman Ron Martin has explained how the Shrimpers would benefit financially from moving to Fossetts Farm.

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[onceknownasrab]

So, I assume, the legacy that is RH fills a developers pocket to the tune of millions and in return the club gets a new stadium and a few crumbs of corporate space income? Now I have been a supporter of RM but the club deserves more than this. Technically RM may be fulfilling all that is required of the covenant. Morally it stinks of ****. There should be a small percentage from the housing revenue streams alloted to the clubs coffers.

RM deserves to benefit. That's his business. The club should also have a better reward for letting him do so well. He will still own the new ground and no doubt will earn a buck when he sells that on. That's win win for The Man and **** all for the club. I am more than disgruntled.

 

[Strykr]

Did that article say our new "main stand" would have 1000 capacity?

 

[waldo]

Did that article say our new "main stand" would have 1000 capacity?

Yes it does! Has anyone at the Echo not picked up on that and questioned it?

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Think that’s in reference to the function room

 

[Medway Blue]

I think the club deserves more than a little bit of corporate hire space income. Main issue for me though is that the club won't own the stadium, and therefore won't own the corporate space, and therefore won't own the revenue stream. Ron Martin will own it. So we are once again relying on his 'charity' in diverting that revenue into the club. If it's still his money, will it be in the form of loans again? Seems to me the club will be in the same position that it has been in for the last 23 years - assetless, worthless and reliant upon owner/chairman injecting funds.

I remember 5 or 6 years ago it being suggested that the club was losing £100k per month. I think this might have even been before we signed the likes of Cox, Kieran, Ferdinand, Turner and Kightly on big contracts. So I'm guessing that figure would be similar now. Ron Martin has suggested the club will be competitive, aiming for the Championship and self-sufficient in a new stadium. Do we really think that a bit of corporate hire revenue and a few extra bums in seats will turn a loss-making SUFC into a breaking-even or profit-making SUFC, even when it's spending what's required to challenge for promotion to the Championship?

 

[Strykr]

Think that’s in reference to the function room

hope your right farmdog or we could be looking at harrogates ground with envy....

 

[Strykr]

For the in the know people, realistically what could we hope for, would 1-5% of all property rental income in perpetuity be enough to keep the club ticking over? Ron or whoever pocketing the 95%?

Seems otherwise we are losing our home that had a covenant for pretty much nothing.

 

[RobQ]

The Echo story is based on direct quotes from Thursday Zoom meeting, all of which went unchallenged at the meeting. I assume (I know you shouldn't) that he means executive boxes, which can be hired out as function rooms on non match days. He did also say that stadiums don't make money on match days!?! If that's the case, then when do they?

 

[NZamba Legend]

Ron was very brief on these details in the Q&A and its not much clearer in print. He mumbled through his short answer--looks like we get a couple of yoga studios to hire out-- before delivering a lecture on retail geography. He wasn't wrong on the latter at all, but on the issue of income it didn't seem obvious to me how the club would be a better position than we are at Roots Hall. Needs to be pushed further on this, plus supporters should come up with suggestions/solutions of our own.

 

[NZamba Legend]

Seems otherwise we are losing our home that had a covenant for pretty much nothing.

This is exactly what will happen by the sound of it. The club will be in an even more precarious position.

Maybe maintenence costs on a new stadium are lower, that's fair. But the new stadium--"first phase" - - may well have a lower capacity than RH so matchday revenue might actually be reduced. My guess is it will be the cheapest build possible, maybe two stands? Would the casual fan even want to go to that stadium after their first visit? Will we ever get beyond "first phase"?

 

[rlb999]

Stadiums don’t make much money on match days because the cost of putting the match on zaps all the profit. Fairly standard at our level of the game.

The fact that he still owns the stadium is concerning - we remain a club without a ground unless he plans to leave it to us in his will. Equally I’m not sure what income renting out the main stand and the box will bring but it doesn’t sound like much of a business plan to me - more a case of generating some beer money.

Maintenance costs on a new stadium will be lower for a few years, but what’s the plan thereafter when they’ll be much higher. Or worry about that then?

 

[Mad Cyril]

People don't just give stadiums away.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Wow, the premiership beckons from the income from renting out a space for a birthday party disco twice a week.

Salah incoming from those sorts of earnings.

This absolutely stinks to high heaven, and it has taken almost 15 years to get the details behind the ‘enabling development’ that the club would benefit from, and that’s it?

I am ****ing fuming as we should all be at this, yet as a collective group we continue to do nothing and sleepwalk into oblivion?

 

[rigsby]

Why don't people watch the Thursday meeting first. All the answers are there if you listen, including more recent changes and why.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Why don't people watch the Thursday meeting first. All the answers are there if you listen, including more recent changes and why.

Life is too short?

 

[Napster]

Life is too short?

and yet you spend it on here?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

and yet you spend it on here?

Only some of it.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

I have to say I do agree with Riggers on this. It's all there. Perhaps some think he's lying, some don't believe him or choose not to. Has Ron put in over 30 million into the club or not. No one has questioned this probably because it's an inconvenient truth and yet some fans still want to stay at RH. I think there's a hell of niaivity among some fans about the costs of running a football team whatever league they're in. No wonder Ron said he would never advise his son to become a football chairman. The only thing I would want to ask Ron at this stage is if a hotel is finally built in the main stand, currently that has fallen by the wayside unless I've got this wrong, who gets the income.

 

[rigsby]

My understanding is the hotel is no longer an option as there's no retail. Thats the sort of thing that needs covering rather than the new physio's probation period.

Like wise when Ron said he needs to find/put £130,000 into the club next month?That was a good opportunity to ask When, where, to who, what, why, how etc. That would open the door to more scrutiny that everyone calls for.

Seemed to me like that was avoided because it might make Ron look good.