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

[rigsby]

Why are so many people guessing. The best option would be to ask him all this in the next podcast......The right people with the right attitude and questions would do everyone a favour, including Ron.

My choice would be the lads who do the Custard Splat ones. If you haven't seen any then start with Adam Barrett. Roy is another entertaining one. Names names of who took bungs and makes the hosts blush with other stories.

 

[NZamba Legend]

Can I just clarify what peoples expectations are from Ron? He's bankrolled the club for 20+ years through good times and bad, far longer than someone would if they were after a quick buck.

As it stands the club has no external loans which is a very good situation to be in for 2021.

Yes he stands to make money from the housing development but that's good for the club if he sticks around.

Are people actually expecting someone to give away a multi-million pound football stadium?

As for non-matchday revenue what are people expecting there to be? If it's not event space or meeting rooms what else would you expect at a football stadium?

I agree with this and of course Ron is not going to give a stadium away (although I'm not sure what incentive there is to build the original 21000 capacity stadium right now, hence the talk of 'phased' building). Besides, he has no-one to 'give it away to' since, for now, he also owns the club! He may eventually sell either the stadium or club, neither or both. But the issue of non-matchday revenue is not something supporters have dreamt up, it was always part of a plan to make the club more self sustaining. Ron used to talk about it a lot. How successful that would have been realistically with the retail/ hotel plan I don't know but that narrative seems to be more low key since the switch away from commercial to residential development. So it is something worth caring about. The issue is not whether any of this is right or wrong, but to consider what situation the club will be left in. It's a legitimate question to ask whether the club will be better off after the move and if so, in what ways. Just asking that question is not the same as having unrealistic expectations, being over critical of Ron--who, I agree, we have many reasons to be grateful for--or being a doom monger. My worry is that the stadium is now very much secondary to the residential developments, that the club will effectively be parked on land that it will rent (at what cost?) and which could conceivably be sold at any time for higher yield returns (more residential development).

 

[HUMBLEPIE]

I sometimes wonder if Ron knew then what he knows now he would have taken it on. Lets be honest there wasn’t a queue of buyers at the time.

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

Having watched the stream I thought Ron came across better than any statement I've ever read and would urge him to ditch that statements all together.

That being said the answer regarding income for the club didn't fill me with the most confidence. For all the years we've been waiting it didn't seem like much of it was ours.

I can't comment on how other clubs are financially partly because COVID and partly because I just don't know. But clubs like Col U and Oxford have fairly recently developed grounds and I assume they're better off despite being modest in comparison. So maybe there is enough in it for us...

 

[ESG]

I did have a good chuckle as I drove past FF this afternoon. Some guy in a van had stopped to let his dog out who was having a massive **** at that very moment

 

[Willie Coulson's Red Cheeks]

It's interesting how we see and read things differently.

If I'd been putting my hand in my pocket for 22 years keeping the club afloat and I was asked to attend a meeting with 15 or so people who want to attack me, I might have said the same thing. I thought he was being slightly ironic.

But he has not been putting his hand in his pocket for 22 years out of charity. He has done it because he can see a very healthy return if he does so - and good luck to him for that.

He s not "kept the club afloat" out of the goodness of his heart though.........

I don't believe he should be attacked for what he has done thus far but I do think there are genuine and serious questions to ask about the state he is going to leave the club in once the developments have been completed. At present, I cannot see how it is going to be in a better position with an incomplete stadium and no assets.

As a fanbase we should be focusing on trying to ensure that the outcome is a whole lot better than I currently see it; that will be best achieved by persuading Ron that he has the opportunity to leave a real legacy to the club and the town for which he would be rightly lauded now and for the next 100 years.

 

[tommy tucker]

love him or loath him the club has never gone into administation unlike many other clubs .He has allways pulled a rabbit out of the hat .He wants a return from his investment .Tell me what chaiirman of a football club or owner of a company does not want that .I doubt you will find many if any .

 

[rigsby]

Why would Ron hang around after the stadium is built?. He has waited long enough for the so called big pay day.

Trips to Sweden and Larson sitting with him in the stands said to me buyers rather than team mangers. Again its in Rons financial interest to build a decent stadium with plenty of additional revenue streams because any business that generates or has potential to earn more money is worth more.

Us fans never owned the club when Ron arrived we don't own it now and we won't own it when its sells it. Just like fans of nearly every other club. Lets hope he doesn't sell to the sort of people who took over Orient or Owen Oyston.

 

[Strykr]

love him or loath him the club has never gone into administation unlike many other clubs .He has allways pulled a rabbit out of the hat .He wants a return from his investment .Tell me what chaiirman of a football club or owner of a company does not want that .I doubt you will find many if any .

Thats just it tho. Im happy for him to make millions, it just needs to be mutually beneficial and not just a 20 year property flip.

I hope the next meeting with ron can focus on the points raised in this thread.

 

[Fairport]

love him or loath him the club has never gone into administation unlike many other clubs .He has allways pulled a rabbit out of the hat .He wants a return from his investment .Tell me what chaiirman of a football club or owner of a company does not want that .I doubt you will find many if any .

Many other clubs have gone into administration and eventually ended up in the Premier League, the system is a racket. Wipe out your debts leaving the creditors short changed and then go on to have success.

 

[fbm]

But he has not been putting his hand in his pocket for 22 years out of charity. He has done it because he can see a very healthy return if he does so - and good luck to him for that.

He s not "kept the club afloat" out of the goodness of his heart though.........

I don't believe he should be attacked for what he has done thus far but I do think there are genuine and serious questions to ask about the state he is going to leave the club in once the developments have been completed. At present, I cannot see how it is going to be in a better position with an incomplete stadium and no assets.

As a fanbase we should be focusing on trying to ensure that the outcome is a whole lot better than I currently see it; that will be best achieved by persuading Ron that he has the opportunity to leave a real legacy to the club and the town for which he would be rightly lauded now and for the next 100 years.

Why on earth should he? I don't think he has ever claimed to.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Just a thought. Over the years Ron has made commitments about the future. It's actually quite difficult to remember what he's said. It would be helpful if someone and I'm not volunteering could go through all he's said over the years. This will I think be helpful for 2 reasons. Firstly it can stop us repeating questions. In the last session there was a question about the club being charged rent for the ground that had been covered in the previous meeting. Secondly it would enable us to double check things we thought he'd said and can he confirm. The most important for me is will the club be debt free after Fossett's. In the back of my mind he has said this but I'm not 100% sure. This for me is the biggest thing of all.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Another thought. In the beginning Ron was criticised as not being a big enough fish for SUFC. What had he developed, pipe dreamer, small time Billericay estate agent etc. Now he's on the cusp of achieving his dream that many thought was a complete fantasy he's now some Nelson Rockefeller. Makes me smile a little.

 

[NZamba Legend]

Why on earth should he? I don't think he has ever claimed to.

But the poster wasn't suggesting that he should, just pointing out a fact. The next sentence actually says" 'I don't believe he [Ron] should be attacked for what he has done thus far...'

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

A last thought my first thought should be in the SOS meetings thread. Sorry.

 

[rigsby]

Another thought. In the beginning Ron was criticised as not being a big enough fish for SUFC. What had he developed, pipe dreamer, small time Billericay estate agent etc. Now he's on the cusp of achieving his dream that many thought was a complete fantasy he's now some Nelson Rockefeller. Makes me smile a little.

Its the same sort of thing as Ron is the worst businessman ever and we want him out. But when he makes his £millions we should be be gifted the stadium.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Would anyone on here who had the opportunity to make millions actually pass up the chance ?

Depends if making said millions would have a negative effect on the local economy and thousands of peoples morale.

Personally, I don't think Ron gives a ****.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Its the same sort of thing as Ron is the worst businessman ever and we want him out. But when he makes his £millions we should be be gifted the stadium.

I don't think we should be gifted the stadium and I have always been grateful he kept the club afloat. I would like to see more come back to the club from Ron's successful punt at redevelopment. He paid 4m to take over and has bankrolled us ever since. With 502 houses going on RH the plot value alone has to be 25m. That's without the development, sales and rental revenues. I haven't mentioned the 800 houses at FF because, as much as they came about because of our club moving, they would have been built eventually regardless.

As I said before, Ron and SBC are the winners. I feel, morally, the club could be handed a more certain future from a fraction of the pickings. I know morality and business are not bedfellows but as Ron claims to be such a supporter, and I think he is, then he should be a little more grateful to the club that has realised his dreams.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Ron could save a bit of money by moving development of the trophy room to phase two.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

We were always promised a very vague self sufficiency from the 'enabling development' from the retail side of things. I assume this was retail space rental, and maybe from the hotel, conference facilities.

Why should the fact that the rental is going to be residential make any difference? If all we are getting is a function room then that really is taking the p*** As there doesn't appear to now be the scope for concerts, conferences, commercial activity as the stadium is in the middle of a housing estate.

The rental on 800 houses is probably in the region of £8m-£10m per annum? Surely even a small % of that must go to the club?