Southend's mooted move to Milton Keynes

[Jai]

Morning good people of SZ,

A trip down memory lane to the dark days of the early to mid-1980s, if you will. I'm trying to do some digging for an article for next month's All At Sea. In light of the stealing of Wimbledon's league place in 2003, I gather Southend's chairmen in the early 80s threw around the idea of moving the club to other towns, including the home of the concrete cows.

Trouble is, I can't find very much about it. It was pre-Roots Hall Roar and I want to pinpoint a bit more detail before I go rooting around in old copies of the Echo on microfiche.

Anyone have strong recollections of what exactly happened and how close it came?

 

[BrettieAngell]

I remember the proposed move to Basildon, I've never heard of this before I have to say!

 

[Richard Hearn]

It was mooted by the Rubin brothers in time of stress. I'm not sure how serious it was.

 

[Shrimper in India]

Hey Jai,

Never heard about this but as has been mentioned a move to Basildon was mooted by Jobson in the early 90s. I remember being in a demo singing "We'll never move to Basildon"...

 

[TrueBlue]

Morning good people of SZ,

A trip down memory lane to the dark days of the early to mid-1980s, if you will. I'm trying to do some digging for an article for next month's All At Sea. In light of the stealing of Wimbledon's league place in 2003, I gather Southend's chairmen in the early 80s threw around the idea of moving the club to other towns, including the home of the concrete cows.

Trouble is, I can't find very much about it. It was pre-Roots Hall Roar and I want to pinpoint a bit more detail before I go rooting around in old copies of the Echo on microfiche.

Anyone have strong recollections of what exactly happened and how close it came?

Jai I am sure Jobbo down at the club will be able to give you an insight as to what his brother Vic proposed to do

 

[Jai]

I think it was pre-Jobbo. The Rubins were in charge back then. I think it was circa 1983?

 

[Firestorm]

Canveyshrimper would have known :sad:

IIRC MK and Telford were both mentioned by the Rubins but they were nothing more than idle threats in a similar vein to the "91 other clubs you can support comment" at a time when Fans were getting on the Boards back, largely because we were not doing very well.

As H was wont to say , be careful what you wish for, the Rubins got some stick at a time the club was performing poorly, reacted badly and got hammered for it, so they got out, Anton Johson took over and we had the first flirtation with insolvency since the end of the great war and have struggled financially since then ...

 

[TrueBlue]

I think it was pre-Jobbo. The Rubins were in charge back then. I think it was circa 1983?

That bit was but Vic had plans too dont forget

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Anton Johson took over and we had the first flirtation with insolvency since the end of the great war and have struggled financially since then ...

Ah.But if you believe his own account in King of Clubs,he's blameless.:liar:

 

[stickyboy]

have a pic on an away day with no to Baso

 

[A Century United]

have a pic on an away day with no to Baso
View attachment 1987

I had that Second From the Left SUFC Rugby shirt! Great shirt, would love to get my hands on another....

 

[Csboy]

Remember it well it was an article in the evening Echo in 1983 before a home game with Wigan (Gosh I have a good memory) we won the game 2-0. Basically Rubin's moaned about the support at Roots Hall as the crowds were dwindling. Most of the crowds were below 3000 then.All Rubin's said was he would look to move the club to somewhere like Milton Keynes if the crowds didn't improve.

After that Rubin's was on borrowed time there were protests during and after the game calling for him to resign. Well he did leave in the Summer and Dave Smith was also sacked. We all thought things were on the up but it was Anton Johnson and his cronies that took over. Peter Morris was given the managers job but he was useless and sacked mid-season and replaced by Bobby Moore but he couldn't stop us being relegated and the club almost went out of business until Vic Jobson took over.If Rubin's hadn't of said what he did about Milton Keynes maybe all what happened in the next few years wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in charge.

 

[buffalowolf]

i know nothing about all of that as i was and still am living in Australia , but i do remember coming back to Southend for a vacation in February 1987 i went to see Southend play whilst i was there and was in tears at what i saw , they played Halifax that day and lost 3-2 , the crowd would have been lucky to have reached 1000 i reckon, admittance was 5 pounds ,after the game i just walked through the change rooms etc and was appalled at what i saw, i couldnt believe the club had come down so bad and truly feared for its future.It was truly at that time in a state of disrepair .:sad:

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

i know nothing about all of that as i was and still am living in Australia , but i do remember coming back to Southend for a vacation in February 1987 i went to see Southend play whilst i was there and was in tears at what i saw , they played Halifax that day and lost 3-2 , the crowd would have been lucky to have reached 1000 i reckon, admittance was 5 pounds ,after the game i just walked through the change rooms etc and was appalled at what i saw, i couldnt believe the club had come down so bad and truly feared for its future.It was truly at that time in a state of disrepair .:sad:

Crowd that night in Feb 1987 according to SUFC Database was 2047 that was a 100% improvement on the previous seasons crowd against Halifax which was our lowest ever league crowd of 1,006.

Actually thinking about it the 1986/7 season you are talking about was a promotion season, we won all but one of our remaining home games after the Halifax defeat. We had some bigger crowds that season than we will probably get this season.

 

[Lord Football]

have a pic on an away day with no to Baso
View attachment 1987

I look like I am having a dump.

Where was that taken??

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

have a pic on an away day with no to Baso
View attachment 1987

I had that Second From the Left SUFC Rugby shirt! Great shirt, would love to get my hands on another....

MY SUFC ruby shirt(not this one)but our first souvenir Cardiff final shirt from 2004 has "run" in the wash.Much to my annoyance,as I can't wear it today.Ordered a this year's top though, as an early Xmas present to myself.:smile:

 

[Napster]

MY SUFC ruby shirt(not this one)but our first souvenir Cardiff final shirt from 2004 has "run" in the wash.Much to my annoyance,as I can't wear it today.Ordered a this year's top though, as an early Xmas present to myself.:smile:

what on earth has this to do with milton keynes????

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

what on earth has this to do with milton keynes????

Nothing.But quite a lot to do with rugby shirts.:smiles:

 

[stickyboy]

I look like I am having a dump.

Where was that taken??

Near the Plymouth ground we think, was an overnighter

 

[Jai]

Sorry to dig up an old thread like this, but I'm trying to follow up a throwaway comment I read in an old Echo article the other day.

Did Vic Jobson ever threaten to groundshare with West Ham because he threw his toys out of the pram over some new turnstiles? Would have been about 1993. Anyone with a long enough memory to recall this? Before my time sadly but I'm doing some research into the Jobson years.