Time to put our money where our mouth is?

[southend4ever]

He would be foolish to invest too much now in January. Everyone is overpriced. Accept relegation and get some hungry talent in at season end.

 

[OldBlueLady]

As a matter of interest OldBlueLady, what is your personal opinion of my suggestion?
Bearing in mind it is not for a fighting fund as such, but to accumulate a sum of money (that could be significant?) to be used for purchasing players in the future.

I think it is a creditable idea, but just because people buy season tickets doesn't mean they are in a position to be able to put more money in. I think you might get somewhere with asking them to put something like £20 a season in, but £10 a month is a lot of money to some people.

However, it would have to be done outside of the Club because many people still do not trust the chairman, which, I guess, is where the Trust would come in. People are welcome to make donations at any time and if they wanted to specify that it went into the fighting fund or whatever, then that is where it would be allocated. I am not sure the Club would want the Trust holding any money for the purpose of the purchase of players though.

 

[Westcliff DGS]

The only problem with my suggestion of each card holder committing to paying a fixed sum every month, would I am afraid only add to the work load of the Trust.

A scheme like this would have to obviously be policed properly by a trusted (and independant) part of the football club.

As a matter of interest OldBlueLady, what is your personal opinion of my suggestion?
Bearing in mind it is not for a fighting fund as such, but to accumulate a sum of money (that could be significant?) to be used for purchasing players in the future.

That is not the only problem..

What your saying is every season ticket holder must give £10 a month, say they cant do they then not get a season ticket. My sons and mine cost £500 odd quid, your saying put another £120 in per year some just cannot afford that. Some people buy an ST as it is cheaper than buying match tickets every time, they save up and buy that ST and then go to games, you cannot say they must then give more.

How do you then prove the money has been spent on players
What if the club uses the money all on a fee but then cant afford the wages
What if the club then sells the player is that money returned to the trust and the club keep the profit after all it wasn't the clubs money in the first place
What happens if we go up does the £10 a month demand go up as costs, transfer fees and wages will be higher

 

[East Green I 83]

He would be foolish to invest too much now in January. Everyone is overpriced. Accept relegation and get some hungry talent in at season end.

Totally agree, it would take until this time next year to save up the money

 

[Ricey]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but what about club memberships? For those who can’t get to every game. Pay £10 a month and you get priority on match tickets when we get a big FA Cup tie (hahaha), maybe discount in the shop and throw in something else. If I wasn’t considering a season ticket next season I would definitely pay for that. Similar to what Arsenal have done in the past having different levels of membership.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but what about club memberships? For those who can’t get to every game. Pay £10 a month and you get priority on match tickets when we get a big FA Cup tie (hahaha), maybe discount in the shop and throw in something else. If I wasn’t considering a season ticket next season I would definitely pay for that. Similar to what Arsenal have done in the past having different levels of membership.

Seem to remember the club did have a membership scheme but thought that had been discontinued some time ago now?

 

[LBBlue]

Seem to remember the club did have a membership scheme but thought that had been discontinued some time ago now?

Yep in the mid 90s _ I vaguely recall that you had to be a member to buy tickets in certain parts of the ground (West Stand)?
Personally I just try go attend as many games as I can but the cost of transport always exceeds to cash going to the club.

For any voluntary donation scheme you’d want some say over how the money is spent - let’s face it an awful lot has been wasted on second rate players in the last couple of years.

Squeezing the cash going into the club is more likely to affect change.

 

[jim]

I believe I had that membership it was only about a fiver and you got discount on your match ticket so you were quids in if you went to a certain amount of games. Downside was it was the northwest corner which had no roof at the time so you were exposed to the elements. Remember seeing Stan Collymore make his debut against Notts County standing in there so your right about it being the 90s.

 

[GBJ]

He has also in the past been TOTALLY against outside investment - significant sums have been offered and he won't even entertain the thought.

Depends what you mean by significant sums.

He’s certainly accepted investment before, in order to avoid incidents like we’ve seen recently.

I am not suggesting a loan of any description. Purely and simply a gift of (say) £10.00 per month from each season ticket holder for a year....this would equate to approx £420,000

I’d say less than 5% of fans would actually be interested in actually doing this.

And rightly so.

This club should be living within its means. It turns over millions, every season, but the expenditure has been out of control for a long, long time.

 

[MK Shrimper]

This club should be living within its means. It turns over millions, every season, but the expenditure has been out of control for a long, long time.

That would probably mean non-league football. Like many other football chairman, Ron has been chasing the dream of Championship football, gates of 20K and a shiny new stadium. It'll be the death of a lot of clubs, possibly including ours.

 

[GBJ]

That would probably mean non-league football. Like many other football chairman, Ron has been chasing the dream of Championship football, gates of 20K and a shiny new stadium. It'll be the death of a lot of clubs, possibly including ours.

Fair point. Would rather a non-league Southend, than a liquidated Southend though.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Fair point. Would rather a non-league Southend, than a liquidated Southend though.

Agreed, but then how long is that survivable? It's tough enough getting the next generation of support as it is, imagine how much harder it'll be when we're playing the likes of Halifax or Sutton. I really don't know what the answer is - any other businesses would be dissolved years ago, but somehow football league clubs plough on making huge losses every year.

 

[southend4ever]

The club don’t have the resource to employ someone to get creative and improve the marketing, branding, and advertising at the club, sadly. So much could be done. It’s a shame that jobs at sports club pay poorly unless you’re a player.

 

[rigsby]

We could easily survive in L1 and thrive in L2 with the income we have......If spent wisely of course.

No need to go all Greta with talk of non league and extinction

 

[GBJ]

Agreed, but then how long is that survivable? It's tough enough getting the next generation of support as it is, imagine how much harder it'll be when we're playing the likes of Halifax or Sutton. I really don't know what the answer is - any other businesses would be dissolved years ago, but somehow football league clubs plough on making huge losses every year.

The answer - IMO - is to close the gap between the Premier League, and the rest of English Football. Clubs like ours simply can’t compete with the upper echelons of Lg1, let alone beyond that.

As we know, most teams can only survive now (let alone thrive), if they’re backed by someone ridiculously wealthy.

The only answer I can see, would be to spread the wealth (how very socialist of me!) down to the rest of us peasants. Even if Sky or BT Sports decided to throw us a bone once in a while, and show more from the lower leagues, instead of Icelandic Pole Vaulting, or Austrian Speed Skating, it’d help considerably.

Sadly, the chances of that happening are similar to the chances of me slinging one up Michelle Keegan tonight.

As we all know, when there’s vast sums of money involved, you may aswell wish in one hand, and **** in the other, see which one fills up first.

The people controlling it all, couldn’t give two hoots about piddly little clubs like Southend United..... Infact, it’d be more in their favour to see teams like ours go out of business, in the (vain) hope that we all suddenly become West Ham, Tottenham or Arsenal fans, and therefore further contribute to their vast piles of money.

That being said, Ron’s still a jackass though

Edit: I forgot to add, that this idea of self-sustainability is pie in the sky aswell. Even if we could generate enough income to keep us on an even keel throughout the season, we’ll still be a long, long way off from the teams like Sunderland & Ipswich.

What then?

 

[GBJ]

We could easily survive in L1 and thrive in L2 with the income we have......If spent wisely of course.

No need to go all Greta with talk of non league and extinction

How long would it be, before our fans got sick of that?

I can see it now, they’d be slating the manager and calling for his head, before he’d even had a single transfer wind........

Oh.

 

[Fairport]

The answer - IMO - is to close the gap between the Premier League, and the rest of English Football. Clubs like ours simply can’t compete with the upper echelons of Lg1, let alone beyond that.

As we know, most teams can only survive now (let alone thrive), if they’re backed by someone ridiculously wealthy.

The only answer I can see, would be to spread the wealth (how very socialist of me!) down to the rest of us peasants. Even if Sky or BT Sports decided to throw us a bone once in a while, and show more from the lower leagues, instead of Icelandic Pole Vaulting, or Austrian Speed Skating, it’d help considerably.

Sadly, the chances of that happening are similar to the chances of me slinging one up Michelle Keegan tonight.

As we all know, when there’s vast sums of money involved, you may aswell wish in one hand, and **** in the other, see which one fills up first.

The people controlling it all, couldn’t give two hoots about piddly little clubs like Southend United..... Infact, it’d be more in their favour to see teams like ours go out of business, in the (vain) hope that we all suddenly become West Ham, Tottenham or Arsenal fans, and therefore further contribute to their vast piles of money.

That being said, Ron’s still a jackass though

Edit: I forgot to add, that this idea of self-sustainability is pie in the sky aswell. Even if we could generate enough income to keep us on an even keel throughout the season, we’ll still be a long, long way off from the teams like Sunderland & Ipswich.

What then?

I fully agree that the income gap between the Premier League and the likes of us is massive and is in many ways obscene. However, if more money was passed down to the lower divisions it would most likely all go into the pockets of greedy agents and players rather than be spent on day to day club expenditure.

 

[Chrisb]

Y

For any voluntary donation scheme you’d want some say over how the money is spent - let’s face it an awful lot has been wasted on second rate players in the last couple of years.

Yes, it's frustrating enough to see how money has been wasted on a number of signings, imagine how it would feel if you had directly contributed an additional £10 a month on top of what you spend on tickets]

 

[The Big Dady]

One way the club could improve their cash-flow and revenue streams would be to allow iplayer to stream ALL games including Saturday 3.00.pm kickoffs to those in the UK as well as those abroad.

There are loads of supporters that can not attend Roots Hall, because they have moved away, are working away from home, on holiday abroad, are in hospital, or a care home, or are just getting on in age and can no longer get down there as easily as they used to, or the weather is to bad.

The same would apply to all away games as well.

Perhaps they would sell more Season Tickets if they offered free streaming to Season Ticket Holders for home games for those temporally unable to attend for reasons above, and yearly iplayer passes for Season Ticket Holders for all away games at a discounted rate.

Most supporters would prefer to attend matches, but there are many that just can not, which results in supporters missing out, and the club also missing out on this additional cash.

 

[MK Shrimper]

One way the club could improve their cash-flow and revenue streams would be to allow iplayer to stream ALL games including Saturday 3.00.pm kickoffs to those in the UK as well as those abroad.

There are loads of supporters that can not attend Roots Hall, because they have moved away, are working away from home, on holiday abroad, are in hospital, or a care home, or are just getting on in age and can no longer get down there as easily as they used to, or the weather is to bad.

The same would apply to all away games as well.

Perhaps they would sell more Season Tickets if they offered free streaming to Season Ticket Holders for home games for those temporally unable to attend for reasons above, and yearly iplayer passes for Season Ticket Holders for all away games at a discounted rate.

Most supporters would prefer to attend matches, but there are many that just can not, which results in supporters missing out, and the club also missing out on this additional cash.

I'm sure the club would if they could, but it's not allowed to broadcast any matches between 3pm - 5pm on a Saturday afternoon in this country.