southend4ever
I used to play a little.
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2003
- Messages
- 8,758
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
He has also in the past been TOTALLY against outside investment - significant sums have been offered and he won't even entertain the thought.
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
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.