Sale of Southend United to Justin Rees and his consortium

[hlane17]

In the short term at least i think the council are our best hope.

Agreed but it doesn't fill me with much comfort knowing that after the Twitter saga between councillors the other day.

 

[Supershrimper]

In the short term at least i think the council are our best hope.

Help us Southend Council, your our only hope

 

[Colchester and proud!]

The reports today are the the local Council’s 22/23 budget overspend will be £14 million and not the £7 million previously anticipated.

The inference must therefore be that it’s likely the 23/24 numbers will be even more challenging

As I have said before I cant but help feel the politicians are playing to the crowd and at the end of the day I suspect that no money will be forthcoming and if id does it wont be in the millions because quite simply the DD that the council would have to commission would explore the lack of certainty that any loan could be repaid

Your correct West Stand our daughter works in this area to assistant finance director level for Sutton council, the figures she tells us make grim reading, they are having to cut services to the bone. There is no spare cash in the coffers for anything Southend will be similar, being a unitary authority their costs will be huge especially in terms of welfare that take a vast percentage of most councils budgets. I am sure the council will want to help the club, but the reality is can they afford to?

 

[Jai]

Your correct West Stand our daughter works in this area to assistant finance director level for Sutton council, the figures she tells us make grim reading, they are having to cut services to the bone. There is no spare cash in the coffers for anything Southend will be similar, being a unitary authority their costs will be huge especially in terms of welfare that take a vast percentage of most councils budgets. I am sure the council will want to help the club, but the reality is can they afford to?

Anything they give will be a loan. And they won't want to be giving it to Ron. I suspect the only possible mechanism is a loan to the Shrimpers Trust as part of a wider takeover deal which then leads to a new owner working with the Trust, and paying the debt. I also suspect that someone will have to persuade the non-HMRC creditors to take their names off the petition, because the total sum would appear to be unmanageable, with an undertaking of a payment schedule/arrangement again administered by new owners.

Do I see any of this happening before the 4th October? Sadly not.

 

[Westcliff DGS]

Anything they give will be a loan. And they won't want to be giving it to Ron. I suspect the only possible mechanism is a loan to the Shrimpers Trust as part of a wider takeover deal which then leads to a new owner working with the Trust, and paying the debt. I also suspect that someone will have to persuade the non-HMRC creditors to take their names off the petition, because the total sum would appear to be unmanageable, with an undertaking of a payment schedule/arrangement again administered by new owners.

Do I see any of this happening before the 4th October? Sadly not.

Based on what Colchester and Proud states what would they use to loan the club if they have no money, hopefully they do have.

Re the creditors, I wouldn't take my name of the petition personally, as there is no guarantee the take over would happen and then I could be up the river. Thats if I were a business that was owed money and on the WUP.

s a fan yes I would want them to come off the petition if it makes things easier

 

[Smiffy]

Based on what Colchester and Proud states what would they use to loan the club if they have no money, hopefully they do have.

Re the creditors, I wouldn't take my name of the petition personally, as there is no guarantee the take over would happen and then I could be up the river. Thats if I were a business that was owed money and on the WUP.

s a fan yes I would want them to come off the petition if it makes things easier

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can (from a political/legal viewpoint) and want (will they fear a backlash from resident non-shrimpers?) to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Ifs, buts and maybes. There are some respected and informed ITK's on the site but they can only go on the titbits fed to them and no one person, Ron excluded, has any idea of the full picture. With the lack of facts everything we read is assumption. 2+2=?

On the surface things look very grim but, who knows what awaits below the water?

For what it is worth I am looking forward to seeing just how high we can finish this season and am confident of promotion by next season.

 

[dusterman]

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can (from a political/legal viewpoint) and want (will they fear a backlash from resident non-shrimpers?) to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

Yep, agree entirely. The 2 mil for debts or 4.5 for RH is a drop in the ocean, especially if a loan.

 

[Colchester and proud!]

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can and want to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

If they are in that sort of position they are as you say in a comfortable financial state, a great position to be in as most councils are in very dire straights. A loan may be possible to keep the club afloat, but the means of controlling what happens to it would be difficult.

 

[BEERMONSTER]

Cllr Dent full interview on Shrimpercast

 

[Westcliff DGS]

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can (from a political/legal viewpoint) and want (will they fear a backlash from resident non-shrimpers?) to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

I am not being fooled at all, i was just saying if base don that it was correct how would they. I know about the reserves that have been mentioned, but I was as I say just saying based on that how would they lend the money.

 

[Supershrimper]

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can (from a political/legal viewpoint) and want (will they fear a backlash from resident non-shrimpers?) to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

For some info Thurrock Council which in December was declared bankrupt after running up a £500m deficit had at the beginning of 2022 reserves of £66.3m. But during 2022 this reduced to just £12.2m by the councils update in December.

Southend Council and most other councils put up council tax each year. Why, when they could dip into their reserves (especially election years) to keep the council blue / red / yellow etc

The reserves are there to ensure that the money from taxpayers is put into development opportunities which deliver future income streams which benefits the council. The Seaway development would have earned them more than the £10m that was mentioned over a period of several years. After the initial outlay has been re-paid any future monies is additional income that the council benefits from.

This is what Thurrock Council gambled with with their move into renewable solar energy and they gambled big (and unfortunately put all their eggs literally into one guys pocket)

Whilst the Council could lend the trust monies to clear the debt, what are the council expecting back. The exact money lent to be re-paid back or are they going to be acting on the best interests of the taxpayers and ensuring that they get more than what has been lent Like any investor they will be looking to get a good return on their money that has been lent.

 

[RHB]

Your friends Mum has a point.
We have a catchment area of half a million people.
Less than 6,000. Are interested in paying to watch football.

There are loads of chain stores which are similar to Wilko, B&M, The Range, Poundland, Home Bargains, and the list goes on. There's only ONE Southend Utd, nuff said.

 

[bazzashrimper]

There are loads of chain stores which are similar to Wilko, B&M, The Range, Poundland, Home Bargains, and the list goes on. There's only ONE Southend Utd, nuff said.

We are similar to Barcelona FC though

 

[RHB]

We are similar to Barcelona FC though

Totally skint?

 

[JB Shrimper]

We are similar to Barcelona FC though

Messi plays for neither of us?

 

[* ORM *]

We are similar to Barcelona FC though

We have a longer pier (and more high street crackheads)

 

[gpd]

Don't be fooled.

SCC are one of the richest councils in the entire country.

It has been stated, they have reserves of £90m+ and were about to throw £10m+ at the Seaway project before it went tits up.

If they can (from a political/legal viewpoint) and want (will they fear a backlash from resident non-shrimpers?) to help out financially, they are easily in a comfortable financial position to do so.

Indeed. Talk of SCC having "no money" is far from the truth. The £14m overspend does not mean we have no money at all. We have very healthy reserves and also that £10m set aside for investing into the now defunct Seaway project. Don't let the Conservative led minority administration determine what is possible. They are simply into scaring people atm. It's all they have. They could invest and buy RH. Albeit for a few years whilst the club recovers and gets promotions. Then...when we are where we really should be in the EPL.... then the club owners buy the ground back with a bit extra for goodwill. Everyone wins. COYB's!

 

[fbm]

It's all looking a bit desperate now, isn't it?

But there is possibly another outcome or two here.

1) Ron could decide to dip into his family fund again (if one exists) although this is unlikely,
or

2) The club have come to arrangements with the supporting creditors to the WUP and they have agreed that, if the Order is dismissed, then they will agree to staged payments (which will have to be set down and agreed in writing I would imagine). Then it's just HMRC to pay and this means the club only needs to raise £250-odd grand to survive.

It's not ideal and it just kicks the can down the road further. But the club would live to fight another day.

I can't see anything else happening before 4th to be honest.

 

[superblue24]

Without wanting to turn this into a political point, it doesn't sit well with me looking to the council to pay our debts off, or provide a loan (which would be secured against what?). I don't live in Southend anymore, but I would expect that there are far more pressing projects to be invested in than SUFC, plenty of potholes/wonky pavements to fix. Most of the population support West Ham and while they might be supportive initially of helping the club out, may soon begrudge the decision when it comes to pass that the millions invested in the club which has disappeared from other planned projects. I think it's a bad idea, and the wrong place to be looking for help (other than trying to find a buyer!!)

As I've stated many times now, we need a new owner who can in the short term invest in getting us out of the NL and L2, and then hopefully we can stabilize under a well managed club.