Breaking News Today's Echo - Who owns the Blues? (2010 thread)

[colusponge22]

To be fair there are Little Chefs on the A12 with a greater capacity than your ground.

And there are 5 a side teams with more players than you at the moment ;)

 

[palexander]

And there are 5 a side teams with more players than you at the moment ;)

Touche! :D

 

[Jam_Man]

I see what ur saying jam man but from my understanding of it is that Ron Messiah Martin was struggling to get the finances put together, well surly it would have been easier to get the finances for the smaller stadium together than the larger one considering that the stadium is not the main money maker of the development but is likely to be the main financial cost on the site then surly reducing the cost of the stadium would have made it look a more inviting investment to the banks and other financial backers

Yes he is as the credit crunch killed any sort of financing, he wouldnt have sorted it out if it was 20 million Im sure. Sadly he doesnt have the money to do it on his own, nor do we have the council willing to pay for a "community stadium".

We cant even pay our players, any sort of multi million pound financing seems well beyond our means.

Anyway, 18,000 would be the minimum for our needs, we get 11,500 at times now. Its not like those extra 4,000 seats would make the development 70% cheaper....

 

[Jam_Man]

And there are 5 a side teams with more players than you at the moment ;)

Why have 20 players in June/July when there are no games. Thats £30,000 down the pan right away.

We are clearly waiting for the first day of training and then a bus of players will arrive and we will be fine.

....probably.

 

[pickledseal]

Anyway, where is Ron's response to the Echo...?

 

[colusponge22]

im sure we could lend you 10/11 with the size of our squad at the moment, But that is what happens when you have 3 managers leave in the space of 2 seasons the 4th manager to come along gets left with 3 different managers squads

 

[Mad Cyril]

im sure we could lend you 10/11 with the size of our squad at the moment, But that is what happens when you have 3 managers leave in the space of 2 seasons the 4th manager to come along gets left with 3 different managers squads

...and a stadium purchased from Wickes.

 

[Beefy]

I see what ur saying jam man but from my understanding of it is that Ron Messiah Martin was struggling to get the finances put together, well surly it would have been easier to get the finances for the smaller stadium together than the larger one considering that the stadium is not the main money maker of the development but is likely to be the main financial cost on the site then surly reducing the cost of the stadium would have made it look a more inviting investment to the banks and other financial backers

The stadium isn't the main cost. I think I recall that the stadium itself would cost in the region of £25m. The overall development is supposedly costing three time that.

Someone mentioned 'cost per seat' earlier, but the cost per seat will decrease as the development gets bigger.

 

[ElstreeBlue]

No it hasnt you are right.

We were all surprised at 22k but most thought 18k would be right.

The original comment from the col U fan was that if we had gone down the same route as them we would have been fine. Thats wrong, we would still be skint, we cant afford a 20 million stadium either and we would be just as screwed as we are now with a 14,000 stadium in the pipeline.

Its not the size of the stadium thats caused the problem, itsthe fact we are going for a stadium at all.

However if we hadnt gone for it then Ron Martin wouldnt have bankrolled the club for the last 7 years.

So we were really in a no win situation and all we can hope for is that the ground stillhappens and someone comes in to buy him out now.

JM - Please amplify that statement. How much of Ron's own money (ie not borrowed from third parties such as Sainsbury's or other lenders) has he put into the club?

 

[Rayleigh Weir]

And there are 5 a side teams with more players than you at the moment ;)

And bigger crowds than you...

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

From all we seem to be hearing Ron Martin (think of him what you will) appears to be a busted flush. Doesn't look as though anyone wants to deal with him anymore and that probably certainly includes players thinking of signing a contract for the club. He seems to have little or nothing to offer SUFC anymore and cash injections would appear to be filling the huge holes in his finances. I am not confident now that anything is going to be sorted at the club whikst he remains at the helm. My only consolation is the belief that Sainsbury's are trying to sort this out but the time scale is now getting incredibly short.

 

[Fairport]

A very interesting and informative read in todays Echo. Confirms what we already know, Ron seems out of his depth financially with such a big project. The way I see it is that Sainsbury's (who also have their own bank) are the only people anywhere in the world who will lend him money. His credit worthiness seems to be zero if the facts in the Echo are accurate. Obviously it is in Sainsbury's own interest to keep the project alive and they could well be our saviours when the dust has settled on this and we look back in a few years time.

 

[colu_mike7]

Our stadium has just a shade over 10k seats, but can easily be expanded to 18k, if in the very unlikely event it needs to be. That'd more than easily cover your needs and at a considerably cheaper cost to build.

It's in Sainsbury's interests to quickly turn your club into a profitable business concern, if they acquired the majority shareholding, selling you on at a profit. Obviously without money being syphoned out by the chairman, and players the club can afford, it's realistic for the books to balance.

It genuinely looks like there's a light at the end of the tunnel for you.:)

 

[united we stand]

We all knew that Ron had no money so this just tells us what we already knew/thought we knew. Surely the fact that Sainsburys are going ahead with buying Prospects (assuming it happens) is good news?

There are only two ways forward for Sainsburys

--Their solicitors think they have found a loophole in the convenant which is going to allow them to watch the club go under and build on roots hall
--They are going to make dame sure that the whole FF move works . If it doesn't they have thrown away X million, an amount that will have risen if they buy prospects.

So to me the most pressing question is - Does anyone who is qualified to have a view , fully understand the covenant and what happens if Southend United goes under or is not a league team ?

 

[Pubey]

i've struggled with a lot of the details so far, and my brain is completely fried from Glastonbury... however isn't the general point that the stadium development is still well under way?

If so then the crux is how the club will operate in the short, medium and long-term if the power shifts from Ron to Sainos/A N Other, before and after we (hopefully) move to a new ground.

Sainos could easily financially benefit from the FF development, especially with a club using the stadium - however they hold all the cards and so it's worrying that we could be completely 'sold out'.

Personally it looks extremely bleak for next season, however the basic truth still holds - we can't be a successful league 1 club in the long run at RH, we absolutely have to have a ground that gives us alternative revenue streams. This is the same for all league clubs. I can't think of many who have similar aspirations as us, and a similar ground to us, who aren't in the process of improving/rebuilding their home. It's only going to get more competitive, as well as hard to operate as 'just' a football team - it's big business.

Are Saino's going to destroy a football club? I can't see them being quite that ruthless, but it's very uncertain times indeed and I think people are right to be extremely worried about our club.

 

[Beefy]

Not being in the league shouldn't matter, but if we went bust the ground would surely have to be used for something. But eitherway, the covenant shouldn't be seen as something that could save us even if we stay in business for now and stay in the League. As I've said before, if the Club were to be legally evicted for non-payment of rent then I'd expect a legal challenge to the covenant to be a formality.

 

[ManchesterBlues]

And what does the covenant actually say?

 

[Mick]

.Sainos could easily financially benefit from the FF development, especially with a club using the stadium - however they hold all the cards and so it's worrying that we could be completely 'sold out'.

Of course, it's not as if we've been owned by anyone who held all the cards before is it !

At least this time ownership would be by something/someone of substance.

 

[Beefy]

How much do we think that Sainsburys stand to make from that shop at Roots Hall? I think it was rumoured to be in the top five in the country in terms of size, but just how lucrative to them is this opportunity?

If they stand to make hundreds of millions on this deal then that's one thing but if it's going to be a lot less than that then there has to be a danger eventually of them having enough with all of this...

 

[Pubey]

Yep fair point. I suppose I'm one of those who still believes that RM was trying to achieve something both for him and for SUFC. However he hasn't quite known when to get help or bail out. He's got in very deep and now he isn't in a strong bargaining position with Sainos, and so his stubborness may be a problem, and the uncertainty of what a Saino's ownership would mean for SUFC is worrying.