What will Ron Martin do ......

[Beefy]

I wonder if it will be ever built now..the revised plans by Sainsburys want the store bigger, so more hold ups...From what I see of the plans their store takes up all the ground bar the actual stadium, so do they need the stadium?...RM has not a pot to **** in and his whole future and that of SUFC seems to be riding on a very thin string.

I so hope I am wrong of course and the fairy comes home riding in on her Unicorn.

What is actually planned for where the stadium is today?

 

[Jam_Man]

Houses...

See page 4

http://minutes.southend.gov.uk/akssouthend/images/att19041.pdf

 

[Mick]

Been worried for a longtime now that all the success on the pitch is just papering over the cracks of whats happening off the field. The lack of progress over FF is very worrying. How long will the Sainsburys money last? They have been very good to us but at the end of the day that money needs to be paid back and Sainsburys want Roots Hall.

If you think the last two or three seasons comprise "all that success", I'd hate to think what your idea of failure is.

Agree with the rest of your post though.

 

[Andy Murphy]

You make the assumption that we can continue to exist at Roots Hall.

The club loses money at Roots Hall and the only way it can survive there is if an owner subsidises it. Great if you can get one of them !

I'm making no such assumption, I'm simply suggesting we stand a better chance of existing if we aren't mounting debt and throwing money at a project that looks like it's never getting off the ground!

I also think that focusing on the short-term league performances will (hopefully) lead to promotion and should give us that bit more stability to validate the FF project. With the club's finances the way they are I don't see that throwing money into a bottomless pit is any sort of solution!

 

[Beefy]

Without the Fossetts Farm payout at the end of the rainbow there's no reason at all for anyone to bankroll the club. Shelving the stadium plans would be a potentially fatal move for the Club.

 

[Cricko]

Without the Fossetts Farm payout at the end of the rainbow there's no reason at all for anyone to bankroll the club. Shelving the stadium plans would be a potentially fatal move for the Club.

Seems to me they have already been shelved for about 4 years since planning was granted.

 

[Beefy]

They've been delayed, and personally I don't believe they'll happen and never really have done, but they've not been shelved. If (when?) we reach the point where either SUFC or Sainsburys decide to put the whole thing on the back burner for a few years then I really would fear for our future

 

[Jam_Man]

I'm making no such assumption, I'm simply suggesting we stand a better chance of existing if we aren't mounting debt and throwing money at a project that looks like it's never getting off the ground!

I also think that focusing on the short-term league performances will (hopefully) lead to promotion and should give us that bit more stability to validate the FF project. With the club's finances the way they are I don't see that throwing money into a bottomless pit is any sort of solution!

The club is already a bottomless pit.

The only way we could survive at Roots Hall is if someone came in and ran the club at a loss to themselves. Some owners are happy to do so, we would have to rely on that every single year of our existence if we stayed at Roots Hall.

As for focussing on short team league performance Im not sure how we could do that without any money and the club losing 100k per month ?

 

[Shrimpers are Magic]

They've been delayed, and personally I don't believe they'll happen and never really have done, but they've not been shelved. If (when?) we reach the point where either SUFC or Sainsburys decide to put the whole thing on the back burner for a few years then I really would fear for our future

Then why carry on if it's all just a facade? I know image is a large part of the business world but surely with the money Martin has put in it would be madness if he is carrying this on just to save face.

 

[Jam_Man]

Seems to me they have already been shelved for about 4 years since planning was granted.

So negative.

The Echo said in 2009 the stadium would be delayed and Ron cleared this up here :

http://www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~1530133,00.html

So as you can see there are no delays some 3 years later. Everything is rolling along lovely.

Hmmn.....

 

[Cricko]

So negative.

The Echo said in 2009 the stadium would be delayed and Ron cleared this up here :

http://www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~1530133,00.html

So as you can see there are no delays some 3 years later. Everything is rolling along lovely.

Hmmn.....

Good find Jam, and here IMO lies one of the stumbling blocks in all this..

"This included the retail park where we need to pre-let a large percentage of the units".


​

With so many shops and premises empty all around the town and the likes of Westfield, Lakeside and Bluewater taking a lot of what was once local trade. We have also seen the massive growth in on-line shopping even in the short time since the plans were first passed, so I do wonder how on earth they expect to fill the retail units

 

[Jam_Man]

I walked through Victoria Plaza on way to the Airshow and its pretty much as empty as it was when it opened.

Remember that guy complaining when ground was agreed that it would take away business from Victoria Plaza ? Well he hasnt had that competition for 4 years and still hasnt sold any shops.

As you say there is not a massive call for premises at the moment.

The off high street sites do seem to fair better, but with B&Q/Currys/Maplins already at Waitrose and Argos/PC World/Staples at the Airport you do have to wonder how many more of these types of stores would be interested.

 

[Cricko]

I don't think the high street will ever come back to what it once was...there is no need for it any more hence the amount of empty units..At one time even in Leigh where there is more money about you would hardly ever see an empty shop. I can think of 5 or 6 off the top of my head and others have closed over the past few years to turn it into Coffee/Cake city.

The delay in the project and the complete difference in the way people shop and where they go since the planning was passed, coupled with the uncertain economical climate makes RM's project seem to me to be about 5 years to late, if he is banking on help from the retail sector.

Let us hope I am wrong though. :unsure:

 

[Fairport]

As many others have pointed out, the whole proposal has worrying issues attached to it. The retail sector is struggling, therefore less units would be filled. The building industry is depressed with many developers holding back their original plans to build flats (Tescos plans for housing at Victoria Circus have been put on hold.) Regarding the main stand, Ron was hoping a hotel chain would be involved but he has missed the boat with other hotels such as Holiday Inn building a unit and cashing in on the success of the airport. It is difficult to know what type of business would be able to fund this stand.
All we can do is hope but it does not look good in the current climate!

 

[Beefy]

Hotel and conferencing facilities still seem the best option for the main stand. But my concern with the plans for that part of the ground were always that they were getting too involved with a hotel chain anyway. The selling point to us fans of that stand was that it would be the main earner for the club but if a hotel chain is running it then they'd surely be the ones benefiting. We'd want to control those income streams ourself but that means finding a huge amount of money to fund it.

 

[Kent Shrimper]

Hotel and conferencing facilities still seem the best option for the main stand. But my concern with the plans for that part of the ground were always that they were getting too involved with a hotel chain anyway. The selling point to us fans of that stand was that it would be the main earner for the club but if a hotel chain is running it then they'd surely be the ones benefiting. We'd want to control those income streams ourself but that means finding a huge amount of money to fund it.

It can still generate decent money, Hotel would initially pay reduced rent but coupled with conference/exhibition facilities and a casino it would be very desirable. Look at the Ricoh, it's what we should be aiming for

 

[Billy is the best]

It can still generate decent money, Hotel would initially pay reduced rent but coupled with conference/exhibition facilities and a casino it would be very desirable. Look at the Ricoh, it's what we should be aiming for

The Ricoh is a poor example but probably close to what we will get if the stadium is ever built. Coventry city have to pay a large rent to use the Ricoh arena, but the benifits from the conferance facilities go to the landlord.

 

[Cricko]

It can still generate decent money, Hotel would initially pay reduced rent but coupled with conference/exhibition facilities and a casino it would be very desirable. Look at the Ricoh, it's what we should be aiming for

That ship passed by ages ago mate, there are only 3 casino licenses allowed in Southend and the Park Inn snapped up the last one a few months back.

 

[Kent Shrimper]

The Ricoh is a poor example but probably close to what we will get if the stadium is ever built. Coventry city have to pay a large rent to use the Ricoh arena, but the benifits from the conferance facilities go to the landlord.

We need the facility to generate as much as humanly possible to ever be self sufficient because the smaller the pot the less RM will set aside for self sufficiency

 

[Kent Shrimper]

That ship passed by ages ago mate, there are only 3 casino licenses allowed in Southend and the Park Inn snapped up the last one a few months back.

I never knew that about the 3 licenses and that's really disappointing