Torquay United Fans Forum

GULL 67 wrote: ↑11 May 2023, 22:16 Can't see why your posting on here chaps, it's got nothing to do with us. Me and the Boy are looking forward to a decent season in the NLS with loads of local derbies (one season only mind). Always felt a bit sorry visiting your Town and seeing a horrible West Ham shop in your town centre. Thought the cheeky bastards should have more class than to be encroaching on you territory. Best wishes.

There hasnt been a west ham shop in southend for about 20 years. It kept getting vandalised.

Hi Southend fan here.

As much as I will miss the Torquay away day/weekend teams finish where they finish.

A few things to clarify.

The club does not live beyond it's means. We have a healthy support for national league level. A 6k average and 8500 on the last day.

What we have is a man solely focused on not spending a penny of his money on the club apart from essentially keeping it on life support so that the club can move stadium and he makes, reportedly 22 million profit.

He likes to treat everyone at the club with utter contempt. He hasn't attended games for a while due to the abuse he gets.

We have been under several embargoes, which has led to 2 relegations and killed our chances of the play offs this season.

This is our 20th winding up order under Ron Martins ownership. Roots hall has not had a penny spent on it for 10 years and sections are condemned. If it fails it's annual H&S check, we could be ground sharing.

It's not the fans fault. We have been incredibly loyal in the face of oblivion on many occasions.

We do not have big name or big earning players. We aren't living beyond our means as some on here are suggesting.

He doesn't have any chance of paying the tax bill and nobody would touch him with a bargepole for a loan.

He is a terrible owner, an odious little man and exactly the sort that should be nowhere near a football club.

Our only hope is that we are sold in the coming weeks. There are rumours of various consortium's with Steve Nash (basketball legend) and a few billionaire pals looking to invest. I think this will be presented to the court to get a stay of execution. That might be enough for HMRC but with us still under an embargo and an exodus of players expected, the national league could still kick us out.

It's never dull at southend but this is the closest to bust we have ever been.

A club averaging 6k in the 5th tier should never be in this situation.

I hope that clears things a little and hope you come back at the first attempt.

ferrarilover wrote:You're not wrong Shrimpy. We got all the way to the ground at Crewe once before a steward told us it was off. This was 7 days after we got to within about 50 miles of Accrington (happy for Diamondgirl to correct me on this) when we heard that match was off, turned off the motorway, round the roundabout and back home again, what a cake and arse party that week was.

Seriously though Shrimps, whatever you do, make damn sure you check with our club first before travelling, because it is properly throwing it down here and it is no exaggeration to say that the pitch looked about 10% away from total destruction on Tuesday.

Any prediction on away fans Shrimpy?

Matt.

I reckon about 300-400 odd will make the long journey west . You never know whats gonna happen with our support. I went to blackpool once in january and about 1200 southend turned up so anything is possible lol

Id feel for our fans if a second fixture in a week got called off . The game at accrington got called off just 1hr before kick off and that is a mammoth journey to get to and be sent home and torquay is just as bad if not worse.

There has been more cancelations this year than i have every known

Basil 75.

I have always been amazed that clubs right down in the southwest dont get bigger gates.

Plymouth aside you exeter and yeovil are quite isolated for the premier league.

I know league two is not a great draw for anyone , but its always puzzled me that with very little else in the area in terms of larger clubs to draw fans away that you can only achieve what you have been.

As i have said before i have visited plainmoor on a good few occasions and have always had a great weekend as torquay is a great town its just a shame that you dont get the level of support that lesser towns seem to give there team.

Our local rivals colchester are a prime example. A few months back they were looking to go into second spot in league one and yet could only muster 3k and struggle to get more than 4-5k unless charlton etc are in town and that is with a wealthy chairman and a new stadium.

It doesnt always work.

Darlington are the ultimate fail in that respect, but they have a small catchment area dwarfed by newcastle middlesborough and sunderland and it was almost suicide to build a 28k stadium. They now get just 1500 fans rattling around in that stadium which is rediculous.

Ferrarilover you make some great points

Unfortunately we will not have any money until we move and increase revenue as there isnt a lot of money to be made just in football so you need concerts shopping centres and non matchday money to bring the club forward.

We have already sold roots hall to sainsbury's and they are eager to be on site as they want to build one of the biggest supermarkets in britain there.

They cannot do so until we are in our new stadium and given that they are impatient and are investing 21 million i think its fair to say that moving and quickly is best for all concerned and that staying is not an option.

Roots hall just isnt big enough to go any higher than a top league 1 side and although the official capacity is 12500 we have never achievd that with segregation and health and safety. We mananged to get 11,700 odd in for a league two game against yeovil a few years back and we havent been able to match that since. Even the visit of chelsea and man utd yeilded a gate of 11,500 respectively .

Imagine the extra revenue would have brought for those games.

I think like most you would be surprised how many fans a successful southend side could get in . We are currently going through one of the worst spells in our history and still draw 5k almost each game.

I agree that 22k is a bit OTT and maybe a 16k dome wouls serve us better but remember it will be built in phases the first being 14k.

Only time will tell but wether we like it or not its gonna happen and we will have to say a teary goodbye to roots hall sooner or later.

Fair play away day.

My point is this .

If we are still regularly getting 5k in the basement league after being relegated and almost going bust , and having the most hated chairman for years on top of sacking mr southend Steve tilson, then imagine what we would have at a gleaming new stadium with investment to challenge in this league and beyond.

We were woeful last year got relegated and still pulled in a few 10k+ crowds


Im not for one minute saying that southend is a sleeping giant , but im confident that we could be pulling a regular 10-14k in the championship at a new ground.

Re the new stadium:

A couple of points of note.

The southend catchment area is huge . We have the most populated county in england

We have are averaging 5k this season and when you think about what our fans have been through this season and last its a miracle really

We have lost 50 % of our attendance in just 5 seasons. We were averaging over 10k back in the 2005/2006 season albiet in the championship relegation dogfight in a delapidated stadium that is roots hall

Im sure that once we get into the play-offs we will see regular crowds of 6k+ weekly in the league which is excellent at this level.

The stadium will now be built in 2 phases . 14k horse shoe first followed by a two tier main stand making the dome and 22k

The stadium will push our revenue through the roof as there will be numerous revenue streams to come with the stadium (ie) Shopping centre casino and hotels all linked to the club and its owners not to memtion better corporate boxes that can be used on non matchdays aswell.

The fan base is there and if we build this we will be able to move forward which at roots hall we cant , its just not big enough to do much more than league 1.

Regarding the tax bill. Hrmc are on our case as we defaulted before . There was a meeting this week at the council to agree to a two phased developement which means in effect that work can begin in the coming months and sainsbury's will now advance us more of the 21million they are putting into this project as partners. As a result all future tax will now paid on time .

At the end of the day its all about ambition and we dont want to be a league 2 or 1 club anymore but a permanent fixture in the championship.

Swansea are a similar size to southend and made the leap from the vetch to the liberty and havent looked back since.

Hey,

Unfortunately cant get to the game this weekend but ive been to your place a good few times before and always had a great weekend.

Seems both teams have evened out since we last met.

Your were a decent side when we met earlier in the season were riding high at the top of the league. Since then you seem to have dropped off the pace a bit. I did think it slight arrogance from your manager at the time to say he didnt think you would get beat all season , especially as it was only a few games in, although that may have been some creative journalism.

We have just quietly gone about our business and let everyone right us off as a club in crisis both on and off the pitch and slowly but surely paul sturrock is doing a great job in shaping a team which was assembled in about 10 days. Most of the poor players or non tryers have now been moved on and we have brought in wisely .

We are certainly not the most skillfull team in the league that accolade goes to the likes of chesterfied shrewsbury and port vale , but we are a very very hardworking side who are quite direct and like to counter especially away from home where we have had more points.

I dont really know much about torquay as a side other than when you came to our place although im sure you can fill me in.

It seems that barring the odd one or two at the bottom or top of the league that everyone is capable of beating everyone else , but somehow we have had a run of just 1 defeat in 7 games with 5 wins and a draw. I genuinely feel play-offs is coming this season but it will be tight .

Think it will be an entertaining game and the players to watch on our side are Hall Grant and Corr.

Not sure how many will travel to your place but i would say maybe 2-300 will journey down.

All the best for the season after saturday

Shrimpy