An artist's impression will be all that remains of the original plans!
Kudos to those who have been warning for a while now that Fossetts Farm was not going to turn out as Shrimpers supremo Ron Martin dreamed of.
The official site revealed the new plans have been submitted to Southend Council and it will be partially built with no main stand, have only three sides, and a reduced capacity of 14,000.
Well, the last bit makes sense anyway.
Even so, the club are hoping they will be in a position to add the main stand within five years of the other three, boosting the capacity by 8,000 back up to the 22,000 seater originally hoped for.
However, council planners were quick to point out this 'cannot be guaranteed', and many of the faithful would believe on it never being seen at all.
Anyway, whatever the future holds, the council have passed the new proposals through this afternoon.
It's all the recessions fault of course, and as the main attraction of Uncle Ron's money making scheme was the main stand that included a 114-bed hotel and conference facilities, he must feel a beaten man.
The ground had to built of course, Sainsbury's were not going to sit around and let the club take it's money without pushing for it's Roots Hall development sooner rather than later, especially as Tesco have got a march on them with approval for their new mega market in the heart of the town in Short Street.
Ron had to work out a new startegy to get the thing built in some capacity and now we know how, with a huge cutback on the chances of making huge profits on the deal.
SUFC took the opportunity to 'place on record it's thanks for the excellent support the council continues to show the development, identifying the benefits that will be afforded to the Town - hopefully City.'
Southend City, not sure I like that.
The official site reveals the three-sided ground idea:
www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~2295021,00.html
Council says yes:
www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~2295021,00.html
Tesco 1 Sainsbury 0 (half-time):
www.echo-news.co.uk/news/
8842553.New___50m_Southend_Tesco_to_create_500_jobs/?action=complain&cid=9140523