Roots Hall

During the early 21st century there was lengthy discussion of a new 22,000-seat stadium at Fossetts Farm, but a change of ownership in 2024 ended prospects of that development, with the new owners instead pursuing redevelopment of Roots Hall.

After the war the club elected to move to a new ground at the Kursaal and Roots Hall first became a quarry for sand then a tipping site.

[4] Work on the ground could not begin immediately owing to the large quantities of rubbish which had been dumped on the site in the club's absence, which took nearly a year to clear.

[6] Roots Hall's construction had not been completed when the ground was opened, with some stands only running for a short distance along the touchline and others waiting to be concreted over.

The west bank roof, originally set back from the pitch, was extended forwards to the touchline creating a double-barrel effect, while work also commenced on finishing the terracing.

[7] The east stand was extended in both directions so it ran the full length of the touchline in 1966, and around the same time the club installed floodlighting.

[7] The ownership of Ron Martin from 1998 onwards saw some investment in the ground's facilities in the early 2000s with the opening of a new ticket office and club shop, replacement of the old style turnstiles with modern electronic ones, and extension of executive accommodation at the rear of the east stand.

[10] However this period saw no major redevelopment and expenditure on maintenance dwindled to a bare minimum as the club faced increasing financial woes which would eventually led to visible deterioration around the ground and culminated in capacity restrictions being imposed on the "crumbling" stadium by safety authorities in the 2020s.

[13] In January 2007, the club received planning permission from both Southend and Rochford councils for the stadium, retail outlets, a hotel and new training facilities but this was subject to rubber-stamping from the Secretary of State.

[2] Negotiations over the club's sale continued into mid-2024 as the deal remained conditional upon Southend Council's approval of property transactions.

[28][29] Citizen Housing missed the council's deadline, but there was sufficient progress to persuade Cowan to continue negotiations about new heads of terms ready for new due diligence.

[30] Nonetheless, the Shrimpers Trust warned that they would start a phoenix club and make Roots Hall an asset of community value if needed.

They were able to make this happen by separating the transaction of property from the takeover deal, with Roots Hall initially remaining under Martin's ownership but with a £1 lease agreed for over 20 years, and a path to acquire the freehold "well within that timeframe".

[32] The first few weeks under new ownership saw immediate investment to bring the ground up to scratch including a new video scoreboard,[33] new external signage[34] and increased bar capacity.

In September 2024 the consortium announced "medium-term" plans to increase the stadium's capacity by opening part of the North Bank to home supporters, to introduce a "Fan Zone" outside the stadium, to replace the floodlights with more efficient LEDs, and to bring forward plans to more widely refurbish the West and South Stands, and replace the East Stand entirely.

South Stand