Southend United
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| Full name | Southend United Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Shrimpers, The Seasiders, The Blues |
| Founded | 19 May 1906 |
| Ground | Roots Hall |
| Capacity | 12,392 |
| Chairman | Ron Martin |
| Manager | Phil Brown |
| League | League One |
| 2015–16 | League One, 14th |
| Website | Club home page |
Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of English football. Southend are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference to the area's maritime industry included as one of the quarterings on the club badge.
Founded 19 May 1906 in the Blue Boar pub Southend has been a member of the Football League since 1920. The club has spent most of its League career in the English lower divisions, with seven seasons in the League's second tier (Division 2/Championship).
The club is based at Roots Hall Stadium in Prittlewell, with plans to move to a new stadium at Fossetts Farm.
The club has played at five grounds: the original Roots Hall, the Kursaal, the Greyhound Park, the rented Writtle Street (home of Chelmsford City F.C.) and again at Roots Hall.
Roots Hall was the first stadium that the club owned and was built on the site of their original home, albeit at a lower level. The site previous to Southend purchasing it in 1952 had been used as a sand quarry, by the council as a landfill site and by the local gas board (which was convinced to move to Progress Road). It took 10 years to fully complete the building of Roots Hall. The first game was played on 20 August 1955, a 3–1 Division Three (South) victory over Norwich City, but the ground was far from complete. The main East Stand had barely been fitted and ran along only 50 yards of the touchline, whilst only a few steps of terracing encircled the ground, with the North, West and the huge South Bank still largely unconcreted. The North Stand had a single-barrelled roof which ran only the breadth of the penalty area, whilst the West Bank was covered at its rear only by a similar structure.
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