Cobblers...... It's true

[The Yid]

Home games at Sixfiields... Who's up for some beers in Northampton then?

[Nick]

I'm in - in fact went to sixfields more times last season than I went to the Ricoc

[king chillout]

Count me out.

I can seriously see the "home" fans numbering in their hundreds.

If they go ahead with this madness they will be out of business after a few months.

Only the Football League can save us now.....so without a doubt those dithering bunch of **** will do fuck all.

[Des]

As I said before, away days only from now on.

[Realist]

Great crack. :-/

[Roger Mellie]

I'm done. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

[plastic scouser]

Richardson, Mcgin&t, , Hoover etc....

.. we fucking told you so.

[adge]

How good is a Micky Adams 8th place finish looking now!

[billythefish]

So ACL the company that doesnt need CCFC playing at the Ricoh and had other sports clubs lined up have now issued a statement saying -

ACL's Point Of View

Arena Coventry Limited have said that they wish to block the move that will take Coventry City to Northampton Town for a minimum of three years.

Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Les Reid, ACL said; "We want to see the Sky Blues playing home games in their home city at their rightful home the Ricoh Arena.

"This is what the supporters of Coventry City are pleading for.

"The way the fans have been treated by the Club’s owners is utterly cruel and any proposal that the Club should be ripped from Coventry and relocated to Northampton, or anywhere else outside the city, is absolutely heart breaking for everyone involved. It cannot make financial sense for the Club.

"With the Club set to remain in administration for some months to come, we have already made an offer to the Joint Administrator for them to play at the Ricoh Arena during this time.

"So far we have heard absolutely nothing in response to this offer which is astonishing given the circumstances.

"There is no reason for the Club to leave the City of Coventry. We trust that the Football League, as an organisation which holds the passions and interests of fans close to its heart, will not sanction this proposed move under any circumstances."

Sounds to me that they do need CCFC as much as the club needs the Ricoh. Its just a mess with neither side willing to back down and backs up the fact that you cant trust a word either of them says. If only we could get rid of both groups of lying barstewards. Oh well the ashes starts soon!

[The Yid]

These guys really take being a **** to the next level. They couldn't give a fuck whilst they were bleeding us dry, and now they are in danger of losing their cash cow, and probably their business overall - they try to play on the emotion of fans with that pathetic statement.

They couldn't give a fuck about our club. I hope they go bust.

[Realist]

Nothing to do with the casino looking to pull out if the football team doesn't play there of course. I'm done with it, I'll go to a few away games if the mood takes me, but I'm finished if the home games are at Northampton.

[dog rout 21]

These guys really take being a **** to the next level. They couldn't give a fuck whilst they were bleeding us dry, and now they are in danger of losing their cash cow, and probably their business overall - they try to play on the emotion of fans with that pathetic statement.

They couldn't give a fuck about our club. I hope they go bust.

Exactly, their little fucking game has exploded in their faces and they've been panicking for weeks now so have tried to turn it into a moral quest in the name of the fans and city funny how the council seem to be getting away with risking large amounts of tax payers money without anyone batting an eyelid

I hope every single party involved goes out of business.

Having said that, I'll see you in Northampton

[The Englander]

These guys really take being a **** to the next level. They couldn't give a fuck whilst they were bleeding us dry, and now they are in danger of losing their cash cow, and probably their business overall - they try to play on the emotion of fans with that pathetic statement.

They couldn't give a fuck about our club. I hope they go bust.

Exactly, their little fucking game has exploded in their faces and they've been panicking for weeks now so have tried to turn it into a moral quest in the name of the fans and city funny how the council seem to be getting away with risking large amounts of tax payers money without anyone batting an eyelid

I hope every single party involved goes out of business.

Having said that, I'll see you in Northampton

Nail. On. Head. Both of you.

[AD]

I wonder how much we're paying for the stadium use? And are we paying up front (if not unlucky NTFC, you won't be seeing that) How do they intend to fix the doubled up fixtures (Expect most of our games to be moved to a Sunday)?

But most importantly of all ARE WE GETTING THE BEER AND BURGER MONEY? After all that is the lifeblood of our finances and vital to FFP. It's worth (according to TF at a forum) a whopping £600K A YEAR in revenue (£100k profit) with the gates we were getting, so actually quite a bit less now. Who gives a shit that you're losing £2.3m in ticket sales to get it (assuming 5k less crowds @ £20 per ticket for 23 games).

I mean look at the figures. At the Ricoh with 10k people paying av £20 for 23 games is c.£4.5m. With no pie money that's £4.5m revenue. Take off the 400k rent they were offered and you're left with £4m ish

Now lets assume we get 5k at Northants (people expect it to be lower but I can see a lot giving in to temptation) at the same price (although how they can expect people to pay the same price for shitter facilities I don't know, but then it has been a staple of their rent reduction argument) that's £2.3m. Plus pie money which let's say is half what TF stated at the forum due to lower crowds so £300k makes it circa £2.5m. Giving those stats wouldn't you move even though it pisses off all your customers?!

Revenue DOWN by £2m per annum (when it's all about FFP apparently). DOWN £1.5m if you incorporate stadium costs. And that's assuming we get to play at Sixfields for free! And doesn't take account of lost merchandise, sponsorship, advertising etc. And gives a high end estimate, even by TF's own expectation's, of the number of fans who will follow the team, so all in all that's an outcome with the stats favouring the move.

All for a small piece of the pie. Which as anyone knows is contracted out to Compass and so is therefore no longer ACL's to give as they have a legally binding contract. But of course such things mean fuck all to SISU. Why shouldn't ACL renege on the contract and get fined huge sums in order to give SISU the cash for free instead?

None of this makes any sense - financially, logistically, long term strategy. It's complete and utter bollocks, It's all about getting hold of the stadium, and before all the 'getting the club and stadium back together' crap, SISU would just hold it in a separate company and charge the club for it's use instead of ACL doing so. And if you doubt that, when asked specifically if SISU would put the proposed new stadium under CCFC stewardship at the forum, TF refused to answer, which says it all.

As for if whether people go or not, it's personal choice and I don't hold it against anyone who does. I think you're stupid, as it's akin to having someone holding a gun to your head but realising it's not loaded, so you then give them the ammo to help out, but as I say it's your own choice. I hope you get to see the team play well and win comfortably.

[The Yid]

As I have said on several occasions, it starts with the pie money, but is more about making money from the non-football activites too. If Coldplay or Muse play the stadium - why the fuck shouldn't the club get some money for it. If you prefer it to go to the Council to fund their expenses or sit in some reserve bank account that's fine - but it should be going to CCFC.

The club should pay for the money borrowed to build stadium - over a time that is manageable, and then they should own it. Higgs should get back what they paid and some interest on it to go to charitable causes. Why should the club be allowed to be ripped off and never own the stadium. Essentially you are championing the 'Brighthouse' way of buying.
When ACL was created it should have been intrinsically linked with CCFC - essentially working for the club to find the best way to pay off the stadium and then make money for the CCFC. That model could have reaped dividends for the club and Coventry as a whole, however some greedy **** at the Council saw an opportunity to rip the club off and took it, and now everyone is fucked.

At least a stadium owned by CCFC will make the club more sustainable if we survive that long. As for the FFP - I would imagine this will be deferred until the club are in their own stadium, this would have been part of the conversation all along.

[AD]

As I have said on several occasions, it starts with the pie money, but is more about making money from the non-football activites too. If Coldplay or Muse play the stadium - why the fuck shouldn't the club get some money for it. If you prefer it to go to the Council to fund their expenses or sit in some reserve bank account that's fine - but it should be going to CCFC.

The club should pay for the money borrowed to build stadium - over a time that is manageable, and then they should own it. Higgs should get back what they paid and some interest on it to go to charitable causes. Why should the club be allowed to be ripped off and never own the stadium. Essentially you are championing the 'Brighthouse' way of buying.
When ACL was created it should have been intrinsically linked with CCFC - essentially working for the club to find the best way to pay off the stadium and then make money for the CCFC. That model could have reaped dividends for the club and Coventry as a whole, however some greedy **** at the Council saw an opportunity to rip the club off and took it, and now everyone is fucked.

At least a stadium owned by CCFC will make the club more sustainable if we survive that long. As for the FFP - I would imagine this will be deferred until the club are in their own stadium, this would have been part of the conversation all along.

Why shouldn't the club get the money? Because they didn't pay the £120m it cost to build the fucking place! My family rented part of the Village Hotel for a birthday party. Did they give us the takings from the tills and the rooms while we were there? No, fucking wankers.How do they get away with it!

You say the club should pay back the money borrowed to build the stadium over a time that is manageable. How long do you think it'll take for them to repay £120m? (I happen to agree in principle BTW - why the deal wasn't set up as a mortgage type deal with overall ownership at the end rather than just a loan is a mystery to me, but we're way beyond that stage now and that doesn't excuse SISU's actions)

But instead you seem to think it fair that a company owned and funded by some absolutely fucking minted individuals and enterprises should be allowed to take the stadium for a pittance, putting a local charity and local services at risk? And if the concert revenue is the ultimate case, what's the logic in building a new stadium? They won't get fucking concerts at that when performers can have larger indoor venues just up the road in Birmingham.

And as I said, it (either the new stadium or Ricoh) wouldn't be owned by the club, SISU would own it and charge the club a 'management fee', almost certainly on a sliding scale depending on how much it earned. So then even though the money would technically go through CCFC aiding FFP it would then go straight back out in management charges. So we could spend more on wages, but unfortunately the actual money would already be gone and we'll always be struggling. Which then gives SISU a chance to look all heroic and 'fund' the club, by which they mean loan it some cash and charge interest. In summary, CCFC earn money, SISU take money, SISU give money back to CCFC, but charge them for doing so. Nice little earner if you can get it eh?

Up until now I have never been one of those people who say "I'm never going again until x chairman/owner/manager has gone" but this time I am, because SISU will be the worse thing that has ever happened to this club and until they're gone this club will always be in serious danger of catastrophic failure so as they can pull the emotional blackmail string as and when they want things their own way. And the only real way I can see that happening is by starving them of money. Yes, it puts the club in immediate danger, but I'd rather a death that was swift and honourable than a painful drawn out suffering in servitude to some ethically bankrupt charlatan who would happily dispatch you at any given moment once you're no longer of any use to them. Chop off my gangrenous leg and let me risk bleeding to death rather than letting it slowly infect the rest of me and kill me anyway.

And have you seen the latest? Pulling the academy out of the Alan Higgs Centre. And what evil deed did the AHT do? They built a place specifically for the academy to allow the club to retain its status because no-one would lend them the money to build it themselves (sound familiar?), lets them use the pitches for free and use the remaining facilities at a massive discount. All they had to do was maintain it. And AH even provided the equipment for them to do that. Now stuff needs replacing or repairing, and apparently SISU think it's unfair that they, despite using the things, should be made to pay for that.

But expect a statement saying they were kicked out and the academy has been put under threat by Alan Higgs because of it as they now don't have access to indoor training, and you'll just open wide and swallow the lot like some starry eyed casting couch wannabe. These are immoral **** of the very highest order and if you had any sense you'd be getting them away from this club as fast as possible.

[king chillout]

As I have said on several occasions, it starts with the pie money, but is more about making money from the non-football activites too. If Coldplay or Muse play the stadium - why the fuck shouldn't the club get some money for it. If you prefer it to go to the Council to fund their expenses or sit in some reserve bank account that's fine - but it should be going to CCFC.

The club should pay for the money borrowed to build stadium - over a time that is manageable, and then they should own it. Higgs should get back what they paid and some interest on it to go to charitable causes. Why should the club be allowed to be ripped off and never own the stadium. Essentially you are championing the 'Brighthouse' way of buying.
When ACL was created it should have been intrinsically linked with CCFC - essentially working for the club to find the best way to pay off the stadium and then make money for the CCFC. That model could have reaped dividends for the club and Coventry as a whole, however some greedy **** at the Council saw an opportunity to rip the club off and took it, and now everyone is fucked.

At least a stadium owned by CCFC will make the club more sustainable if we survive that long. As for the FFP - I would imagine this will be deferred until the club are in their own stadium, this would have been part of the conversation all along.

I look at it from the other side of the fence......

why should the tax-payers of Coventry pay for a stadium then hand over that stadium to a hedge fund for free so the hedge fund can make a shit load of money out of it ?

The club should own the ground or part of it, I agree. But they need to pay for it, not hold the football club of the City as a hostage and demand they get their way and it cost them nothing.
SISU don't want to pay for it but other parties do, so I think the council should call SISU's bluff and let them stew.

As I have said many times, the £1 that SISU were once offered for the club will look like a great deal if they carry on with this shit.

[AD]

As for the FFP - I would imagine this will be deferred until the club are in their own stadium, this would have been part of the conversation all along.

Just noticed this. So, the entire league put their FFP plans on hold just because we're groundsharing? Or they let us off because of it whilst all those playing in their own stadiums have to abide by it? Why the hell would they do that? Every club would be aiming to groundshare to be given special dispensation from the rules.

[The Yid]

First of all I don't know if this will be the case I'm only speculating - but if the league accept the groundshare then I can't see how they'd be able to apply it.

As for the stadium - the council did not pay £113m did they? You need to strip out the Tesco contribution, grants from local enterprise funds before you find the value the council covered. And let's also be clear how they paid for it. It didn't come from Council funds, not taxpayers pockets... It was borrowed, with ACL as the vehicle and the council as guarantors.
So no Coventry citizen was out of pocket - and this is why i think the deal was such a bad one for the club.

[AD]

First of all I don't know if this will be the case I'm only speculating - but if the league accept the groundshare then I can't see how they'd be able to apply it.

Easy. We still get the ticket receipts, so that is our revenue. That is what we must budget FFP on. It'll be incredibly low, but that's the choice made by the owners. there are clubs in our league who will still only get crowds equivalent to what we'd get in Northampton, and they have to get on with it. The might sell more merchandise and stuff, but that's what happens when you treat your fan/customer base like shit.

As for the stadium - the council did not pay £113m did they? You need to strip out the Tesco contribution, grants from local enterprise funds before you find the value the council covered. And let's also be clear how they paid for it. It didn't come from Council funds, not taxpayers pockets... It was borrowed, with ACL as the vehicle and the council as guarantors.
So no Coventry citizen was out of pocket - and this is why i think the deal was such a bad one for the club.

Who said a Coventry citizen was out of pocket? But as you say the council is guarantor, so if ACL defaults the council has to pay. So in that scenario yes, citizens would be out of pocket. Similarly the shares in ACL would be included on the council portfolio. If that gets reduced in value or the income from it goes down, the public purse is affected. So up to now no Coventry citizen is out of pocket. But let SISU have it for a song and they will be.

Even if you take out the Tesco land, grants etc do you think SISU have offered anywhere near the amount invested/loaned by ACL? Bollocks.

Earlier you said about letting the stadium income pay council expenses or sit in a reserve account. Would you prefer it instead to go into the bank accounts of the super-rich in their nice little tax havens? Because that is the alternative.