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e from the old highfield road ground and could hear the roar on matchdays by chance i was turning out last week and came across a copy of the coventry observer from 20 december 2007 my reason for keeping it was apparent on page 3 two stories which began thus last minute deal secures football club s future coventry city were just half an hour away from going into administration when pen was finally put to paper on a long awaited takeover deal with the clock ticking towards friday s 4pm deadline for a deal to be struck the sky blues confirmed shortly before 3 30pm the takeover by sisu capital was going ahead securing the club s future and banishing the threat of administration arena pledges support for club s future ricoh arena chiefs have pledged to support sisu capital s efforts to return coventry city to the premier league clearly much has changed since december 2007 the club had been through a disastrous period in the years immediately before debts had been reported as running as high as 38 million year after year the club made operating losses and investing in the new 60m stadium had proved a step too far indeed the stadium the brainchild of the club s then chairman bryan robinson had only become reality by the club passing the stadium project over to arena coventry ltd acl a joint venture company consisting of coventry city council 50 and the alan edward higgs charity 50 a trust set up to help deprived children from coventry the then owners of the club the major shareholders owning 90 were craigavon city mp geoffrey robinson s family trust and sir derek higgs son of alan edward higgs announced their intention of placing the club into administration apart from sisu the only potential buyer was greek billionaire businessman alki david who rapidly backed off when he realised the scale of the debts he would inherit the club thus stood to borrow the recent words of david conn or a guardian sub editor perhaps on the edge of an abyss coming in then as saviours of a club in distinct danger of liquidation how then did we reach today s situation of repeated legal confrontation and the club s exile sisu were by their own admission new to the football business they brought in football business experts such as ray ranson and ken dulieu their judgement proved questionable and both departed as the performance on the pitch deteriorated and the club suffered a further relegation to league 1 the fans became severely disenchanted a situation compounded by sisu s almost non existent transparency or engagement with the fans opposition to sisu became public and organised and we drifted into phases of protest characterised by a series of slogans the first of these was the unequivocal sisu out understandable though this was in my eyes it always seemed at best only half a strategy and what next the further sisu sank funds into the club the less likely it was that anyone else would want to buy the club in the six and a half years of sisu s ownership only the brief appearance of preston haskell iv presented any viable alternative to sisu it became abundantly clear that a presumption of the sisu out slogan that sisu were willing to sell was ill founded and even wishful thinking the straw that broke the back of many fans was the decision of sisu in an attempt to force acl s hand in the increasingly bitter disputes over rent and matchday revenues to take the club into exile at northampton we then entered a phase where the slogan of choice was bring city home a perfectly simple proposition on the face of it but one which begged the intractable questions of how and under what conditions the most recent phase has seen protests with banners saying let down which begs the question of by whom moz baker of the sky blue trust when interviewed on local television earlier this week cited sisu and the football league and it s not hard build an argument for either nomination i would add to this list acl and its joint owners coventry city council and the alan edward higgs trust i would also add to the list the previous owners of the club for it was they who precipitated the current situation by deciding to move away from the old stadium at highfield road which resulted in the separation of ownership of the club and its stadium from a business perspective it is perfectly understandable and indeed reasonable that the club owners would want the matchday revenues particularly with the restraints that financial fair play protocols now place on spending equally understandable and indeed reasonable is that the owners of the stadium would also want the matchday revenues particularly as the football stadium is the core of the revenue generating potential of the infrastructure so we are in the situation where the entrenched positions of the two main proponents are understandable and reasonable from their own perspectives the only way out of the impasse would be compromise by one or both parties at present we have a war of attrition there are unsubstantiated rumours that talks are taking place between sisu and acl if true we can only hope that jaw jaw will stop war war the present situation with the club in exile is patently bad for the owners of the club for the owners of the stadium and above all for the fans and indeed for the council tax payers in coventry of which i must put my hand up as being one the only gainers are the lawyers a return to the ricoh is a no brainer there must surely be some way forward through compromise a reminder this is a personal blog which is moderated abusive comments will not be posted counter views are not considered inherently abusive share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in assets cashflow debts football league governance insolvency ownership revenues stadium strategy 5 comments opening a can of worms posted by john beech on march 27 2013 the varying relationship between football clubs and their local councils i have in a previous posting described as a postcode lottery it is often a vital one especially when the stadium sits at the heart of an issue i am of course particularly aware of this as a resident of coventry where a protracted dispute lingers on with ever more serious potential consequences as those who follow my news tweets johnbeech will be aware even after the high court hearing yesterday there are unanswered questions so i m going to pass on commenting until things are clearer the european commission is not a body which ever normally prompts me to write about football but a recent news item had set me thinking the report 1 referred to an in depth investigation by the european commission into the relationships between five dutch councils and their local football clubs the concern was with whether there had been any breaches of eu law in the way that the councils may possibly have given illegal state aid to the clubs the full official report on the ec s investigation so far can be found here the specific findings to date on the five clubs under investigation are given below name of club year of measure description nec 1st league 2010 municipality of nijmegen bought off a claim made by nec for 2 2 million mvv 2nd league 2010 municipality of maastricht waived a claim of 1 7 million on mvv and bought the stadium for 1 85 million willem ii 1st league 2010 municipality of tilburg lowered rent of stadium with retroactive effect total advantage 2 4 million psv 1st league 2011 municipality of eindhoven bought land from psv for 48 385 million and leased it back to this club fc den bosch 2nd league 2011 municipality of den bosch waived a claim of 1 65 million on fc den bosch and bought training facilities for 1 4 million it is not the enormity of the potential crimes that set me thinking rather their almost mundane nature in england were there clubs who would find themselves in similar if not identical circumstances inadvertently being guilty of receiving illegal state aid on the face of it the answer is surely yes certainly there are english clubs which rent their stadiums from the local council as the owner of the stadium there are equally certainly others who have received financial support in building new stadiums what really set me thinking about all of this was the accidental discovery of a report that spanish clubs may also be under investigation this i came across in the 7 th march issue the print edition of the english language version of the respected newspaper el pais not i have to be honest part of my regular reading material it was a freebie on a flight from madrid to munich i ve been unable to find the report in english on the newspaper s website but the original spanish is here the report implied that the spanish investigation was not taking place in a pubic way there was an inferred secrecy surrounding it could it be that the football clubs of yet other nations were under investigation if such an investigation were and you ll note my cautionary use of the subjunctive to take place with respect to english clubs which might have cause for concern given my clear admission that i am not a legal expert for once i would positively encourage readers comments i would particularly like to hear the views of legal academics who specialise in football clubs and even post games olympic stadiums and post commonwealth games stadiums share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in stadium tagged stadium 9 comments the stadium curse posted by john beech on december 3 2012 the topics of the stadium which has become separated from its club in ownership terms and the mixed blessing that a new stadium can bring are ones that i have covered in previous postings see postings passim the battle over fratton park is shortly to be resolved in court 1 the twisted history of portsmouth s financial ills and indeed its ownership ills seem to be moving towards a denouement certainly as a member of the pompey supporters trust and a strong advocate of fan ownership i want the trust to win the case they are not a directly participating party hence the quotation marks the case for a much lower valuation is a strong one and for once i m optimistic that the result will for once go the right way if it doesn t it will almost certainly mean the liquidation of the club and the fight to establish a resurrection club will begin in earnest no doubt nearer to home literally as i live and work in coventry if not metaphorically the issue of the ownership of the ricoh is almost as prominent on my radar its origins go back to the heady days when coventry was enjoying a notably long and unbroken run in the top flight dating back to 1967 and the managership of jimmy hill its then stadium at highfield road dated from 1899 and with a post taylor capacity of approximately 23 500 it lacked any of the facilities that a premier league stadium needed to compete from a business point of view it was not a million miles from fratton park to be honest in 1997 under the chairmanship of bryan richardson grand plans were announced for an ultra modern stadium to be built on a brown field site on the northern edge of the city close by junction 3 of the m6 and adjacent to the coventry nuneaton railway line arena 2000 as it was originally to be called was to be the envy of many a self respecting premier league with a retractable roof and a removable pitch making it ideal for other revenue generating activities such as pop concerts what could possibly go wrong well just about everything the brown field site which had been the site of foleshill gasworks proved problematic contamination of the site required two years of remedial work to make it reusable 2 the club was being operated unsustainably by 2003 debts were at a level of 20 million 3 and continued to rise 4 and rise 5 on the pitch gordon strachan failed in the battle to keep the club up in 2001 in 2002 it was only possible for the building project to continue with the formation of a new joint company arena coventry limited 6 50 owned by coventry city council and 50 by the alan edward higgs charity a wealthy local charity for children which has a strong sports interest sponsorship of the stadium by local car manufacturer jaguar itself under financial pressure fell through as production of their cars in coventry ceased 7 to cut a long and tortuous story short the stadium was built but to a significantly lower specification than originally planned capacity was reduced to 32 500 ricoh took on the sponsorship and championship coventry played their first game there in 2005 not that this proved a particular turning point for the club in 2007 a potentially club saving takeover by american consortium manhattan sports capital partners fell through 8 then having come within twenty five minutes of going into administration the club was acquired by venture capitalists sisu 9 although sisu planned to buy at least the 50 of the shares owned by the alan edward higgs charity this has not happened and the club continues to rent the stadium from arena coventry limited from the club s financial perspective the stadium is thus a monthly liability rather than the major asset and revenue generator originally envisaged relegation from the championship to league 1 in 2011 exacerbated an already difficult situation attendances and revenues were hit the agreed rent reported to be 100 000 per month became significantly unrealistic for a league 1 club to sustain again cutting a long story short the owners and club have been unable to agree a compromise rent that is realistic and the club sisu that is started a rent strike in march last year 10 obviously this is a situation that cannot run on indefinitely and in the last few weeks matters have come to a head with both sides apparently digging their heels in and maintaining collision course on the one hand deputy conservative leader john blundell says that acl may have to seek a winding up order over the unpaid arrears 11 while on the other coventry city chief executive tim fisher accuses arena coventry limited of pulling out of talks 12 whatever the rights and wrongs of the respective protagonists some compromise needs to be reached and rapidly as well as the two confrontational tales of fratton park and the ricoh there is a crumb of comfort on the stadium front at stockport county s edgeley park 13 where a deal has been announced that will see the club running the stadium at a reduced rent and retaining the revenues from it let s hope there will positive news to report shortly from both coventry and portsmouth share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in assets investors ownership stadium trusts tagged assets investors ownership stadium supporters trust 7 comments pompey...
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