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5 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 the turning point posted by john beech on november 20 2012 i ve not blogged recently on the pompey basket case not because there wasn t much happening but rather because there has been almost too much happening to stop and take a coherent view in fact the last time i posted was back in march 2011 when i commented portsmouth city football club ltd is dead long live portsmouth football club 2010 ltd 1 and it reads today like some historical piece and at least a tad ironic to boot the tagline was onward and upward at portsmouth the announcement that a conditional sale to the pompey supporters trust has been agreed 2 brings at least some sort of turning point that the alternative bid from balram chainrai was turned down by the administrator can only be good news just how many times can the same person save a club trevor birch s choice may or may not have been influenced by the blogs of micah hall 3 but certainly the lack of response to the questions micah posed to tavistock communications portpin s pr company spoke volumes micah s digging deserves an award and shows how far a fan can go in the bigger picture of financial decision making the fly in the ointment of the sale is of course the issue of the value that chainrai is trying to place on fratton park unless he finally decides to bow out gracefully accepting that he made a very bad business call the matter will go to court with independent valuations at a much lower level the trust stands a very good chance of getting the desired result there is also the matter of a potential further ten points deduction on coming out of administration here i am less optimistic i fear it will be yet more evidence that the deduction of points is an entirely dysfunctional sanction but let s not burn our bridges before we come to them all in all there does finally seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel and this hopefully will prove a turning point in the club s miserable fortunes in the bigger picture it may well prove to be a turning point in the road to fan ownership of clubs it does need to be seen though as one of many turning points as i m sure brentford chester exeter wrexham and wimbledon fans and that s not a definitive list would be quick to point out it s significance will depend on how well the hybrid model involving high net worth individuals will work in practice if it does work it will doubtless encourage the supporters trusts at bigger clubs such as liverpool manchester united and newcastle as a member of the pompey supporters trust i feel considerably more confident regarding the future than i have for a very long time i ve even put a bottle of bubbly in the fridge but i ll not actually open it though until fratton park is in the fans hands the only certainty is the debt of gratitude pompey fans owe to the pst board let s show our gratitude by uniting behind them 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 community fans insolvency ownership points deduction sanctions stadium trusts tagged community fans insolvency ownership points deduction sanctions stadium supporters trust 3 comments so is it really goodbye bluebirds hello red dragons posted by john beech on june 7 2012 like the old joke about anti social behaviour in a lift what is happening at cardiff city is just plain wrong at so many levels the root causes of the problem lie in sam hammam s decision to build a new stadium the resulting deep financial difficulty that cardiff got themselves into with langston and the damoclean debt hanging over the club as a result and peter ridsdale s decision to involve the club in what was from the first described as a strategic marketing alliance with malaysian investors 1 as he said at the time it will be a long term alliance it will include youth development it will include the opportunity to explore the whole fan base it will certainly include sponsorship we are already talking to them about shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights without any definite conclusions at this stage we are also talking about their assistance in trying to put this club on the sort of financial footing that we would have liked to dream of when i first arrived at this football club needless to say there was no public talk of the shirt sponsorship involving what has just been announced indeed as recently as 10 may dato chan tien ghee said in an open letter to fans wrote the new club crest and home colours which were being discussed were intended to demonstrate the symbolic fusion of welsh and asian cultures through the use of the colour red and the predominant featuring of a historical welsh dragon under the cardiff city fc name this would have been a springboard for the successful commercialisation and promotion of the club and its brand driving international revenues and allowing us to fund transfers and success locally thereby giving the club the best chance of competing at the higher reaches of competition this was not meant as a slight in any way shape or form on the club s traditions or history which we recognise are the lifeblood of any club it was intended as a positive change to allow us to adapt and embrace the future notwithstanding a number of rumours there were no further plans to turn the stadium red or make other radical changes 2 his use of were being discussed and would have been must have suggested to many including myself that the rebranding of club with a change in shirt colour and change in logo were now a dead duck a not unreasonable understanding as he continued in the light of the vociferous opposition by a number of the fans to the proposals being considered as expressed directly to our local management and through various media and other outlets we will not proceed with the proposed change of colour and logo and the team will continue to play in blue at home for the next season with the current badge he kept his word for less than a month in his open letter he also alluded to the current instability in the club s business model thus it is clear to all concerned that the club simply cannot continue to function and exist in its current state effectively losing large amounts of money each month while acquiring more and more debt no one can reasonably disagree with view in the debate that has broken out in the last couple of days since the announcement of the decision to do a u turn 3 or to use the language you might expect from someone engaged in a strategic marketing alliance following a comprehensive review of wider supporter feedback via email letters media coverage and polls run via the official supporters club and media wales and as a consequence of the above commitment cardiff city football club will also reactivate rebranding proposals with a view to exploiting and maximising its brand and commercial revenues in international markets attitudes seem to have become polarised into two camps on the one hand what is happening is a faustian pact which involves selling the soul of the club on the other the club s survival depends on a business plan that will result in untold wealth pouring in from new fans in the far east as is so often the case it is difficult to engage in debate regarding the relative merits of these two views because they are based on different meanings of the word club 4 the present attempt at debate assumes that these are two mutually exclusive and opposed views and that there are no other possibilities no room for overlap and no possibility of compromis...
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