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lappinitup

Hucks says...

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"former Coventry striker Darren

Huckerby tweeting: “Can you play your home games 35 miles away from home?

Coventry City will slowly be destroyed, owners should hang their heads in

shame.”

 

What a shambles that club is.

 

"The

club were recently bought out of administration by SISU-backed Otium

Entertainment Limited, and immediately talks began with Northampton and

Coventry chief executive Tim Fisher about the potential to share the ground.

Should the deal be ratified by the Football League – which it is

expected to do so in the next 24 hours – it will see Coventry leave their

32,609 capacity stadium and move to the 7,653 capacity Sixfields for the

beginning of this season."

 

You have to feel it for their fans.

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I feel sorry for some of their fans yes, but not the majority.

I remember a few years ago, CCFC made a plea to their fans to attend the last couple of home games to help the club stay out of administration, if I remember rightly they needed at least 22k to turn up to make them financially secure a little while longer, I believe roughly 16k fans turned up those next 2 games......

 

 

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My impressions are that the Ricoh was perfect for them in every way (capacity, access, facilities etc.) except for the crippling £1m+ rent per annum.

 

Pity, a decent club with much in common with ourselves (once.)

 

They sold us Graham Paddon. We reciprocated with Craig Bellamy though.

 

We did the better there, IMO, just.

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Well you have expect consequences when you move to a stadium that has far to many seats for the amount of fans. Yes I feel sorry for them and yes they''ve been treated poorly. Bad decisions and poor management by a company that has no interest in the traditions of football. Or making money by the sounds of it.

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I remember a few years ago there was a proposal for an east of England super stadium to be built at Diss and shared by 1p5wich and Norwich, the stadium name was going to be a hybrid of the two clubs names, the last 3 from thier name and the first 4 from ours.

Anyone know if anything came of this proposal?

 

 

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[quote user="TCCANARY"]

I remember a few years ago there was a proposal for an east of England super stadium to be built at Diss and shared by 1p5wich and Norwich, the stadium name was going to be a hybrid of the two clubs names, the last 3 from thier name and the first 4 from ours.

Anyone know if anything came of this proposal?[/quote]

Carrman?

[;)]

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Anyone who remembers the circumstances of May 1985 ,may not feel too much sympathy?!

But here is a tale of what could happen to a club of a certain size who drops into the lower leagues, whose fanbase then deserts them. I believe something similar could easily happen to Ipswich should they ever fall down a league?....and if it does ,they needent look in our direction if they need a ground to play their games within 40 miles.

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[quote user="lappinitup"]You have to feel it for their fans.[/quote][quote user="stoke canary"]Serves um right for those last 3 games 1984-85 season !!! Im not BITTER !!![/quote]I''d forgot about that.......... Basturds! [:@]

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It was hardly Coventry''s fault for winning all their final games that season was it - blame the League for the schedule that allowed it ti happen and the teams they played against that caved in...

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They can still play at the Ricoh, the owners of the stadium offered them a year free rent but Coventry turned them down.

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[quote user="stoke canary"]Serves um right for those last 3 games 1984-85 season !!! Im not BITTER !!![/quote]     What made this worse was I was at 2 of those games Stoke away and the last game Everton at home !!!!

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I always felt in the early 90s that Coventry were the most similar club to Norwich. They had a similar sized fan base, we often seemed to draw against them and our stadiums were pretty similar in size. Both clubs seemed to attract the same level quality of player too.

It''s such a shame to see this club destroyed by poor management and terrible business planning. It''s all clearly happened as a result of the stunningly poor way the new stadium was financed.

Now it is the fans who suffer. A terrible shame.

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Not that the ground is all the problems...but it begs the questions

How many clubs have been successful since building a brand new ground?

Coventry, Southampton, Derby, Leicester. Not done great.

Arsenal. Not much silverware since new ground for their expectations.

Suffolk based team since splashing the cash.

Sure you could name a few more:- Darlington etc

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"How many clubs have been successful since building a brand new ground?"

Man City, Cardiff, Hull City, Stoke City, Swansea City, all achieved a higher status in the years which followed the completion of their stadiums. If you can go a bit further back then Newcastle and Sunderland have grown in status in the years since they developed.

Then you have Southampton who slipped down the leagues but are now back in the Premier League and look like sticking around for a bit.

There does seem to be a period of pain for some clubs, but examples like Coventry and Darlington are few and far between and the result of gross negligence.

Some of these grounds are not built out of necessity but to make the directors a quick buck. Take over football club, sell ground, appoint your best mates construction company to do the development, then walk away having not spent a penny and probably pocketing a nice seven figure sum via suitcase on the fourth floor of a multi-story car park at 3am.

It''s pretty much what Robert Chase did when he paid his own construction companies to redevelop Carrow Road and managing to reduce the capacity in the process.

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[quote user="Chelmsford Canary"]

Not that the ground is all the problems...but it begs the questions

How many clubs have been successful since building a brand new ground?

Coventry, Southampton, Derby, Leicester. Not done great.

Arsenal. Not much silverware since new ground for their expectations.

Suffolk based team since splashing the cash.

Sure you could name a few more:- Darlington etc

[/quote]Southampton have done quite well. Wouldn''t surprise me if they were pushing for the top half next season. Brighton are another club who''ve got a new ground and been successful.

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[quote user="TheNewBoy"]

It''s pretty much what Robert Chase did when he paid his own construction companies to redevelop Carrow Road and managing to reduce the capacity in the process.[/quote]I think R G Carter built all our stands.....

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[quote user="safri_free_kick"][quote user="Chelmsford Canary"]

Not that the ground is all the problems...but it begs the questions

How many clubs have been successful since building a brand new ground?

Coventry, Southampton, Derby, Leicester. Not done great.

Arsenal. Not much silverware since new ground for their expectations.

Suffolk based team since splashing the cash.

Sure you could name a few more:- Darlington etc

[/quote]Southampton have done quite well. Wouldn''t surprise me if they were pushing for the top half next season. Brighton are another club who''ve got a new ground and been successful. [/quote]Brigton was out of absolute nescessity - I doubt any football fan would want those years in the wildernessThe stadium was more an effect than a consequence of their success

The problem with Coventry as with darlington is they built for what they thought/hoped the future would be

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Payments for ''technical services'' were made by the club to a company of which Robert Chase was a director.

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[quote user="TheNewBoy"]Payments for ''technical services'' were made by the club to a company of which Robert Chase was a director.[/quote]How much were these payments for ''technical services'' Newboy, and what did they refer to?

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[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

But here is a tale of what could happen to a club of a certain size who drops into the lower leagues, whose fanbase then deserts them. I believe something similar could easily happen to Ipswich should they ever fall down a league?....and if it does ,they needent look in our direction if they need a ground to play their games within 40 miles.

[/quote]Can''t see that happeningit''s not as if their owner has been trying to get his hands on the lease or as made off with their training ground is it ?and how ever impoverished the inmates of that workhouse are, their crowds and season ticket sales haven''t really fallen, have they ?nor have they spent the last few seasons hovering around the relegation trapdoor either ?

anyway were the worst to happen then I think they would be better suited to the aptly named Cuckoo Farm just down the road from them

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"How much were these payments for ''technical services'' Newboy, and what did they refer to?"

That was never ascertained as he had no obligation to disclose it to the public, at the time we were a limited company I believe and now we are a public limited company with thousands of shareholders. Can''t remember the exact amount but they were substantial.

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not so much a ''newboy'' as a newnamewhat was wrong with your old name ?and why have you felt the need to pretend to be somebody different ?

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Don''t know what you are on about, but the rest of this video would have told you what I''m on about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VvsSihzn0Q

Can remember watching it, anyone got the full interview?

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So you have just appeared

..................... and are bleating about old arguments that have been done to death on here too many times ... well well

you fool no one

apart from yourself it would seem

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Nice to meet the resident schizophrenic, sorry if my football/Norwich related posts have been discussed before on this football/Norwich related forum.

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People on here seem to be completely missing the main point which is that Coventry City FC had enormous financial problems BEFORE they moved to the Ricoh Arena. The debt was so enormous that moving to the Ricoh Arena only delayed the inevitable.

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[quote user="tom cavendish"]People on here seem to be completely missing the main point which is that Coventry City FC had enormous financial problems BEFORE they moved to the Ricoh Arena. The debt was so enormous that moving to the Ricoh Arena only delayed the inevitable.[/quote]Whilst I agree with you about their debts Tom, moving to the Ricoh COMPOUNDED their problems rather than delaying them. With an £1.3m annual rent (the highest in the football league), the council were also collecting all the income from matchday food and drinks which didn''t really give them a chance. When SISU took over in 2007 the debt was about £30m. Today it''s £60m BUT, it''s mainly owed to SISU where before, it was owed to the banks. ACL (the Ricoh''s owners) put them into administration over the rent arrears.Just proves that not every council is prepared to charge ''peppercorn'' rents and that not every saviour will save yer.

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