OT - Coventry City

[Nicko 0]

To be liquidated. Can''t imagine what that must be like for the fans.

Probably the biggest club for this to happen to?

[Josh 0]

Really sad news, always respected them as a football club. Feel for their fans.

[ZLF 271]

Disappointing but I remain bitter about 1985 so cant fret too much...

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Disappointing but I remain bitter about 1985 so cant fret too much...

[/quote]Coventry were blameless. What were they meant to do - lose games deliberately?  The fault lay with ourselves and the football authorities, and Everton to an extent.

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

I believe the local council is the owner of Arena Coventry Ltd (ACL.) and that is the company that has rejected the CVA.

So I wonder if the Coventry fans will be voicing their opinions to their local councillors?

I thought ACL. had made an offer re the rent of £150k per season if Coventry are  a division 1 club and £400k per season if they are in The Championship.  Presumably the problem is the rent still owing from the past.

 

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Disappointing but I remain bitter about 1985 so cant fret too much...

[/quote]

Coventry were blameless. What were they meant to do - lose games deliberately?  The fault lay with ourselves and the football authorities, and Everton to an extent.

[/quote]

I blame the football authorities for allowing Coventry to accumulate four league games in hand on us.

 

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Tangible Fixed Assets anyone"][quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Disappointing but I remain bitter about 1985 so cant fret too much...

[/quote]Coventry were blameless. What were they meant to do - lose games deliberately?  The fault lay with ourselves and the football authorities, and Everton to an extent.

[/quote]

I blame the football authorities for allowing Coventry to accumulate four league games in hand on us.

 

[/quote]

 

I thought it was three. It was certainly three (Stoke, Luton and Everton) they played once we had finished. But it was limp managemnt by Ken Brown that put us in a position where we could be overtaken.

[Icecream Snow 761]

Are they definitely going under? Or is it just brinkmanship?

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="Icecream Snow"]Are they definitely going under? Or is it just brinkmanship?[/quote]

The new owners of the football club want to move to Northampton while they build a new ground (according to the BBC website).

ACL have offered them new rental rates over a period of 10 years.

 

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

While we are posting about Coventry''s ground, I see Leeds United are trying to buy back their ground:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23532611

[Syteanric 1]

they need to do this quickly, promote a team to take their place and then one from all the leagues below...

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Tangible Fixed Assets anyone"]I believe the local council is the owner of Arena Coventry Ltd (ACL.) and that is the company that has rejected the CVA.[/quote]The council own 50% of ACL Tangy, the other 50% is owned by the Alan Higgs Trust.  The council are effectively ACL''s bankers too, having loaned them £14m in Jan to pay off their debts and settle their mortgage with the bank. The most contentious issue as far as SISU (the Cayman Island registered Hedge Fund that controls the club on behalf of investors) is concerned is that all on-site income from food and beverages went to ACL along with the £1.3m pa rent. SISU were reportedly interested in buying out the Alan Higgs Charity''s

50 per cent share in the stadium for a figure believed to be in the

region of £4m until talks collapsed last year.An insight to how it all started........."At the time the new Wembley Stadium was not certain to go ahead in

London so Coventry City FC even considered that their location would be

ideal for a new National Stadium and wasted time and money on a pipe

dream that never had a chance. As their ambitions got higher

and more costly they approached Coventry City Council for some funding,

suggesting that this was now becoming a ‘community’ project for the

city. With hindsight, in my humble opinion, this was a massive

error, and one which Coventry City FC may regret for the next 100 years.

As the project evolved, Coventry City Council took more and more

ownership of the project not trusting the football club in many aspects

of the joint venture. By the time I arrived in Coventry the

deal had been struck; in simple terms it was going to be a joint venture

between the football club and the council with both parties owning 50

per cent of the equity. As the football club did not have the

money to complete the purchase of the land, which would then enable them

to sell off half of it to Tesco, it was agreed that Coventry City

Council would purchase the land, then conclude the deal with Tesco, all

as part of their joint venture agreement. But mysteriously,

once the purchase of the land and the sale to Tesco had been completed,

Coventry City Council informed the football club that they were unable

to share with them the profit from the sale of the land due to ‘state

aid’ implications. Instead, they offered Coventry City FC a 50

per cent share in the company that would operate the Ricoh Arena, but

they, Coventry City Council would own all the equity in the property. What

I have explained in one paragraph took over 12 months to sort out and

over £1m was spent on lawyers’ fees as the state aid fiasco continued

through to a conclusion, which involved numerous highly paid lawyers As

compensation the council offered Coventry City Football Club 50 per cent

of the operating profit from the Ricoh Arena and the business plan

forecasts were looking very favourable. In addition CCFC would receive all their football related income streams. But as the project evolved Coventry City FC were relegated from the Premier League and encountered massive financial problems. They

were so desperate to fight off administration that when under the

chairmanship of the enigmatic Mike McGinnity, they sold their 50 per

cent shareholding in the Ricoh Arena to the Higgs Charitable Trust for a

reported £6m (Coventry Evening Telegraph August 2007). As the

Higgs Trust had previously invested around £2m in Coventry City Football

Club, the price paid for the 50 per cent shareholding was around £4m. At

that time the Ricoh Arena had been valued at around £37m, therefore

valuing Coventry City’s shareholding at around £18.5m, making the £4m

purchase by the charity a snip. But as CCFC were so strapped for cash,

they had no where else to go. The major disadvantage for

Coventry City FC when selling their shares in the Ricoh Arena was that

they waved goodbye to all the Arena related incomes and all the football

associated incomes such as catering income, car parking income, office

rental income, rock concert income, international match income etc,

which they had happily gifted to the early joint venture company. In

selling their shares to the Higgs Charitable Trust I felt, and probably

CCFC also felt that the shares would be held in ‘safe-keeping’ until

times improved. Alan Higgs had been a lifelong fan of the Sky

Blues whilst he was alive and left his fortune for the good of people of

Coventry. His son Sir Derek Higgs was an even bigger fan and

served the club well for many years as both a Director of Coventry City

FC and main Board Director of Arena Coventry Ltd. I now

personally feel that it’s time for both Coventry City Council and the

Charitable Trust to sell these shares back to CCFC at a fair and

equitable price, which will allow each to get on with their council

business and charity work. It is my view that football stadiums

should be owned and operated by football clubs not local authorities

and charitable trusts."

[lappinitup 629]

I should have added that for the people who advocate Norwich City Football Club getting involved with outside influences such as local councils, UEA, etc, when it comes to stadium expansion, this should serve as a warning of how things can go wrong.

[Guest]

I was puzzled by who the author was in your long quotation above, Lappin, so I Googled it. The full article from which it is taken in the Coventry Telegraph (and probably Paul Fletcher''s book) is even more revealing:  http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/ricoh-arena-deal-should-made-3025017Coventry, it seems, were aiming for the Champions League in 1996 and hoping their new stadium would take them a step closer to it. Remarkable then, that it has led them into financial oblivion.

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Pyro Pete"]I was puzzled by who the author was in your long quotation above, Lappin, so I Googled it. The full article from which it is taken in the Coventry Telegraph (and probably Paul Fletcher''s book) is even more revealing:  http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/ricoh-arena-deal-should-made-3025017Coventry, it seems, were aiming for the Champions League in 1996 and hoping their new stadium would take them a step closer to it. Remarkable then, that it has led them into financial oblivion.[/quote]Thanks for that Pete. It really should put to bed once and for all all those wild ideas of Norwich City fans wanting money spent on expansion rather than the team. Carrow Rd IS fit for purpose and to jeopardise our future to accomodate a few extra fans (who would disappear again just as quickly if we were relegated) would be crazy in the extreme.

[lappinitup 629]

It will be interesting to see what the Football League do now. I can''t see them coming out of this too well........... Coventry City Football Club owned by SISU, a Mayfair-based hedge fund. High courts ruled that Coventry City be placed into administration, which elicited the Football League to deduct 10 points.SISU appealed the 10 point deduction by claiming that it was Coventry

City Football Club Limited, who had the lease for the Ricoh Arena and

club offices, which was in administration.SISU also claim it is Coventry City Football Club Holdings who have the “golden share” which allows the club to play in the Football League, so there should be no points deduction.Administrator announces Coventry

City Football Club Limited sold to Otium Entertainment Group Limited owned by........Wait for it......................SISU.  The Football League now has to sanction this deal . How can they?

[Guest]

I don''t know. I''m happy with controlled, piecemeal expansion, providing the finances are there, as is the long term demand.

In my day we averaged 16,000 fans, with good seasons like the 92/93 season averaging 18,000. If you told me during the Bryan Hamilton era we would be getting close to 27,000 each week with ease a decade later, I would have laughed.

Here and now, the right thing is to develop the squad first, because we''re still part Championship/part Premier League standard. But in future, if finances allow and the demand is there, I''d happily see another 4,000 seats put in. Be it in another tier on the Jarrold, or rather more expensively, rebuilding the City Stand.

The key is in keeping any development and investment sustainable.

[lappinitup 629]

Well, my earlier question has been answered.........."Coventry City owner Otium Entertainment Group Ltd.

has been awarded the membership of the Football League in time for the

new season.

CCFC Ltd (the company that

entered administration) will be put into liquidation after ACL failed

to accept the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) put forward by the

administrator."They''ve also been deducted ten points for the new season. I assume SISU (Otium) passed the "fit and proper persons" test. [:S]

[RvWs 4 year contract 0]

I know a few Coventry City fans. Suffice to say they are all completely devastated.Imagine if we had to groundshare with a team like the Scum because that is the sort of scenario they''re facing up to- albeit Northampton arent their rivals where-as Ipswich are. Let us all be incredibly thankful that we avoided administration when we were in league 1.

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="lappinitup"]

I assume SISU (Otium) passed the "fit and proper persons" test. [:S]
[/quote]

Ouch!