torchomatic
Well-Known Member
THE LAST remaining gas holder at Fosehill gasworks looms on the horizon clearly visible for miles around.
It is a constant reminder to all those who promised sky blues fans they would be watching their team in a new 40,000 seater stadium this year.
Four years on from the unveiling of the project, work has yet to start on cleaning up the contaminated soil surrounding the holder on the derelict site.
Bryan Richardson was moved aside from heading the club's company for pushing forward the arena plans and then ousted as chairman of the club last month.
Now fans are wondering how new club chairman Mike McGinnity, the new board, including MP Geoffrey Robinson and Arena 2001's chief executive, Paul Fletcher, can deliver the goods.
This is the state of play so far......
Who is now involved?
COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL, Arena 2001 and the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands
They may involve other, private partners, but refuse to divulge who.
Contributors will have a stake in the final development, possibly through shares, or a seat on a board.
The city council has pledged pounds 10 million, with the possibility of millions more as a short-term loan. AWM at one stage was thinking of pledging as much as pounds 12 million but recently backed off and is now thought to be considering only pounds 6 million.
Tesco was long ago named as the firm wanting to take the flagship retail store - and make into a giant Tesco Xtra.
The gaswork's site includes two regeneration zones - one eligible for European Unionhttp://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/European+Union grants and the other for UK government grants. These funds will probably depend on the number of jobs and extra "community" use of facilities.
Who owns the land?
BY far the largest share of the land is owned by Dutch-owned HGB Properties. However, there are 30 other owners of small plots of land on the fringes of the site, which includes a small industrial estate.
The original proposal for the area included a 40,000-seater stadium, leisure facilities, district shopping centre with a giant Tesco and a new railway station and carparking.
HBG (the Hollandsche Beton Groep NV) built the Gelredome Stadium for Vitesse Arnhem in Holland.
It also built the 53,000 seater Schalke stadium in Germany which has a retractable pitch too.
The firm in recent years took over British building firm Higgs and Hill and it bought the land from original owners British Gas last http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/British+GasOctober.
Land Registry documents show HBG got involved from the outset when Coventry City Football Club (Holdings Ltd) and Arena 2001 signed an agreement on July 14, 2000 to buy the land from British Gas.
What will it cost?
THE cost of the whole redevelopment scheme was last year estimated by John McGuigan, Coventry City Council's strategic director of development, at pounds 180 million.
But it is the price to be paid for the HBG land, the majority of the site, which is crucial to the scheme going ahead.
They are believed to be asking for about pounds 20 million.
The original agreement between British Gas, the club and the Arena, was that British Gas would sell the land for pounds 2 million plus VAT plus inflation to the club.
The club would sell the land on at the same price to Arena 2001 who would pay British Gas to take down the three gasholders, renew and reroute an underground pipeline and provide a new governor station for controlling the gas supply.
That would put the bill up by about another pounds 2 million. Most of that work has been done.
Arena 2001 would also pay pounds 4.8 million plus VAT to British Gas to replace storage which the company would lose when it handed over the site. That takes the bill to about pounds 10 million. But it is now thought to be higher.
Coventry City Football Club's holding company accounts for last year lists "assets under the course of construction" as being worth pounds 17,691,246 on May 31 last year. These were said (in the accounts) to have been sold during the year, but with the club having an option to buy them back once they pay off a loan of pounds 13,605,753.
Is the land still polluted?
OLD gasworks are notoriously badly polluted.
No-one knows what the cost of cleaning up the Foleshill site will be, but estimates as high as pounds 10million are being bandied about.
The land is likely to qualify for a new 150-per-cent tax rebatehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/tax+rebate introduced by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his last budget.
Companies who acquire contaminated land in certain areas of the country needing regeneration will qualify for the incentive.
This is where additional Coventry City Council money might come in. Cllr John Mutton (Lab, Binley and Willenhall) is in exploratory talks about the council putting in more than its original pounds 10million pledges in investment.
He is looking at the possibility of the council supplying the extra money as a short-term loan which it can be guaranteed to get back, and has admitted it might go towards paying up-front for the soil clean-up, with the money coming from the government later.
What else will the city council do?
THE city council several years ago set aside pounds 10 million to invest in the arena complex, which at that stage included a 40,000-seater stadium, district shopping centre, railway station, carparking, and leisure facilities.
The then deputy leader Cllr Arthur Waughhttp://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Arthur+Waugh (Lab, Westwood) likened it to the investment Birmingham City Council made in the National Exhibition Centre.
That money is still on the table.
Current council leader Cllr Nick Nolan (Lab, Holbrook) is determined to see a new football stadium as a landmark transforming the skyline and economy of north Coventry.
He said: "Our main priority is to regenerate the north of the city and to make the stadium the centre of that project. There's a lot of work to be done on this yet."
Before any money above pounds 10 million is offered, it would have to be agreed by the Labour group, then the city council's cabinet and ratification committee
What happens after March 20?
IF a deal isn't struck with landowners HBG, they will be free to do what they want - sell the site, develop it themselves, or enter into new negotiations with the city council, Arena 2001 and AWM.
Coventry City's grounds for success
A Sliding roof retractable pitch and 40,000 seats were the most striking features of the Sky Blues' plans for a new pounds 60million stadium when they were announced in January 1998.
Since then, the plans have been scaled down twice. The sliding roof and retractable pitch ideas have fallen by the wayside and the planned capacity now is just 32,000.
ORIGINAL ARENA PLAN (JANUARY 1998) (above right)
CAPACITY: 40,000.
FEATURES: Sliding roof, retractable pitch.
PLANNED USES: Sky Blues matches, soccer internationals, tennis, boxing, pop concerts, conferences.
COST: pounds 60million.
SURROUNDINGS: 220,000 sq ft shopping centre with Asda and one other superstore and 18 other shops; leisure complex with sports shops, bowling, family entertainment, restaurants and bars; new railway station.
JOBS TO BE CREATED: 3,000.
PLANNED DATE OF FIRST CITY MATCH: August 2001.
LATEST ARENA PLAN
CAPACITY: 32,000.
FEATURES: Conventional stadium.
PLANNED USES: Sky Blues matches, conferences, possible concerts.
COST: Unknown.
SURROUNDINGS: 220,000 sq ft shopping centre with a Tesco Xtra store, one other large store and several small shops; leisure complex; new railway station; car parking.
JOBS TO BE CREATED: Unknown.
PLANNED DATE OF FIRST CITY MATCH: August 2004.
HIGHFIELD ROAD (below right)
CAPACITY: 23,000.
FEATURES: Conventional stadium, built 1899, last modified in 1994.
USES: Sky Blues matches, occasional conferences.
VALUE: Sold to developer McLean Homes for pounds 5million in October 2000.
SURROUNDINGS: One of the few remaining big club grounds hemmed in by houses, with limited parking and traffic problems.
The new man at the helm
PAUL FLETCHER, the new chief executive of Arena 2001, knows speculation about when the arena will be built is rife.
But he is unwilling to release any details of the scheme until the last pieces of the jigsaw and the finance are put into place.
He promises to be more forthcoming when a deal is finally delivered - and he hopes it will be within weeks.
He's kept a close eye on Coventry's Arena plans since their first inception and was always sceptical the original plan for a 40,000-seater arena with sliding roof and roll-out pitch.
"There isn't a business case that I have ever seen that works in British football for a sliding roof," he said.
"I must be honest, to say, I could never understand how a stadium with a closing roof and sliding pitch could ever be funded. The whole industry questioned that as I did."
He firmly believes the Sky Blues' new stadium on the Foleshill gasworks is set to be one of the top three best-recognised in the country.
It is a constant reminder to all those who promised sky blues fans they would be watching their team in a new 40,000 seater stadium this year.
Four years on from the unveiling of the project, work has yet to start on cleaning up the contaminated soil surrounding the holder on the derelict site.
Bryan Richardson was moved aside from heading the club's company for pushing forward the arena plans and then ousted as chairman of the club last month.
Now fans are wondering how new club chairman Mike McGinnity, the new board, including MP Geoffrey Robinson and Arena 2001's chief executive, Paul Fletcher, can deliver the goods.
This is the state of play so far......
Who is now involved?
COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL, Arena 2001 and the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands
They may involve other, private partners, but refuse to divulge who.
Contributors will have a stake in the final development, possibly through shares, or a seat on a board.
The city council has pledged pounds 10 million, with the possibility of millions more as a short-term loan. AWM at one stage was thinking of pledging as much as pounds 12 million but recently backed off and is now thought to be considering only pounds 6 million.
Tesco was long ago named as the firm wanting to take the flagship retail store - and make into a giant Tesco Xtra.
The gaswork's site includes two regeneration zones - one eligible for European Unionhttp://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/European+Union grants and the other for UK government grants. These funds will probably depend on the number of jobs and extra "community" use of facilities.
Who owns the land?
BY far the largest share of the land is owned by Dutch-owned HGB Properties. However, there are 30 other owners of small plots of land on the fringes of the site, which includes a small industrial estate.
The original proposal for the area included a 40,000-seater stadium, leisure facilities, district shopping centre with a giant Tesco and a new railway station and carparking.
HBG (the Hollandsche Beton Groep NV) built the Gelredome Stadium for Vitesse Arnhem in Holland.
It also built the 53,000 seater Schalke stadium in Germany which has a retractable pitch too.
The firm in recent years took over British building firm Higgs and Hill and it bought the land from original owners British Gas last http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/British+GasOctober.
Land Registry documents show HBG got involved from the outset when Coventry City Football Club (Holdings Ltd) and Arena 2001 signed an agreement on July 14, 2000 to buy the land from British Gas.
What will it cost?
THE cost of the whole redevelopment scheme was last year estimated by John McGuigan, Coventry City Council's strategic director of development, at pounds 180 million.
But it is the price to be paid for the HBG land, the majority of the site, which is crucial to the scheme going ahead.
They are believed to be asking for about pounds 20 million.
The original agreement between British Gas, the club and the Arena, was that British Gas would sell the land for pounds 2 million plus VAT plus inflation to the club.
The club would sell the land on at the same price to Arena 2001 who would pay British Gas to take down the three gasholders, renew and reroute an underground pipeline and provide a new governor station for controlling the gas supply.
That would put the bill up by about another pounds 2 million. Most of that work has been done.
Arena 2001 would also pay pounds 4.8 million plus VAT to British Gas to replace storage which the company would lose when it handed over the site. That takes the bill to about pounds 10 million. But it is now thought to be higher.
Coventry City Football Club's holding company accounts for last year lists "assets under the course of construction" as being worth pounds 17,691,246 on May 31 last year. These were said (in the accounts) to have been sold during the year, but with the club having an option to buy them back once they pay off a loan of pounds 13,605,753.
Is the land still polluted?
OLD gasworks are notoriously badly polluted.
No-one knows what the cost of cleaning up the Foleshill site will be, but estimates as high as pounds 10million are being bandied about.
The land is likely to qualify for a new 150-per-cent tax rebatehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/tax+rebate introduced by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his last budget.
Companies who acquire contaminated land in certain areas of the country needing regeneration will qualify for the incentive.
This is where additional Coventry City Council money might come in. Cllr John Mutton (Lab, Binley and Willenhall) is in exploratory talks about the council putting in more than its original pounds 10million pledges in investment.
He is looking at the possibility of the council supplying the extra money as a short-term loan which it can be guaranteed to get back, and has admitted it might go towards paying up-front for the soil clean-up, with the money coming from the government later.
What else will the city council do?
THE city council several years ago set aside pounds 10 million to invest in the arena complex, which at that stage included a 40,000-seater stadium, district shopping centre, railway station, carparking, and leisure facilities.
The then deputy leader Cllr Arthur Waughhttp://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Arthur+Waugh (Lab, Westwood) likened it to the investment Birmingham City Council made in the National Exhibition Centre.
That money is still on the table.
Current council leader Cllr Nick Nolan (Lab, Holbrook) is determined to see a new football stadium as a landmark transforming the skyline and economy of north Coventry.
He said: "Our main priority is to regenerate the north of the city and to make the stadium the centre of that project. There's a lot of work to be done on this yet."
Before any money above pounds 10 million is offered, it would have to be agreed by the Labour group, then the city council's cabinet and ratification committee
What happens after March 20?
IF a deal isn't struck with landowners HBG, they will be free to do what they want - sell the site, develop it themselves, or enter into new negotiations with the city council, Arena 2001 and AWM.
Coventry City's grounds for success
A Sliding roof retractable pitch and 40,000 seats were the most striking features of the Sky Blues' plans for a new pounds 60million stadium when they were announced in January 1998.
Since then, the plans have been scaled down twice. The sliding roof and retractable pitch ideas have fallen by the wayside and the planned capacity now is just 32,000.
ORIGINAL ARENA PLAN (JANUARY 1998) (above right)
CAPACITY: 40,000.
FEATURES: Sliding roof, retractable pitch.
PLANNED USES: Sky Blues matches, soccer internationals, tennis, boxing, pop concerts, conferences.
COST: pounds 60million.
SURROUNDINGS: 220,000 sq ft shopping centre with Asda and one other superstore and 18 other shops; leisure complex with sports shops, bowling, family entertainment, restaurants and bars; new railway station.
JOBS TO BE CREATED: 3,000.
PLANNED DATE OF FIRST CITY MATCH: August 2001.
LATEST ARENA PLAN
CAPACITY: 32,000.
FEATURES: Conventional stadium.
PLANNED USES: Sky Blues matches, conferences, possible concerts.
COST: Unknown.
SURROUNDINGS: 220,000 sq ft shopping centre with a Tesco Xtra store, one other large store and several small shops; leisure complex; new railway station; car parking.
JOBS TO BE CREATED: Unknown.
PLANNED DATE OF FIRST CITY MATCH: August 2004.
HIGHFIELD ROAD (below right)
CAPACITY: 23,000.
FEATURES: Conventional stadium, built 1899, last modified in 1994.
USES: Sky Blues matches, occasional conferences.
VALUE: Sold to developer McLean Homes for pounds 5million in October 2000.
SURROUNDINGS: One of the few remaining big club grounds hemmed in by houses, with limited parking and traffic problems.
The new man at the helm
PAUL FLETCHER, the new chief executive of Arena 2001, knows speculation about when the arena will be built is rife.
But he is unwilling to release any details of the scheme until the last pieces of the jigsaw and the finance are put into place.
He promises to be more forthcoming when a deal is finally delivered - and he hopes it will be within weeks.
He's kept a close eye on Coventry's Arena plans since their first inception and was always sceptical the original plan for a 40,000-seater arena with sliding roof and roll-out pitch.
"There isn't a business case that I have ever seen that works in British football for a sliding roof," he said.
"I must be honest, to say, I could never understand how a stadium with a closing roof and sliding pitch could ever be funded. The whole industry questioned that as I did."
He firmly believes the Sky Blues' new stadium on the Foleshill gasworks is set to be one of the top three best-recognised in the country.
