I think they said that in public, more importantly, in private they wrote directly to the council to state they'd consider a 125 year lease.
Have you ever considered that most public statements used by either side were just negotiating tools? Would you give more credence to a snippet of a public statement or a direct letter?
I accept perfectly that they were probably just negotiation tools. Unfortunately the fact that they were overstated and then under used (I.e. No serious bid was placed) seems to have some posters in denial that they were ever said at all. I think if you look at all the times they've stated unencumbered freehold they've also gone on to state or a long lease although they've always (IIRC) stated that the lease should be wiped clean. Which I've always took to mean that CCC/Higgs basically have to wind up ACL and cover the costs of doing that (happy to be told otherwise if that assumption is wrong) Clearly neither of which was ever going to happen and as the sale of ACL proves, didn't need too.
Now I've had to negotiated a few times and they've always started at opposite ends of the spectrum and met somewhere in the middle.
So after using the "negotiation tools" of unencumbered freehold and clean lease, you'd expect SISU then to come out with another option of buying ACL with a long lease. There is absolutely zero evidence that this ever happened. All we had was AL changed her mind on the train down, which of course she didn't. She clearly stated what wasn't available before she got on the train and I copied and pasted a transcript of the BBC's website (because I know the CT only tells lies on here) earlier in this thread. It's pretty clear that SISU have only ever asked for what they know not to be available.
You yourself pointed out why they wouldn't have done the deal Wasps done for the Ricoh as there was no value in the debt so don't you think it's about time that this myth about SISU being serious about buying ACL was put to bed?