Exactly, we overspent on a gamble to reach European football and failed, when we were relegated to the championship we couldn't afford to finish the Ricoh. Council step in with the final bit of funding (a lot less than city put in if I remember) but on terms of being joint owners through a management company (ACL) that would be jointly owned by CCC and CCFC while also putting the rent deal in place. Before we move in we were desperately close to going bust and to raise instant funds we sold our share of ACL to Higgs meaning the club stayed alive but lost access to all revenue streams coming from the stadium, although we were given a buy back clause.
When again we were close to going bust there were a few interested buyers but council insisted on SISU as they stated their interest was to get CCFC into the premiership rather than buy the stadium. Ray Ranson spent a decent wedge while chairman, i remember at the time hearing we were over budget by quite a bit, but he wasted it on Coleman being an idiot. Ranson threw his toys out of the pram when he was told we'd have to be more intelligent with his budget and SISU were in a situation they didn't want to be in, they want Ranson as the football man and them to control the funds, they had no intention of actually running the club so directly.
We inevitably end up relegated because we had people so unprepared for running a football club (I think this is where SISU should have sold up, before we were relegated and still on terms with our landlords, they could have made some of their money back). When we get down to league one and are losing money everywhere they see the £1.2M rent plus other expenses as being prohibitive and try to renegotiate the deal, the council refused knowing they had a captive tenant (where else could we go...). Bad blood follows and we end up in the shit situation we're looking at now.
But instead of actually looking at the facts and analysing the situation some find it more comforting to say lets spend more than Sheffield Utd and get promoted.