Timeline Of Sorts (5 Viewers)

[torchomatic]

For a while I copied and pasted articles from local press, websites, etc regarding the building of the Arena and all the subsequent shenanigans. I'll start posting some on here if Nick thinks it will have merit.

For example, this a month after the Council first tried to woo Wasps.:

April 2012: HOPES of a financial lifeline for the relegated Sky Blues through lower rent
payments for the council-owned Ricoh Arena appear in tatters today.
Coventry City Council leader Coun John Mutton, speaking to the Telegraph, poured cold water
on Sky Blues' chief executive Tim Fisher's hopes for a renegotiation of rent to management
company Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) - which is jointly owned by the council and Alan
Higgs Charity, and has a long lease on the council-owned stadium site.
The council's leader also indicated any hope of the deficit-ridden Sky Blues buying a stake in
the stadium and its profit-making commercial activities remained extremely unlikely. Mr
Fisher - speaking on Saturday evening after Coventry City Football Club suffered a further
multi-million pound financial blow by being relegated to the third tier of English football for
the first time in 48 years - confirmed the club had not paid its £100,000 rent this
month.

In outlining a draft financial plan to "bounce back" to the Championship to be put to the
club's owners, London-based private equity firm Sisu, Mr Fisher added: "As part of our
planning and of understanding what our finances are, the rent is not currently affordable.
That's a fact. However, the discussions we've had with ACL, the council and Higgs Charity have been
constructive. I'm hoping there will be some flexibility there."

But Labour council leader Mutton, a Sky Blues fan of 57 years, renewed his public attack on
unpopular owners Sisu, and said the council would expect the full rent to be paid.
He said "There have been talks, not negotiations, which are nothing to do with the council.
It's been an ACL thing. I was with the chairman of ACL David Allvey on Saturday. I'm advised
that while work is still ongoing to enable ACL to make more profit which may be able to
benefit the football club, there has been no discussion about decreasing rent.
"There is a legally binding contract and that would be expected to be paid. If for certain reasons there is future negotiation, that would be a decision for the full council to take as a shareholder as to whether we would be prepared to accept that. At the moment, there seems to be more threats than negotiation - the threat to put the club into liquidation.

It really is time for Sisu to realise Coventry doesn't bow at the knee to threats."

Asked about any prospect for future negotiations about the football club buying into the
stadium, he said: "it's public money that went into building the Ricoh Arena, and public
money for us to remain NOT BOWING TO THREATS."

Coun Mutton a 50per cent shareholder. "It's not for the public purse to subsidise organisations like SISU. The council's 50 per cent for the foreseeable future is not for sale and possibly never will be.
The purpose of the investment into the former Foleshill gasworks site was to regenerate that
north-east area of Coventry and create jobs. If any organisation or individual came forward that would not only invest in Coventry City Football Club but in the land around it, building the hotels and so on, we probably would not stand in the way of them purchasing the 50 per cent which the Higgs Charity owns.
There is every possibility the council would not use its powers of veto as long as they could
make an agreement with the Higgs Charity. They've been good partners since 2002 when the decision was made to build the Ricoh. We would have to make certain it's not just words, and that they would invest in infrastructure and jobs."

He said that would remain the council's position in the event of any takeover of the Sky
Blues, for example by any future consortium led by former Sky Blues directors Joe Elliott and
Gary Hoffman.
Of Coventry City's relegation, he said: "I was at the match on Saturday. Throughout the
season I don't think many people could criticise the players for effort, but I didn't see a lot of
it on Saturday. It seemed they had accepted they were down and that it was no longer in their hands. I blame Sisu. When the fans were chanting 'SISU out'; I was on my feet singing it with them. Sisu have destroyed the club I';ve supported for 57 years, since I was seven. They've sold
the best players or let them leave on free transfers to reduce the wage bill. They let the
whole spine of the team go. They don't give a damn about the football club or the city. They simply saw it as a way tomake money. The sooner they go, the better."

 

---

[fernandopartridge]

One thing about what Mutton says is that I don't know how well informed he was about the prospective Wasps takeover, not saying he didn't know but we don't know that he knew.

 

[torchomatic]

One thing about what Mutton says is that I don't know how well informed he was about the prospective Wasps takeover, not saying he didn't know but we don't know that he knew.

Fair comment. Maybe that was just Daniel Gidney.

 

[Grendel]

Fair comment. Maybe that was just Daniel Gidney.

Gidney was a wanker

 

[torchomatic]

What the stadium means forCoventry

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

£120 million for the whole development. That includes £70 million for the stadium and conference centre/exhibition centre and dining room complex. The rest is a 120,000 foot square leisure complex which could include a swimming pool or bowling alley, but not a cinema; a railway station; carparking; Tesco Xtra superstore; another large store and district shopping centre.

HOW MUCH IS THE LAND?

EXACT figures not given. Estimated to be £20 million, including cost of dismantling last gasholder

WHO WILL TAKE PROJECT FORWARD?

A NEW joint venture company will be set up between city council, Coventry City Football Club, Advantage West Midlands and other, as yet un-named, private partners. It will be a new firm, separate fromArena2001, the club's company for pushing the arena plans.

WHAT WILL CITY COUNCIL GET OUT OF IT?

SHARES in the new company, a seat on the board during the development stages and future income from profits. The council is investing £10 million long-term, money raised by the sale of land the council owned at Westwood Heath over the years. Council leader Cllr Nick Nolan (Lab, Holbrook) said the council wants to secure a stadium as a landmark attraction as part of any redevelopment of the site, which has been derelict for more than 30 years.

WHO WILL PAY FOR BUILDING THE STADIUM?

PROFIT from sale of land for the shopping centre will go towards it. The rest will be raised through loans from banks. Money to pay off the loans will come from income from functions, exhibitions, events, corporate hospitality, community use of facilities, and sponsorship deals.

WHAT WILL THE STADIUM BE LIKE?

THE "tent-like" poles holding up the stadium stand roof will be seen by 37 million motorists passing along the M6 each year. They will stand three-quarters of the height of the tallest gasholder which is still standing on the site.

Each of the 32,000 seats will have a clear view of the pitch, with steep enough raking and alignment for a child to see over a large adult in the row in front.

The pitch will likely be a state-of-the-art Desso pitch, where tiny filaments of plastic in tufts are implanted eight inches below the surface to encourage the grass to grow as smoothly and evenly as possible. Arena 2001 chief executive Paul Fletcher oversaw a similar pitch being installed at the Alfred McAlpine stadium in Huddersfield.

"There will be no divots", he said. "It will be like a bowling green, with underfloor heating."

There will be twin tunnels for players to run down, identical dressing rooms for home and away teams and even a separate dressing room for a female referee.

There will be 40 hospitality boxes.

WHAT WILL OTHER FACILITIES BE LIKE?

THE exhibition hall - which can double up to hold pop concerts - will be under the same roof as the stadium, with a 36-foot wide covered atrium separating them.

Above will be the dining room for 1,000 people, with easy access from both the football ground and the conference centre.

The Tesco Xtra will be among the largest in Britain, with assistants on roller skates.

Under existing planning permission, there will be another, smaller supermarket- size store. Earlier plans to turn that into six smaller fashion stores were vigorously opposed in the High Court by the developers of the Lower Precinct, Arrowcroft, and landowners of the Upper Precinct, Land Securities. There will be a parade of district shops.

The leisure centre is at an early stage and plans will depend on which firms join in.

The railway station will have two platforms and be able to take shuttle trains from Coventry, or trains linking up to the Nuneaton branch of the West Coast main line.

 

[clint van damme]

"But Labour council leader Mutton, a Sky Blues fan of 57 years"

HAHA!!

 

[fernandopartridge]

Fair comment. Maybe that was just Daniel Gidney.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if the councillors were in the dark, they don't appear to be the most diligent individuals

 

[MalcSB]

One thing about what Mutton says is that I don't know how well informed he was about the prospective Wasps takeover, not saying he didn't know but we don't know that he knew.

There’s two key indicators, “council” “ leader”

 

[Grappa]

"The Tesco Xtra will be among the largest in Britain, with assistants on roller skates."

Mate.

 

[fernandopartridge]

There’s two key indicators, “council” “ leader”

I understand that, but, i don't know what powers were delegated to the council officers who sat on ACL's board

 

[Nick]

I haven't seen a single roller skate in Tescos, NOPM.

 

[vow]

For example, this a month after the Council first tried to FUCK CCFC

Lets get it right, Torch!

 

[Nick]

Lets get it right, Torch!

In those days though, the council leader saying that people would have been queuing up to pat him on the back and giving him hero status.

If you said anything otherwise about the council you had a PR company get strange accounts made to say you worked for SISU or were on the payroll.

 

[torchomatic]

In those days though, the council leader saying that people would have been queuing up to pat him on the back and giving him hero status.

If you said anything otherwise about the council you had a PR company get strange accounts made to say you worked for SISU or were on the payroll.

These guys. From Les Reid, The Observer, October 2012

October 2012: A COVENTRY council "confidentiality agreement" gagging councillors from revealing secrets about negotiations with the Sky Blues or its owners Sisu over the Ricoh stadium has become, well, not exactly very confidential.

Yes, you've guessed it. It's been leaked to this column. Regular readers will be forgiven for thinking Coventry City Council has been leaking like a sieve lately.

It would seem the otherwise obsessively thorough council lawyers who drew up the confidentiality agreement forgot one thing - to mark it as "private and confidential".

The document strongly suggests some council insiders are very serious about potentially doing a deal over stadium ownership and rent with Coventry City Football Club and its unpopular Mayfair-based hedge fund/private equity owners Sisu.

Councillors were asked to sign the document drawn up by the department of finance director Chris West who, alongside chief executive Martin Reeves, is a council representative on the board of the Ricoh management company, Arena Coventry Ltd.

Some might say the confidentiality agreement highlights what happens to common sense when lawyers get involved. The three-page document threatens any councillor signing it with being personally liable for any financial loss if they publicly reveal - at any point over an astonishing five years - the contents of briefings by council officers over Ricoh talks.

To use the colloquial analogy of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", the "gagging order" not just bans councillors from discussing - with any "external" person - private financial information, but effectively anything about talks about the Ricoh talks.

Another new development may further prompt diagnoses of acute pathological secrecy anxiety at a council supposedly constitutionally committed to "openess and transparency" with the public.

London-based global public relations firm Weber Shandwick has now been hired to handle all press enquiries. It followed revelations in this newspaper of a breakthrough in talks - with the Alan Edward Higgs Charity agreeing a price and headline terms with the Sky Blues for its half-stake in ACL.

I was told by Coventry-based firm Advent Communications, which usually handles PR for both ACL and the Sky Blues, that enquiries to both parties should go to the London PR firm. The stock in trade of PR firms being, of course, to influence media coverage with spin which, in my experience, often means revealing as little as possible.

Now I've learned the democratically elected council too could hide behind the London PR firm.

Labour council leader John Mutton has discussed with officers "not communicating" with this newspaper and, in his words, to "leave it all to the PR company that Martin Reeves has engaged."

I inquired whether this could see council taxpayers' money spent on London spin doctors. A council spokesman said the PR contract was only with ACL, not the council.

Coun Mutton states it would prevent misinformation. Yet he does not dispute the accuracy of the Telegraph's reporting over the headline terms agreement. We also accurately reported sensitive negotiations were continuing, including over actual payment in a potential deal which would still have to be approved by all 54 councillors.

In fairness, Coun Mutton is caught somewhere between a rock and hard place, with the Tory opposition seeking to damn him whether he does or doesn't speak with the media in general terms about Ricoh talks.

The confidentiality agreement itself reveals important evidence in the public interest - since negotiations involve, indirectly at the very least, taxpayers' money as the council half-owns ACL, and the Ricoh land freehold, including surrounding land earmarked for leisure development and potential long-term taxpayer income.

Council leaders' sensible position over the summer had been to inform taxpayers and football fans in general terms through the media, without revealing commercially confidential information such as prices - not that any competitor is exactly queuing up to undercut with rival bids. The Conservative opposition is playing politics, but you can understand their refusal to sign the confidentiality agreement which no doubt some ruling Labour councillors felt duty bound to sign.

I won't bore you with all the legal jargon of the document drawn up by council lawyer Christine Forde. But its definition of what is confidential includes officers' "summaries, reports and analyses" about "exploratory meetings" between ACL, the Sky Blues, Sisu and the council, which "contain" or even "reflect" on confidential information.

It adds councillors must accept "full liability and will indemnify" the council against "all and any loss whatsoever and howsoever arising from any disclosure or unauthorised use of the confidential information."

Regardless, I predict more leaks!

 

[Deleted member 5849]

These guys. From Les Reid, The Observer, October 2012

October 2012: A COVENTRY council "confidentiality agreement" gagging councillors from revealing secrets about negotiations with the Sky Blues or its owners Sisu over the Ricoh stadium has become, well, not exactly very confidential.

Yes, you've guessed it. It's been leaked to this column. Regular readers will be forgiven for thinking Coventry City Council has been leaking like a sieve lately.

It would seem the otherwise obsessively thorough council lawyers who drew up the confidentiality agreement forgot one thing - to mark it as "private and confidential".

The document strongly suggests some council insiders are very serious about potentially doing a deal over stadium ownership and rent with Coventry City Football Club and its unpopular Mayfair-based hedge fund/private equity owners Sisu.

Councillors were asked to sign the document drawn up by the department of finance director Chris West who, alongside chief executive Martin Reeves, is a council representative on the board of the Ricoh management company, Arena Coventry Ltd.

Some might say the confidentiality agreement highlights what happens to common sense when lawyers get involved. The three-page document threatens any councillor signing it with being personally liable for any financial loss if they publicly reveal - at any point over an astonishing five years - the contents of briefings by council officers over Ricoh talks.

To use the colloquial analogy of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", the "gagging order" not just bans councillors from discussing - with any "external" person - private financial information, but effectively anything about talks about the Ricoh talks.

Another new development may further prompt diagnoses of acute pathological secrecy anxiety at a council supposedly constitutionally committed to "openess and transparency" with the public.

London-based global public relations firm Weber Shandwick has now been hired to handle all press enquiries. It followed revelations in this newspaper of a breakthrough in talks - with the Alan Edward Higgs Charity agreeing a price and headline terms with the Sky Blues for its half-stake in ACL.

I was told by Coventry-based firm Advent Communications, which usually handles PR for both ACL and the Sky Blues, that enquiries to both parties should go to the London PR firm. The stock in trade of PR firms being, of course, to influence media coverage with spin which, in my experience, often means revealing as little as possible.

Now I've learned the democratically elected council too could hide behind the London PR firm.

Labour council leader John Mutton has discussed with officers "not communicating" with this newspaper and, in his words, to "leave it all to the PR company that Martin Reeves has engaged."

I inquired whether this could see council taxpayers' money spent on London spin doctors. A council spokesman said the PR contract was only with ACL, not the council.

Coun Mutton states it would prevent misinformation. Yet he does not dispute the accuracy of the Telegraph's reporting over the headline terms agreement. We also accurately reported sensitive negotiations were continuing, including over actual payment in a potential deal which would still have to be approved by all 54 councillors.

In fairness, Coun Mutton is caught somewhere between a rock and hard place, with the Tory opposition seeking to damn him whether he does or doesn't speak with the media in general terms about Ricoh talks.

The confidentiality agreement itself reveals important evidence in the public interest - since negotiations involve, indirectly at the very least, taxpayers' money as the council half-owns ACL, and the Ricoh land freehold, including surrounding land earmarked for leisure development and potential long-term taxpayer income.

Council leaders' sensible position over the summer had been to inform taxpayers and football fans in general terms through the media, without revealing commercially confidential information such as prices - not that any competitor is exactly queuing up to undercut with rival bids. The Conservative opposition is playing politics, but you can understand their refusal to sign the confidentiality agreement which no doubt some ruling Labour councillors felt duty bound to sign.

I won't bore you with all the legal jargon of the document drawn up by council lawyer Christine Forde. But its definition of what is confidential includes officers' "summaries, reports and analyses" about "exploratory meetings" between ACL, the Sky Blues, Sisu and the council, which "contain" or even "reflect" on confidential information.

It adds councillors must accept "full liability and will indemnify" the council against "all and any loss whatsoever and howsoever arising from any disclosure or unauthorised use of the confidential information."

Regardless, I predict more leaks!

He wrote better then!

 

[torchomatic]

August 2007: COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL has hit back at claims that they are holding up the proposed takeover of the Sky Blues and Ricoh Arena.

Both the council and Arena Coventry Ltd, who run the complex, have reiterated that they have still not received a bid for the stadium from Manhattan Sports Capital Partners, despite supplying financial information to the American consortium and even inviting them to make an offer.

The football club and the council now appear to be at loggerheads over the cause of the takeover delay.

While Sky Blues managing director Paul Fletcher believes the council want too much money for their half share of the Arena, sources at the council believe the football club's growing debt to be the problem.

Fletcher admitted this week that the club are £34m in the red.

John McGuigan, director of city development for the city council and a director of ACL said: "Neither ACL nor the City Council has received any offer for the Ricoh Arena from any party.

"A valuation and offer for ACL is relatively easy to construct as a starting point for any subsequent commercial discussions. What is perhaps more difficult is to decide - and then finance - is what sum of new money is needed to put the football club on a sound financial footing.

"The city council and ACL are not standing in the way of any proposed takeover of Coventry City. The city council recognises the importance of a top rate football club - to the city of Coventry and to the many people in the city and beyond who support the Sky Blues."

McGuigan said that although the council had no reason to sell its stake in the Arena it would consider an offer from anybody buying the football club provided they met certain criteria and were acting for the good of the Coventry.

To that end, said McGuigan, detailed financial information about ACL had been provided to Manhattan Sports Capital Partners since the takeover was launched in March.

He added: "ACL has also pressed Manhattan to make an offer for ACL, but no offer formal or informal - has been made."

Daniel Gidney, chief executive of the Ricoh Arena, added: "ACL has engaged with Manhattan and will continue to support any process that can deliver a long-term sustainable solution for CCFC's challenges.

"I can confirm that ACL has received no formal or informal offer for part or all of its shares and thus no discussion has taken place around the appropriateness of any subsequent valuation."