When was the 50% offer? Higgs turned the £2 million down and the council have never offered their share have they?
Higgs was the 50% offer.
Council's a little murkier TBF, just rereading the council report. They definitely entered discussions, but just say ' It became clear very quickly that the only terms on which SISU would consider even making an offer for ACL were on the basis that the sale of the Arena was on an unencumbered freehold basis '.
However they also say: 'It has also been made clear that the City Council will listen to all sensible and sustainable offers to acquire an ownership stake in the Arena whether in full or in part and also in relation to the AEHC shares should they wish to sell.'
Fisher claimed we'd made 'a very serious offer' (for the Higgs share), and CCFC still had first option when the sale to Wasps went through.
So I guess as always it comes down to your interpretation of various statements.
But you can add (all before or around the Wasps sale):
“We realised that the business was nothing short of appalling. Half of something very small is nothing – two turkeys do not an eagle make. We were not going to strap ourselves to an ailing business.”
(Seppala) “We will not interfere with any deal between Wasps and Arena Coventry Limited regarding the Ricoh.”
(Seppala to the pro Sisu fans group at the time)
Stuart Cosgrove, of GCBTR, said: “We urged Joy to make clear at this late stage whether there was any hope that a Ricoh sale has privately remained at least one option for the club.
“Her answer is clear in saying that a new stadium makes more sense.”
So it's not unreasonable to say at least that Sisu didn't make an approach as clearly as Wasps and made some very confusing statements that on the face of it line up with what the council claims was said privately.
