OSB, thanks for the input - appreciated, but you've misinterpretated me on a couple of points.
The first one, I never said the councils that subsidised Tesco's move to the Arena park wasn't by a 'socialist' council, I was stating it isn't socialist ideoolgy therefore, 'unsocialist'.
in the real world whether you are left or right you have to deal with more important things than ideology ...... practicality, any council would encourage Tesco to come to the site not because of ideology but because practicality in creating jobs,getting inward investment, having a cohesive development demands it, political expediency demands it. Not going to get hung up on whether it was ideologically sound or not .......... its really irrelevant. Political life and ideology is never so clear cut. In creating the Tesco opportunity the then council are creating wealth for the site but also for the masses ..... isnt the well being of the masses a socialist ideal?
I stated I was unsure of the figure of 1m last year, it appears to be wrong, but you can (or should) see that I got mixed up with 2011 figure with 2010 and 2011 figure
with respect you are making the figures fit to cover your mistake take responsibility for your error dont compound it by making excuses i am guessing you didnt have the ACL accounts . I said the profit affects the loan because it uses the profit to pay the loan - fair enough - but when the loan is paid, the ACL (if the trend keeps up) they'll make a LOT of profit from the 13th year on, so selling it would see ACL lose a long term income, therefore, may play hard ball and not sell at a reasonable price.
it uses the profits to do a lot of things but technically it is cash flow that pays the loan and that is a very different figure to profit. If you take the annual interest paid and add that back to the profits that would mean 1.5m in profits......... hardly massive, some will be retained for future investment, some to pay corporation tax, some may be taken as a return but in the scheme of things we are not talking huge amounts. Those profits are ACL's so ACL would lose no income at all if they retain the long lease on the stadium even if CCFC part owned ACL, if CCFC buy 50% of ACL then it might net them 500k in cash flow from a dividend if a dividend is paid. But overall you have the wrong feel for the stadium, it isnt about a cash cow for its shareholders it is part of a far bigger scheme of regenerating that side of town.
In answer to your question, I mean no alternative to CCFC. Playing at the RICOH. I can tell you now, working at Arena Pizza Hut, if CCFC cease to play at the RICOH, the area would lose a LOT of money, my manager tells me frequently we need CCFC to do well so 'we' [pizza hut] do well which is true. IMO, there is no long term replacement
(short term is the problem long term less so)for CCFC in terms of use of the RICOH, kiosks will pull out and ACL loses more rent etc. IMO, CCFC have the cards, ACL don't have an ace
you sure of that ?. They won't kick us out because of this
you sure - how else do they get resolution ?. I don't think you can compare a shop and landowner to a CCFC and Coventry, more complex situation than that, the success of the club, also influences the city
not as much as it used to? so its failure has dragged the city down has it ?thats the logic of what you are saying. there are over 300K people in the vicinity they are not all CCFC fans, and of course you can compare the two, it isnt one way yes perhaps the City get something from it in terms of visitors but CCFC have had significant and consistent aid from the council, charity and ACL in return, there would not be a club without them it would have gone bust before SISU got here. If we're successful, more away fans coming into city in higher leagues (almost tourism) and more people in the city going to pubs etc. pre match and post match
take a look at where the ground is and how fans access it there is a very restricted effect - look at what happened at the olympics footfall elsewhere in the city didnt increase in fact at some shops it fell - see where I'm going with this?
Do they teach you to do problem solving and lateral thinking ? If so apply it to this situation. You tell me if it makes good business sense to not have alternatives, to not put on more events, attract other sports, more concerts, change the usage, develop hotels to support the additional events (the lack of rooms has held the venue back). All of which would put money in Pizza hut coffers. There are 25 or so match days what does Pizza hut etc do for the other 340 days ? Do you think that ACL will just accept that they are beholden to CCFC or do you think they might change their annual costs in some way ? I think we will see who holds what shortly but one thing is very clear CCFC cannot continue to use the stadium for nothing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/coventry_city/9578128.stm this is what 'promises' were made and their commitment to their club, there's another link, just can't find it - oh well.
and what have they learnt and changed ? ...... the only thing keeping fans and club joined is the fact the team is winning a few ...... the owners are not connected to the fans, the club still has massive debts, still makes large losses, still fails to control its costs properly, hasnt invested in the squad only in funding the losses, can only partly afford it by not paying its creditors, has added in other overheads......... words are no use unless they mean something and are acted upon