Tom Fisher Q & A email (10 Viewers)

[grego_gee]

What are they like?
And how does that compare to the mythical alternative?
imp:

On reflection I really I asked the wrong question here.
it should have been "And how does that compare with the abyss of not having them?"
Interestingly that very same question is "per-tenant" to ACL in respect of the situation they would face without CCFC and or SISU.
The Council/ACL perhaps hold all the legal options to enable them to drive SISU/CCFC out of existence but if they do so no-one else would want to step into the same straight jacket.
And without a club the Ricoh is going to have an even bigger "Echo".
imp:

 

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[sky blue john]

I guess as he's said in the q&a that's why he wants to see the numbers! Although a new agreement could bring in more sponsors etc. the fact we had over £1 million from this in our final season at highfield road shows we must have
missed out on more while at the Ricoh, the agreement made is killing he club,

I wouldn't say the agreement is the sole reason for the decline of our club !!!
1milliion revenue in prosperous times would equate to say 40-50% profit after overheads. I hardly think its anywhere near that now.
Cost of food is up massively compared to highfield road days.

 

[RedSalmon]

So how can you access the food and beverage revenues?
It is very difficult. ACL sold the food & beverage business to Compass for millions of pounds. Therefore, the contract on match day food and beverage is with Compass. Herein lies the big problem. We haven’t yet had any consistent numbers on food and beverage, despite numerous requests, and there hasn’t been a conversation with Compass. That is why it is impossible for us to have agreed a deal because until we have those numbers and have those conversations, a deal cannot be struck on how we access revenues.

Given that the rights to food and drink were sold by the then owners of CCFC before SISU took control, why do SISU assume that Compass will be willing to sell them back? If Compass are doing well out of it why should they just to please SISU? Why do they also assume that Compass would be under any obligation to reveal how much money they take on match day food and drink? Is Compass a separate, stand alone, company from ACL or part of the same organisation?

Have I completely missed the point here or something?

 

[sky blue john]

On reflection I really I asked the wrong question here.
it should have been "And how does that compare with the abyss of not having them?"
Interestingly that very same question is "per-tenant" to ACL in respect of the situation they would face without CCFC and or SISU.
The Council/ACL perhaps hold all the legal options to enable them to drive SISU/CCFC out of existence but if they do so no-one else would want to step into the same straight jacket.
And without a club the Ricoh is going to have an even bigger "Echo".
imp:

The problem is Sisu have burnt their bridges with their bullish tactics and are unlikely to be able to negotiate anything with the counsel.
I'm not saying there is someone at the moment but if Sisu were to step aside. im sure whoever comes in would be looked upon more favourably by the counsel.

 

[grego_gee]

I wouldn't say the agreement is the sole reason for the decline of our club !!!
1milliion revenue in prosperous times would equate to say 40-50% profit after overheads. I hardly think its anywhere near that now.
Cost of food is up massively compared to highfield road days.

Wanting the F&B revenue is not for the actual money involved and I think the club would be happy to pay 100% of the money involved just to get the income into their accounts!!
Although all money/revenue is important this has a special relevance now to the club. Now FFP is coming in even if the club had £80m available to spend on players they will get a transfer embargo if the salary budget goes over 65% of the clubs turnover.
The clubs turnover can include F&B revenue. So any club that does not have F&B revenue will be at a disadvantage to one that does! and as you said "food is up massively"

imp:

 

[grego_gee]

The problem is Sisu have burnt their bridges with their bullish tactics and are unlikely to be able to negotiate anything with the counsel.
I'm not saying there is someone at the moment but if Sisu were to step aside. im sure whoever comes in would be looked upon more favourably by the counsel.

There is no-one who would come in! And if there was why would the council look more favourably on them?
You say SISU have burnt their bridges but I don't think we have (or need) any alternative to SISU.

We/they have an impasse.
There is a legal framework in place that they took on when taking over the club.
It may have been onerous at that time but it wasn't the biggest issue they faced. It is a lot worse now because of relegation and FFP coming in.
Although there is no way that SISU can force changes on the council/ACL the only way that the council/ACL can enforce those changes is by destroying the club/SISU.
If they were to go ahead and do that the council/ACL would be in a very bad place because the Arena would be a really big, very expensive "ECHO" without a club in it!
So although the agreement is legal - it is not acceptable!
It has to change.
SO THE COUNCIL HAS TO GET ON WITH IT!
imp:

 

[Jack Griffin]

The Compass contract worth £125M runs to 2019, it includes all catering on site & running the hotel and exibitions.
Match day F&B is a relatively small part of that whole deal and presumably is not directly in the hands of ACL to give to CCFC.

Has CCFC even attempted to discuss the situation with Compass & ACL together?

 

[dongonzalos]

The Compass contract worth £125M runs to 2019, it includes all catering on site & running the hotel and exibitions.
Match day F&B is a relatively small part of that whole deal and presumably is not directly in the hands of ACL to give to CCFC.

Has CCFC even attempted to discuss the situation with Compass & ACL together?

So are SISU prepared to offer Compass that and buy the deal?

 

[BrisbaneBronco]

So are SISU prepared to offer Compass that and buy the deal?

Sure TF quoted somewhere that it would cost something like 24m to buy the rights to all these additional revenue streams. This is what lead to the statement "we could build our own stadium for 30m"

 

[dongonzalos]

Sure TF quoted somewhere that it would cost something like 24m to buy the rights to all these additional revenue streams. This is what lead to the statement "we could build our own stadium for 30m"

They could but it would be a very small stadium

 

[Grendel]

They could but it would be a very small stadium

Stoke city isn't a very small stadium.

 

[WillieStanley]

They could but it would be a very small stadium

And we suffer from overcrowding as it is!!

 

[dongonzalos]

Yes good example and a nice stadium. For half the price.

The owners bought the shares from the council for 6 million in the end as well.

They agreed a heads of terms and then saw the deal through.

Stoke fans probably don't realise how lucky they are.

 

[Grendel]

Yes good example and a nice stadium. For half the price.

The owners bought the shares of the council for 6 million in the end as well.

They agreed a heads of terms and then saw the deal through.

Stoke fans probably don't realise how lucky they are.

It was actually the council and a regeneration charity who sold their shares at the value of the mortgage to allow the club to own the ground.

If only our council had the same strategy and approach.

 

[torchomatic]

And what was the crowd yesterday? Remind me again.

They could but it would be a very small stadium

 

[dongonzalos]

And what was the crowd yesterday? Remind me again.

What's thd crowd when we put a run together remind?

 

[dongonzalos]

It was actually the council and a regeneration charity who sold their shares at the value of the mortgage to allow the club to own the ground.

If only our council had the same strategy and approach.

Yep sounds familiar.

Price agreed deal done.

As oppose to price agreed, silence try and do damage to the regeneration charity

 

[Grendel]

What's thd crowd when we put a run together remind?

We have never exceeded more than 15,000 and that was New Years Day with a reasonable away following so not more than 2,000 extra fans I'd say.

 

[torchomatic]

Not much better than now. It only goes higher when we play a big team or like the other week when there's a sniff of Wembley. We've only managed to get over 11K on 6 or 7 occasions this year, which is rubbish.

What's thd crowd when we put a run together remind?

 

[torchomatic]

Damage? They have a nice little goldmine, I think.

Yep sounds familiar.

Price agreed deal done.

As oppose to price agreed, silence try and do damage to the regeneration charity

 

[dongonzalos]

Quite good for 3rd division football

 

[dongonzalos]

Damage? They have a nice little goldmine, I think.

Hopefully for them.

 

[sky blue john]

Probably why Sisu are not interested in the football side !!!!
You can not compare Stoke to the Ricoh.
Do you really think 30 million spent on a basic stadium is going to generate the potential revenue of the ricoh ?

 

[Grendel]

Probably why Sisu are not interested in the football side !!!!
You can not compare Stoke to the Ricoh.
Do you really think 30 million spent on a basic stadium is going to generate the potential revenue of the ricoh ?

Of course you can compare them. The principal anyway is that their council and regeneration company sold their share for the outstanding mortgage value.

Is that a principal you agree with?

 

[grego_gee]

Probably why Sisu are not interested in the football side !!!!
You can not compare Stoke to the Ricoh.
Do you really think 30 million spent on a basic stadium is going to generate the potential revenue of the ricoh ?

from wiki,
The Britannia Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England and the home of Premier League club Stoke City Football Club. It has space for 27,740 spectators (reduced from 28,384 due to segregation).[3] The stadium was built in 1997 at a cost of £14.7 million as a replacement for the Victoria Ground. The name is taken from the sponsors of the stadium, the Britannia Co-operative Bank. Along with hosting football matches, the stadium has played host to performers such as Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and Elton John. The ground also holds conference and banqueting suites, the Delilah's Bar, and a club shop selling Stoke City merchandise.
The highest attendance being recorded at the stadium was 28,218 for the sell-out fixture against Everton in their FA
It would do for me & (a few others)
if you think the Ricoh is more than this then perhaps we should only pay for the essential part?

imp:

 

[BrisbaneBronco]

Probably why Sisu are not interested in the football side !!!!
You can not compare Stoke to the Ricoh.
Do you really think 30 million spent on a basic stadium is going to generate the potential revenue of the ricoh ?

Matchday revenue, yes.
Other income streams which are generated ie Casino's, Hotels, Conferences, Concerts etc, no.

 

[Grendel]

from wiki,
The Britannia Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England and the home of Premier League club Stoke City Football Club. It has space for 27,740 spectators (reduced from 28,384 due to segregation).[3] The stadium was built in 1997 at a cost of £14.7 million as a replacement for the Victoria Ground. The name is taken from the sponsors of the stadium, the Britannia Co-operative Bank. Along with hosting football matches, the stadium has played host to performers such as Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and Elton John. The ground also holds conference and banqueting suites, the Delilah's Bar, and a club shop selling Stoke City merchandise.
The highest attendance being recorded at the stadium was 28,218 for the sell-out fixture against Everton in their FA
It would do for me & (a few others)
if you think the Ricoh is more than this then perhaps we should only pay for the essential part?

imp:

Lol.

I've always used stoke as an example. The fact is they have a council who sees the football club as an integral community asset not some organisation to profit from.

Other than the exhibition hall they are very similar.

 

[sky blue john]

Well based on this i support the idea of a new stadium !!
Maybe if Sisu had handled it better im sure they could have had the Ricoh but very unlikely now.

 

[Grendel]

Well based on this i support the idea of a new stadium !!
Maybe if Sisu had handled it better im sure they could have had the Ricoh but very unlikely now.

No they couldn't because our greedy council would never have agreed to just selling for the mortgage value.

Penny starting to drop at last?

 

[sky blue john]

No they couldn't because our greedy council would never have agreed to just selling for the mortgage value.

So lets say the counsel let Sisu have the Ricoh for the mortgage value. Do you trust Sisu not to sell the ricoh and dump the club or even sell the club and keep the ricoh?

 

[torchomatic]

Take of the blinkers and take your fingers out of your ears. It's not just SISU who have made this a bad situation all round. The Council and ACL need to look at themselves too. We could have all the concessions, etc for £24M?! No wonder they are thinking about their options and moving. No, SISU haven't handled this well, but the Council and ACL are motivated by greed and are not doing what is best for the football club and ultimately for the city of Coventry.

Well based on this i support the idea of a new stadium !!
Maybe if Sisu had handled it better im sure they could have had the Ricoh but very unlikely now.

 

[torchomatic]

Conspiratorial nonsense with no basis in fact. Of course they wouldn't dump the club. The Ricoh is a football stadium and what does every football stadium need?

No they couldn't because our greedy council would never have agreed to just selling for the mortgage value.

So lets say the counsel let Sisu have the Ricoh for the mortgage value. Do you trust Sisu not to sell the ricoh and dump the club or even sell the club and keep the ricoh?

 

[BrisbaneBronco]

No they couldn't because our greedy council would never have agreed to just selling for the mortgage value.

So lets say the counsel let Sisu have the Ricoh for the mortgage value. Do you trust Sisu not to sell the ricoh and dump the club or even sell the club and keep the ricoh?

SISU could not sell the club without the Ricoh, and what use is the Ricoh without the football club. ACL/Council will soon find out if we decamp to Nene Park.

 

[dongonzalos]

Take of the blinkers and take your fingers out of your ears. It's not just SISU who have made this a bad situation all round. The Council and ACL need to look at themselves too. We could have all the concessions, etc for £24M?! No wonder they are thinking about their options and moving. No, SISU haven't handled this well, but the Council and ACL are motivated by greed and are not doing what is best for the football club and ultimately for the city of Coventry.

Good balanced view there touch.

Apart from the last bit the council motivated by greed? Really?

 

[RegTheDonk]

Something I don't get here re. the pies and stuff.....


.... didn't CCFC say a couple of years ago, when fans were threatening to not buy from the burger bars etc as a protest against SISU, something to the effect of "it harms the club if you boycott the food"?

So if the club aren't getting any money from the grub, what was the statement about?