So depriving the club of income will somehow make the situation better!? :thinking about:
Wonder what genius came up that? What's the formula?
Well, there were two strategies that I had in mind, but they are linked.
The first is that being enacted by our owners.
If you believe them (and I guess that it's possible that there is still someone out there who does):
- they have no alternative but to leave the Ricoh,
- they have funding in place to see them through the next X years (where X is whichever number TF has in mind at any given time)
- they will build a new stadium in (well, innish...) Coventry within 3 years
So for a moment let's forget the incredible (and I use the word in its literal sense) way that they managed negotiations with ACL and let's forget that last summer TF told us that SISU had guaranteed funding for 3 years, only to tell us that we were on the verge of liquidation a few months back. Let's just dwell on the new stadium.
Do you really believe that SISU are going to build a new stadium? Don't you think that it's far more likely that this is simply a ploy to persuade ACL that SISU mean business and to force ACL (and/or their owners) to offer a bargain basement price?
Now some will turn a blind eye to any ethical considerations herein and suggest that anything that gets a better deal for the club must be good.
However - firstly, it seems probable to me that SISU's negotiating style may have so alienated ACL et al, that any deal that would be to SISU's liking, will simply be a step too far for the vendors. Secondly, even if this were to happen, I'm afraid that there will be no benefit to the club. SISU will just package up their new asset and sell it for the maximum price they can.
Now the obvious course of action in the current situation would be for SISU to sell the club for whatever they can get for it (which on any rational valuation, won't be much) - but in the forums TF explained that they wouldn't do that, because they thought that they were at the "bottom of the business cycle".
So now to the linked strategy - We have to persuade TF and his mistress that they are far from the bottom of the business cycle. We have to persuade them that if they stay, they will look back on this current time as a land of milk and honey. We have to persuade them that if they follow this disasterous course their revenue will dry up and they will have to dip into their own pockets to fund the business (real funding, not AVRO interest and inflated management charge type funding).
Perhaps then they will get the message, will sell for what they can and perhaps we will have the chance of a new start.