The rent was always an issue, along with the wage bill, and other outgoing costs, hence why we have been making annual losses, since before Sisu took over.
They should have dealt with it at the beginning, along with cutting the wage bill an other costs.
If that were true, then the losses would solely be the cost of the additional rent! In reality a business does not like to tie up capital in buildings if they can avoid it. It messes the cashflows and is generally bad news (which is why there are so many rented units down bayton road and the office blocks are generally let rather than bought).
Sisu simply didn't want to tie up their money in a mortgage, as their plan was a quick turnaround and sell on, taking out a mortgage would be insane if you intend to hold on to the business for 5 years or less. Problems arose, when they paniced, changed the business plan, sold the top players for peanuts to cover losses. Even then this wasn't a problem until ffp came into force. Only then, when they couldn't get away with renting (and hence writing off the costs for tax purposes) all of a sudden the rent was an issue.
Do you seriously think, knowing how ruthless sisu have been throughout, they would have accepted the high rent unchallenged if it was a problem for them? Sisu do not do long term, but because of woeful mismanagement, short-sighted appointments and downright incomopetence, they were left with a club very difficult to move on, hence distressing ACL to get the arena on the cheap. They even admit this as they said they were going to do it with the council and only complained when the council took the mortgage alone!