Have they said they want the ricoh for free?
Clearly they don't as they have just turned down an offer that amounts to precisely that.
If, as other posters have pointed out, the "New Stadium" is something more than another Fisher Fantasy then why turn down the rent free offer that would appear to guarantee lower costs and greater revenue. For the next three years whilst building that stadium (though we are now almost 20% of the way through the "Three Year Plan" and don't appear to have a location or planning permission some six and a half months after Fisher told us they would be announced) they can use the RA rent free whilst benefitting from an increase of 500% plus in ticket revenues.
To the best of our collective knowledge they have never made an offer for the freehold - and given the way they play the media you can bet your bottom dollar we would have known had they done so
Conclusions? There isn't and never has been a "New Stadium" to be built on the outskirts of Coventry or anywhere else, they want the ACL part of the business for nothing and will distress them until they get it and they hope to get the freehold, ultimately, if not for free then certainly at a much reduced price indicative of a repossession value or a fire sale
As another poster has pointed out, this is how they conducted business in the past and there is no greater pointer for the future than an examination of history
Most of us knew or believed this anyway but the proof just keeps coming