This is a good question. Throughout this mess, I've often thought – how would a fan-owned club deal with this? Would there be more pressure on the stadium owners to cut a better deal?
Looking at the likes of AFC Wimbledon, who still play away from Wimbledon (although I've heard that they might have a chance to return) you have to go with what you can afford. Trying to go back to an expensive London borough when your financial ceiling is League 1 is going to be hard.
FC United of Manchester on the other hand have just started building their new stadium 3 miles north east of Manchester City centre whilst the club they split from (Man Utd) play in a different borough (Trafford) but only 2 miles SW from the centre of Manchester. Interestingly, the FCUM venue is in Moston which is next to Newton Heath where Man Utd first started.
There's Grimsby playing in Cleethorpes but then the two towns are next to each other. Cov is a different prospect. Very well defined with a fair distance between other places.
I suppose it comes down to how people feel and how times change as the memory fades. In London Arsenal made the move across the river from Woolwich to Highbury and Millwall went the other way from the Isle of Dogs to Deptford to Bermondsey. Do any of their fans care now?
I think that if CCFC we entirely fan-owned then we'd have sunk a few divisions and be looking at a sub-10,000 or even sub-6,000 ground so there would be more options within the City and you'd have to assume that CCC would be more amenable to the club building in the City. FCUM have received grants from the City of Manchester I believe. Regeneration, regeneration, regeneration & all that.
So I think fans would be more willing to accept a move outside because they'd have a closer bond with the club (ownership) and so be more pragmatic to the financial realities.
I'm not having a pop here as I genuinely respect all fans' decision to how they follow the team these days but I get the feeling that there are a fair few of the more hardcore NOPM CCFC fans who would accept a drop into the Conference leagues as an opportunity to fully own the club.
The overarching problem with fan ownership is that until the whole way that football is run in England is completely overhauled (unlikely given the power of the Prem and successive governments not really giving a toss) fully fan-owned clubs will have a ceiling of League 2 or maybe League 1 if they have a big enough fan base (e.g. Pompey) but to get up any higher, the bigger money has to come in at some point (e.g. Swansea)
The trick is to get a fan-owner(s) relationship going and work to get at least one fan-elected board member and a share of ownership before your club disappears down the plughole
