AFCCOVENTRY
Well-Known Member
@BBCCovWarks: Coventry city council has made it clear the Ricoh Arena won't be sold without the debt attached to the stadium
Ricoh arena won't be sold without debt attached (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter AFCCOVENTRY
- Start date
oldskyblue58
CCFC Finance Director
it wont be sold unencumbered or unfettered....... which means it wont be sold without ACL being in place ...... which means the loan ACL has will still be there.
AL didn't rule out an encumbered sale but why any one would buy a freehold that doesn't have rights to any income I do not know.
nearly everything has a sale price
AL didn't rule out an encumbered sale but why any one would buy a freehold that doesn't have rights to any income I do not know.
nearly everything has a sale price
Last edited:
Specs WT-R75
Well-Known Member
This is the thing with leasehold/freehold. Longer the lease the lower the value of the freehold... so yeah they probably could buy the encumbered freehold quite cheaply... they would just have to wait 40 years to get their hands on the stadium...
Kingokings204
Well-Known Member
irrelevant, CCC wont sell and Sisu wont buy. No deal here folks. Its rental or nothing.
Cheshire Sky Blue
New Member
OK Kingo. I just listened to both Labovitch and Lucas on listen again. Dealing with Lucas first. Its really clear. CCC can't sell the Freehold unencumbered, they are not prepared to break contracts. That is just being honourable. She would listen to encumbered sale. So Freehold can be sold under the correct conditions. SISU won't consider the later. Labovitch came across as a bit of a weasel to be honest. If he can not understand the position then he really ought to butt out and let someone who can take over. The truth is that he does understand but it serves him and SISU to muddy the waters and to create confusion. SISU could buy out ACL and buy the encumbered freehold and then they have everything they need. But as I have said before I do not believe they have the funds to buy these assets at commercial value. So they try to bully a council to breach contracts and take the hit so they get the stadium. I am not a fan of CCC but I do applaud the unified stance of all parties not to succumb to SISU or their posturing.
runner
Active Member
Well said ... good point, well made.
duffer
Well-Known Member
Bingo. That's as good an explanation of it as I've seen anywhere.
As expected, it's turned out not just to be about the freehold. It's now about the 'unencumbered' freehold - i.e. the council would have to break the lease with ACL, or somehow wind ACL up. Neither of those things is possible. Breaking the lease would trigger legal action from ACL and big financial penalties. The council does not have a controlling interest of ACL either, so it cannot force voluntary surrender of the lease or a winding up of the company.
SISU are the absolute masters of unreasonable and shifting demands. I suspect if the council offered them the whole thing for nothing they'd still ask for a couple of million to take it off their hands!
Unless SISU really want to buy out ACL, and I can't see that happening, I think it's game over for the Ricoh negotiations. SISU's best hope now is that ACL go bust (either through the failure of the business, or as a result of the JR). Even then though, they'd need to be the best bidder for what remains and there's no guarantee that would happen. Even if they were the winning bidder for ACL, they'd still have to negotiate a new lease with the Council, or offer to buy the freehold (still encumbered with the Hotel and Casino at this point, presumably).
So, imho, the best hope of getting the club back at the Ricoh is for SISU to eventually go back under a different rental agreement, or to sell CCFC to someone prepared to do so. I don't think that's a vain hope, given the financial black hole that CCFC currently represents to their investors, but that's just my opinion!
Alternatively, they could just get on and build their new stadium. Unfortunately they don't seem to have made much progress on that either.
J
Jack Griffin
Guest
Lucas made it crystal clear, she won't change her stance till SISU change theirs.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Booo! Evil stubborn council!
When does GCBTTR arrive outside the council house with torches and pitchforks?
Grendel
Well-Known Member
That is I assume what they want to do.
bigfatronssba
Well-Known Member
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duffer
Well-Known Member
Really. Have they ever said that? When? Where?
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
You mean end game or what they're actually trying to do now?
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Exactly, if SISU want rid of ACL and the contracts they hold with third parties why not buy ACL and then pay off all those contracts themselves. The only reason I can think of they won't consider that is they want CCC to foot the bill for all the compensation that will be due.
dongonzalos
Well-Known Member
You would get about ten people out of 20000 ( including those who used to go) outside led by investigative journalist of the year.