A few things:
JS going missing from the web page: My guess is that the previous statement was used as a template and TF didn't delete the previous sign-off from both of them until after it went live.
JS meeting with fans: Do people remember the first time she met with fans (at Ryton?) back in September? Joey Crone talked about meeting her on his Nii Lamptey Show podcast. Cossy & I have met her a couple of times, there was dongonzalos' mini-forum not so long ago, the statement mentions meeting with the SBT board and I know of representatives from other supporters' groups having met with her too. Meeting with smaller groups of fans is something I've always advocated because it's harder for JS/TF/ML to get off the hook and people get to focus on getting deeper answers to particular questions they have. At larger forms, the depth tends to get lost in attempts to 'give everyone a chance to say something' or just lots of yelling.
The statement: It's a definite change in tone and attitude. As with the previous one, it pays to be wary and anyone getting too excited must've been on a Himalayan retreat for the past 20 years.
The legals: One of the popular theories pre-JR was that Sisu should offer to drop the JR as part of a deal to return. Personally I see any legal dropping as a point of negotiation rather than a barrier to it but then I'm a big believer in just sitting down and thrashing things out. But enough of my completely ridiculous ideas. </sarcasm>
That the talk pre-JR was 'it's really straightforward to go back & rent short-term' has now morphed into 'it's really straightforward to pay what ACL demand, drop all legal action then go back & rent short-term'. Is it me or did it just get more complicated for some people?
Overall: Do ACL actually want Sisu-owned CCFC back? Do Sisu-owned CCFC actually want to come back? The advantage of returning to the F&B debate now that CCFC & ACL have no contracts and are starting from scratch means that there's a clean slate and we could:
- actually ignore the machinations of the past and
- sort out a deal that reflects something reasonable within the context of modern stadium football business.
It's interesting to see reactions now that ACL are putting conditions down and Sisu have seemingly done an about-face. (BTW, I'm not making a judgement on who is right or wrong here, just noting that it looks like roles have been reversed somewhat.)
It's also interesting that the council / Ann Lucas were making the comments (e.g. open doors etc.) with ACL being silent whereas now ACL are saying more than I ever remember them saying and making the comments. (Again, no particular judgment, just that things seem to be a bit different.)