skybluebeduff
Well-Known Member
In your dreams, CCC have an awful lot to reflect on.
So do SISU... an extreme lot to reflect on, wouldn't you say?
In your dreams, CCC have an awful lot to reflect on.
Foff now ive really got a headache.Also laced with a degree of sarcasm and a big dollap of irony.
2 pages in and no-one has called NW a SISU apologist.... has your test failed NW?
A wanker smiley kept my faith in SBT nature
Wouldn't you have got that whatever you said??
In fairness OSB the formula must have v overvalued the half stake in ACL anyway. Going off the figures bandied around on here.I am going to take this as a serious discussion piece despite a definite suspicion it isn't. I am not going to lay the blame solely on SISU, life is not so simplistic, but I wont focus on the actions of others.
I am also going to preface this by saying not everything that SISU have done has been wrong. They are right to drive down costs, they are right to have the club live within its means, the breaking of the lease was necessary even if the chosen tactic was possibly not. Costs now appear under control, the lease is broken, the club is apparently cash positive. But at what cost? You see whilst I agree the general principles it is the tactics I have a problem with
Yes they saved us, but to my mind they even got that wrong in how they did it. I have never understood why they did the deal that way. Had the club gone in to administration in 2007 then it could most likely have been purchased far cheaper (in the end the actual initial net cash flow from SISU was less than £3m including costs). However they went a different route with an off balance sheet purchase that then introduced a net position in to the SBS&L group. Doing that created £9.5m goodwill that really had no value and there was our first loss heading our way. Then they did something similar with the option, valued it at £1m and wrote it down to nil. So with no trading at all the "saving" by our owners created £10.5m in losses and debt.
The costs well yes they have saved up to £1.5m per year on the rent and licence. Not to be sniffed at certainly but also not the most important saving over the years. The single most important saving has been the reduction in the wage costs for the business. In the year to 31/05/09 wage costs in total were £12.2m today they sit at between £4m and £5m I would guess (2013 accounts showed £7m but surely they have reduced since then) for all players, staff & employees. That is a significant saving but it has a sting in the tail - it is set up for League 1 and because of other actions no real prospects of being able to finance the team at a higher level as it stands. It appears a vicious circle don't pay the higher wages, get lesser calibre of players, find a lower level of performance, sit in a lower division, take less income, look for savings ........
In the meantime the loans to finance the "losses"/debt are in place in favour of the owner/creditor and there is a high annual interest burden that there is no obvious way of bringing down. Interest now runs in excess of the old lease/licence rental
SISU have stabilised the finances yes. The biggest driving force for that is that no one including the owner/creditor was willing to put further funds in to the bottomless pit that is CCFC. Therefore the club has to live within its means and that let alone any other reason meant a return to the Ricoh where there was the prospect of greater gate receipts etc. But even then breaking the lease and the aggressive legal attitude adopted cost the club income sources when they returned like car parking that they used to have a right to. But the tactic also cost something more - the loyalty of many fans was stretched and broken that has serious consequences for income, success and the future. Did it have to be that way?
There has also been a shedding of value in order to finance losses that SISU had control of creating. There is no value to the squad. It has taken cash to clear out players but also players that had value in the balance sheet incurred us losses (yes there were notable profits Fox Dann Wilson etc) but overall the ins are less than the outs by approx. £2m last time I looked. As with many teams they got lucky and a couple of players had good seasons and they cashed in heaven help us had they not but there was no real plan to it - it was more needs must.
League position - from mid to lower Championship to mid to lower L1 is not what many fans expected when SISU saved us
Then there is the whole Ricoh ownership thing. The intention we are told by the stakeholders of ACL was that ACL would eventually become CCFC's. There never was an intention to sell the freehold it was always a stake in ACL. Indeed the club in the shape of CCFC Ltd was ahead of any other potential investor in ACL - CCFC Ltd had an option to purchase 50% at a formula price. The lease solution chosen by SISU (in my opinion it was a very clear plan and set of legal steps taken from March 2012 to break the lease) meant they couldn't use the formula price calculation because if CCFC Group owed ACL outside the normal terms it could not use the formula. The current waving of the first option to buy is to my mind legal dotting i's and crossing t's nothing more. So SISU effectively broke all links with the Ricoh and set up the potential for others to come in and take what should have been the clubs. Did it have to be that way? was there other tactics they could use? could SISU have been partners at ACL not adversaries?
That means that SISU now have the choice. Do they negotiate a better long term deal at the Ricoh knowing they can not ever own it or do they go for a smaller stadium of their own that doesn't have anything like the same level of income potential? There is no real asset base to CCFC - there are few assets. So a new build will involve more debt, more interest cost, on an asset that is depreciating, that is half the size and will not have the large additional money making spaces that the Ricoh has. Does the prospect of more debt, more interest with no great increase in income bode well for the ambitions of the club for 10, 20 or even 5 years ahead? Any new deal at the Ricoh could include a share of other incomes but it will cost to acquire them - will SISU want to do that or will they park CCFC there and let it bump along in L1 so long as SISU gets an income return for its investors from the interest on loans because that is an option they could take
So in "saving" CCFC in 2007/2008 what have SISU achieved. Yes we are still here. But we are loaded with massive debt controlled and largely created by SISU decisions, restricted our income, lacking in assets, no new sources of income or finance likely, no prospect of owning the Ricoh, broken connection to the fans and business community, perhaps the biggest amount of suspicion and broken trust I have seen at CCFC since I started supporting them, no expectation of success on the pitch in a poor L1 etc......
I can not help but think there were other choices that could and should have been made, that things should now have been so much better not so much worse, that the early years of SISU ownership were a shambles and that recent years have had nothing to do with the well being of CCFC. That CCFC has been a tool not a reason for SISU in a failed strategy. A long time back in this whole saga I asked a question what comes first the distress of ACL or the distress of CCFC? I still wonder on that.
Sorry NW if your post wasn't with the intention of getting such a reply and was some what more ironic but I just needed to get that off my chest
In fairness OSB the formula must have v overvalued the half stake in ACL anyway. Going off the figures bandied around on here.
Really, we have to congratulate SISU on their sharp business practice to keep us going.
Let's not forget the Ricoh was unviable, it was move or die. Did we want a chance for our club to be around in 20-50 years time, or carry on as they were and probably go out of business in a year’s time?
The clock was ticking on us being wound up before SISU saved the day. And that, despite SISU also absorbing £millions of debt in the ensuing years, the club had continued to haemorrhage money.
Now the rent agreement is broken we've got rid of that millstone, and we're in control of our own destiny. Next stop is a new ground at a decent price wherever is most cost-efficient. Because of that we’ve finally ended the uncertainty hanging over our future, and put ourselves in a position to compete at the highest levels of the game.
It's funny how when SISU took over, everyone seemed to agree that we needed "hard-nosed businessmen" to get a grip on the club and "make tough decisions that the fans don't like" in order to try and turn this club round. The fact that they had no real connection to football was seen as a good thing as it wouldn't cloud their decisions.
No doubt they have made controversial decisions, no doubt some of their decisions have been ridiculous, as lets face it a football club isn't the same as any other business. But the original post is correct in my opinion, from a business perspective we are in a better positions than in 2007, and that is what SISU came in to do.
It's disappointing that the hardcore support has slipped to such a low level for a 'big club'... but we all know they'll all come back when we have a small amount of success, whether it is later in the season or in 10 years time...
With all that In mind Travs ,would you say a relegation was a desired component or just a Fluke?
Indeed. Oh to turn back the clock.True fp I don't disagree with you but the decision they had was do they pay a premium on that purchase knowing they would then be in pole position with a place at the table or spend that premium on legal fees knowing there was a risk they would be out in the cold. Not to mention how much a new stadium might cost
Most of the fans were calling for him to have it also. You could say they listened to fans.Everyone says Thorn was dire, in fairness he didn't want the job but SISU wanted him to have it, he had his squad cut...most predicted relegation.
just another way of distressing ACL...it is a possibility.
It's funny how when SISU took over, everyone seemed to agree that we needed "hard-nosed businessmen" to get a grip on the club and "make tough decisions that the fans don't like" in order to try and turn this club round. The fact that they had no real connection to football was seen as a good thing as it wouldn't cloud their decisions.
No doubt they have made controversial decisions, no doubt some of their decisions have been ridiculous, as lets face it a football club isn't the same as any other business. But the original post is correct in my opinion, from a business perspective we are in a better positions than in 2007, and that is what SISU came in to do.
It's disappointing that the hardcore support has slipped to such a low level for a 'big club'... but we all know they'll all come back when we have a small amount of success, whether it is later in the season or in 10 years time...
Most of the fans were calling for him to have it also. You could say they listened to fans.
True fp I don't disagree with you but the decision they had was do they pay a premium on that purchase knowing they would then be in pole position with a place at the table or spend that premium on legal fees knowing there was a risk they would be out in the cold. Not to mention how much a new stadium might cost
Reading all this thread and fans wonder why no one turns up and we get only 7k attendances?
Really?
Reading all this thread and fans wonder why no one turns up and we get only 7k attendances?
Really?
I fear that the Sky Blues will be consigned to a lower league life more akin to Bradford, Portsmouth or Peterborough.
.
In fairness OSB the formula must have v overvalued the half stake in ACL anyway. Going off the figures bandied around on here.
I reckon they royally screwed up on their risk assessments..
I suspect there may be more litigation round the corner..
Aye, sure that Wasps will be suing whoever told them that Coventry was a sporting hotbed, and a license to make money with 28,000 crowds every home game.
Maybe it was Dongle?
I'm thinking 1500 genuine Wasps fans taking advantage of free travel and having a day out, 1500 local Coventry rugby enthusiasts and rubber neckers and 500 from the wider Midlands community = Total 3500. Although Wasps may well spend a fair bit of money promoting and marketing this launch properly with offers and cheap tickets with giveaways etc. In fact as much as I despise what has happened I expect them to be 100% more professional and proactive than the idiotic amateurs we have running our football club.
Look out for billboards, newspaper adverts, promotions in schools, colleges and local rugby clubs !! This could all lead to a first bumper gate, whether it will last though is another thing, this is Coventry......when the bandwagon, freebies and cheap tickets fail to materialise next time, so will the supporters.