oldskyblue58
CCFC Finance Director
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/sport-opinion/sky-blue-thinking-sisu-council-6263370
makes an interesting read and makes some good points from Keith Perry
Sky Blue Thinking: Sisu and council should stop bickering in the pages of the Telegraph1 Nov 2013 12:50Fan power still rules as two warring parties finally agree to sit down and talk over deal for the Ricoh Arena
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Even Carl Baker's had enough!
At last. Common sense seems to be contagious and Joy Seppala and Ann Lucas have agreed talks are a good idea.
The two sides in the battle of the Ricoh contrived to do this on the pages of the Coventry Telegraph. While I’m grateful that they should try to help us sell papers, firstly, I’m not sure it does as most people have long grown weary of the tedious bickering and, secondly, do neither of these women have access to e-mail?
Equally, the Sisu boss laid out her position in this paper on September 26.
The leader of Coventry City Council made her statement of intent – let’s do a deal by Christmas– on Tuesday last week.
All it needed was a phone call.
Instead we got a personal attack on Lucasfrom the football club slashed across our front page. It makes for good headlines but was it really what the situation needed? I don’t know who gave the club PR advice on that one but they are no Steven Pressley.
What the club did get right in their statement was that they should be entitled to be treated the same as Haskell, Schwimmer and anyone else who had talks about buying into the Ricoh Arena.
Lucas’s response wasn’t much better. While she had every right to point out anything she saw as inaccurate in City’s statement, to talk of an apology seemed a little silly.
Ann Lucas
Surely the world of politics has toughened Ann up. If not, I’d advise her to grow a thicker skin as she’s dealing with the big boys now. Sisu are in business to defend their investors’ interests and make them money. They exist in a jungle where few of us would dare to tread where the bottom line drives everything.
That’s why talks are back on.
Whether it is believed or not, Coventry City and their agents CBRE are still working away on plans for Highfield Two somewhere just outside the city.
But now they are willing to have another try at reaching a deal on Plan B – the Ricoh.
Why?
The power of the press? I’d dearly love to say yes but I seriously doubt it. After the general election in 1992 it was claimed that ‘It’s the Sun Wot Won It’ and since then we’ve all had an over-hyped view of the role of mere journalists.
The protests then? Our City Must Stay petition – 15,000 signatures – was duly noted and ignored. The Sky Blue Trust’s march saw 7,000 fans packed into Broadgate. Still the club upped sticks to Northampton.
Given the reaction, or lack of it, to those numbers it is not likely that the latest Cov Back to Ricoh campaign, with 1,000 signatures on a petition and a comparative handful of fans protesting outside the Council House, has had any greater effect in the corridors of power.
As I said, the bottom line drives everything. We are told ACL is a robust business that can survive without the club yet its profits never exceeded the £1.3million it was collecting in rent from the Sky Blues.
Coventry City boss Tim Fisher
When City’s chief executive Tim Fisher met fans to explain the club’s move away from the Ricoh, he admitted they were taking a commercial risk.
He told them he thought crowds would fall from last season’s average of 10,950 to “between six and seven thousand if the team does really well, as low as three thousand if it doesn’t”.
In Pressley we trust and he and his squad have delivered on the pitch in a way no-one could have predicted. But the fans have stayed away.
Champagne football is producing fewer paying customers than the club’s worst case scenario. The forecast is way out and if the budgets are based on that forecast then you can see what the bottom line is telling us, especially when the Sky Blues end at some away games is fuller than the whole of Sixfields.
Fan power rules because in modern football you are not mere supporters, you are way more important than that. You are customers and the customer is king.
Police monitor Coventry fans watching the match from the vantage point overlooking Sixfields
This paper has never called for or supported a boycott of Sixfields and never will. That’s a decision each fan has to come to for themselves. I know people on both sides of this particular fence. It’s not an easy decision and there is no right or wrong answer.
The fan who goes to Sixfields is doing the same as the fan who doesn’t, what feels right to them. Neither deserves to be attacked for their viewpoint.
If you venture into internet forums or the shark-infested waters of Twitter, you will see anonymous accounts shouting down opposing views and rounding on fans who dare to disagree. At Sixfields, fans have been called scabs as they head to the match.
Appalling.
Hopefully, the common sense that’s got the two leading ladies in this pantomime to agree to talk will continue to catch hold and a deal can be done in the best interests of not just the club but the whole city.
So what happens next?
I fear the Telegraph will soon be fed stories from both sides about the true value of the Ricoh Arena. Do us all a favour and don’t bother. Our pages are no place to negotiate.
If you want to help us sell papers, lock yourselves in a room until you can give us this headline: City are coming home.
makes an interesting read and makes some good points from Keith Perry
Sky Blue Thinking: Sisu and council should stop bickering in the pages of the Telegraph1 Nov 2013 12:50Fan power still rules as two warring parties finally agree to sit down and talk over deal for the Ricoh Arena
Share on printShare on email
</body>
At last. Common sense seems to be contagious and Joy Seppala and Ann Lucas have agreed talks are a good idea.
The two sides in the battle of the Ricoh contrived to do this on the pages of the Coventry Telegraph. While I’m grateful that they should try to help us sell papers, firstly, I’m not sure it does as most people have long grown weary of the tedious bickering and, secondly, do neither of these women have access to e-mail?
Equally, the Sisu boss laid out her position in this paper on September 26.
The leader of Coventry City Council made her statement of intent – let’s do a deal by Christmas– on Tuesday last week.
All it needed was a phone call.
Instead we got a personal attack on Lucasfrom the football club slashed across our front page. It makes for good headlines but was it really what the situation needed? I don’t know who gave the club PR advice on that one but they are no Steven Pressley.
What the club did get right in their statement was that they should be entitled to be treated the same as Haskell, Schwimmer and anyone else who had talks about buying into the Ricoh Arena.
Lucas’s response wasn’t much better. While she had every right to point out anything she saw as inaccurate in City’s statement, to talk of an apology seemed a little silly.
Surely the world of politics has toughened Ann up. If not, I’d advise her to grow a thicker skin as she’s dealing with the big boys now. Sisu are in business to defend their investors’ interests and make them money. They exist in a jungle where few of us would dare to tread where the bottom line drives everything.
That’s why talks are back on.
Whether it is believed or not, Coventry City and their agents CBRE are still working away on plans for Highfield Two somewhere just outside the city.
But now they are willing to have another try at reaching a deal on Plan B – the Ricoh.
Why?
The power of the press? I’d dearly love to say yes but I seriously doubt it. After the general election in 1992 it was claimed that ‘It’s the Sun Wot Won It’ and since then we’ve all had an over-hyped view of the role of mere journalists.
The protests then? Our City Must Stay petition – 15,000 signatures – was duly noted and ignored. The Sky Blue Trust’s march saw 7,000 fans packed into Broadgate. Still the club upped sticks to Northampton.
Given the reaction, or lack of it, to those numbers it is not likely that the latest Cov Back to Ricoh campaign, with 1,000 signatures on a petition and a comparative handful of fans protesting outside the Council House, has had any greater effect in the corridors of power.
As I said, the bottom line drives everything. We are told ACL is a robust business that can survive without the club yet its profits never exceeded the £1.3million it was collecting in rent from the Sky Blues.
When City’s chief executive Tim Fisher met fans to explain the club’s move away from the Ricoh, he admitted they were taking a commercial risk.
He told them he thought crowds would fall from last season’s average of 10,950 to “between six and seven thousand if the team does really well, as low as three thousand if it doesn’t”.
In Pressley we trust and he and his squad have delivered on the pitch in a way no-one could have predicted. But the fans have stayed away.
Champagne football is producing fewer paying customers than the club’s worst case scenario. The forecast is way out and if the budgets are based on that forecast then you can see what the bottom line is telling us, especially when the Sky Blues end at some away games is fuller than the whole of Sixfields.
Fan power rules because in modern football you are not mere supporters, you are way more important than that. You are customers and the customer is king.
This paper has never called for or supported a boycott of Sixfields and never will. That’s a decision each fan has to come to for themselves. I know people on both sides of this particular fence. It’s not an easy decision and there is no right or wrong answer.
The fan who goes to Sixfields is doing the same as the fan who doesn’t, what feels right to them. Neither deserves to be attacked for their viewpoint.
If you venture into internet forums or the shark-infested waters of Twitter, you will see anonymous accounts shouting down opposing views and rounding on fans who dare to disagree. At Sixfields, fans have been called scabs as they head to the match.
Appalling.
Hopefully, the common sense that’s got the two leading ladies in this pantomime to agree to talk will continue to catch hold and a deal can be done in the best interests of not just the club but the whole city.
So what happens next?
I fear the Telegraph will soon be fed stories from both sides about the true value of the Ricoh Arena. Do us all a favour and don’t bother. Our pages are no place to negotiate.
If you want to help us sell papers, lock yourselves in a room until you can give us this headline: City are coming home.
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