New Club? (1 Viewer)

carlh25

New Member
Would it not be better for all to set up a new club which would most likely need to start low and get all ccfc supporters involved to hopefully run like afc Wimbledon or fc utd? I'm sure that it would be possible and a ground share would be viable for a few years and if all successful then a move back to the Ricoh? I know it's not ideal but I don't see that Sisu are going to back down from this.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the Council would love that. "Yeah, don't worry, the Ricoh will be here for you when you're ready. Twenty, thirty years? Take your time. In the meantime we have loads of other stuff that could bring in money to our community asset...wedding fayres, Jehovah conventions..."
 

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Did we have this discussion yesterday? Unless ccfc ceases to exist or moves permanently and rebrands ala MK dons, then for me it's a non starter.
 
Playing at the Ricoh as a start up club would attract untenable stewarding costs let alone the rent, so unless you expect League 1 gates in Southern Premier sounds like a non starter.
 

MichaelCCFC

New Member
Did we have this discussion yesterday? Unless ccfc ceases to exist or moves permanently and rebrands ala MK dons, then for me it's a non starter.

The main hope has still got to be that even now a resolution, in whatever shape or form, can be found so we remain CCFC playing at the Ricoh. But if sisu have really decided never to play again at the Ricoh then it would be one thing if they had obtained planning permission, or even just submitted a planning application, for a new stadium - but to move out of Cov just on a promise it's temporary is quite another. At what point do CCFC stop being CCFC and are just a franchise?
 

carlh25

New Member
There would be no chance of a non league club sustaining the Ricoh. People have to be realistic and a smaller ground to work the way up through a groundshare would be far more feasable for a couple of years but it depends how many people back the cause. You don't need to splash 250 a week on players there are lads who would do it for the love of the game at that level. I have watched and followed Leamington as they have risen through the league's. That is down to fans hard work and not the people with big pockets. All it needs is contributions from fans to start up a phoenix club. A proper committee and a groundshare until the club can sustain the Ricoh. It would be hard work but to see your club up there again would be an amazing achievement because I fear that Sisu will kill off city when the move the club. It has recipe for disaster all over it.
 

singers_pore

Well-Known Member
I disagree. I think that we would still get around 5,000 fans if were at the Ricoh even for a non-league Coventry Phoenix. That should be more than enough to pay the players, stewards etc. It just needs Ph4 to follow through and buy ACL.
 

bigfatronssba

Well-Known Member
I disagree. I think that we would still get around 5,000 fans if were at the Ricoh even for a non-league Coventry Phoenix. That should be more than enough to pay the players, stewards etc. It just needs Ph4 to follow through and buy ACL.

If they only opened 1 stand then costs would be low.
 

bigfatronssba

Well-Known Member
Who's going to pay for the upkeep of the rest?

Darlington tried opening only bits of their ground but it was just too big for them, killed the club.

What upkeep is needed on a plastic seat that no one sits in and a concrete stairwell that no one walks on?
 

BurbageSkyBlues

New Member
Absolutely, singers.

The key thing here is hope for the future.

Under Sisu, gates have tumbled because of despondency. With even modest hope (eg JPT vs Crewe), the fans will attend.

So, if ph4 buys the Ricoh, and backs this up with modest investment in a new CCFC, we can have one stand open and gates of a few thousand will create a good atmosphere. If season tickets were modestly priced, to reflect the league status, we could be reasonably supported. Eg. £135 adults £70 concessions and £20 juniors, I think a lot of fans would purchase season tickets from the start, and would enjoy the positive experience of seeing something grow, as opposed to ever decreasing circles under Sisu.
 

bigfatronssba

Well-Known Member
<p>
Ask Darlington!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>It's also the reason Highfield Road was falling down near the end, nobody spent any money on keeping it maintained.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Whether it's empty of not, it'll still decay if nobody looks after it.

Acl will look after it, its their responsibility.

Are you saying anyone who doesn't fill their ground runs the risk of it falling down?
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I disagree. I think that we would still get around 5,000 fans if were at the Ricoh even for a non-league Coventry Phoenix. That should be more than enough to pay the players, stewards etc. It just needs Ph4 to follow through and buy ACL.

So you think that you'd get as many go as we have season ticket holders now and that will sustain enough revenue to fund the match day costs at the Ricoh? You think an American investor will buy a club 9 leagues down.

3 season ticket holders on this thread have said no to the idea which may say something.

Do you ever remember a 70s American programme where a little guy used to shout "the plane, the plane" - you most still be living there.
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
<p>

Acl will look after it, its their responsibility.

Are you saying anyone who doesn't fill their ground runs the risk of it falling down?

So you'd hope ACL would charge a substantially lower rent then £400k a year if only one stand was opened, especially as a new non league club would struggle to find that kind of money.

Making ACL struggle for money also, if the rent is slashed to next to nothing.

Someone has to subsidise the Ricoh if there isn't a tenant in there that can make it work, and for a lower level non league club the ground would be too big for it by far. Why start a new club and handicap it with needless costs from the start? Other clubs who've re-started don't do that, so why should we?
 

carlh25

New Member
You still have to pay the upkeep of the whole stadium. There's also the cost of floodlights, the stewards who have to fetch the balls from the stands, you have all the food outlets dotted around the ground, the maintenance of the stands. Like northern wisdom said it's the reason HR had to be replaced. If they had maintained it ccfc could of stopped there.

ACL are the landlords its like a house where the tenant still has to maintain the majority of it especially after it has been used. I can't see them paying people to clean up.
 

Steve.B50

Well-Known Member
I personally am not sure about the concept but would help anyone who wishes to try, what I do not like is those who do nothing and are negative, then have no ideas of there own to put forward.
 

carlh25

New Member
Perhaps instead of looking for a sugar daddy to fund it then it may be better for a supporters owned club tobe formed so that this shit doesn't occur again? You may get 5000 but that number will dwindle because look how dramatically the attendances have dropped at the Ricoh and HR. 2000 fans x £100 could start a club up and it would need to be spent wisely to ensure that all taxes and stuff are paid before anything is splashed out on. Pay the taxes first and hmrc don't cause the club headaches.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I personally am not sure about the concept but would help anyone who wishes to try, what I do not like is those who do nothing and are negative, then have no ideas of there own to put forward.

Including the people who have no ideas to save a football club and its 125 year history? That seems very negative to me.
 

rupert_bear

Well-Known Member
A new club starts way down the football pyramid, Evostick league i believe and at this late stage might struggle to get in that. We would need a number of successive promotions to get back to the FL. Look at Luton Town.
 

hutch1972

Well-Known Member
Am sure all the local none league clubs will welcome us with open arms, but its the Rugby for me.

Yep , i think that the rugby club would at least double overnight should the football disappear ( not that i think it will go because it won't )
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
So what's your idea?

Personally I think starting a new club while the old one stands is pointless. Not only are owners likely to move on at some stage, but it handicaps a new club as the old one still exists, and some will follow it regardless.

Negative? Maybe, but I think it's positive to make sure peoples' effort isn't wasted. If it doesn't succeed, it then gives added strength to the current owners who would have seen off a challenge, and so have their own position strengthened as a result. It could actually work in reverse of what's hoped for.

If the club dies or moves out of the city permanently, that's when a new club should start. This also helps in that there would be no challenges from the current club for use of a similar name/ similar colours etc. all unhelpful things that could stymie a new club before it even got off the ground... and many people wouldn't follow such a thing unless it looked the same as 'Coventry City'. To give it the best chance of succeeding it needs to maximise its potential and minimise its costs; that only happens when/if the old club dies or moves out of the city permanently.

If the club dies, a new club shouldn't be in the Ricoh. The Butts is the obvious place to start with, but a smaller stadium is a must to keep those costs down. It needs to give itself the best chance of success by keeping its costs down. After all, a new club would have a fan base far in excess of its immediate competitors, so why waste that money advantage by spending it needlessly elsewhere? We don't have to be welded to the Ricoh, we have to be welded to Coventry. The Ricoh can wait until a club is big enough to make best use of it and, if the Ricoh falls in the meantime, the Butts could be developed up to a certain level organically, with temporary seating, until the club was in a position to outgrow it and demand a stadium on its terms, in its city... not on the terms of a council, or an anonymous investment fund.

That way, the club gets momentum and its money advantage and can progress quickly.

The more constructive action at the moment, in my opinion, is to push SISU to actually nail down their plans. If they actually built a stadium in a suitable place that'd be OK. They won't of course, and they won't be able to prove that they intend to, but instead of targetting blindly the 'no to SISU' it needs to be asked 'no to what?'

It's not 'no to a club owning its own ground in the city'

It's 'no to owners using misleading statements to try and fracture a fanbase so they all give up'

So... assume they are telling the truth, the burden is on them to show they are telling the truth and this should be simple. If (and it's a big if!) they are, then a lot of the issues with them go away anyway. The club can live in the city, and own its own ground again.

What's more likely is there's a cat-in-hell's chance of them proving that, so the way to unite fans is to have them go along to these forums and demand to see the actual plans, the contracts signed with builders... everything physical. Continue to out them, continue to back them into a corner.

And if, when backing them into a corner, the result is the club dies... that's when a new club can be formed, at which stage it will get far more support, will be something to unite the fans around, not divide them.
 
Last edited:

carlh25

New Member
I will be carrying on following Leamington anyway but if the club moves out of the city everybody should support the local non-league teams because grassroots is where the majority of players start out and it would be a welcome boost for more support. I would agree that until it is clear what Sisu's intentions are then it may not be worth creating a new club just support the local teams around. Can't beat a league team atmosphere but non league teams and fans do try to replicate it.
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
How long does it take to back them into that corner??

Is that the point at which you choose not to follow them out of town ,or get sweetalked into saving the club.

I think that sounds defeatist TBH.....I don't think you understand just how divorced an increasing number of fans feel towards the Club through the continued ownership of the SCUM .

The way ahead is to Eradicate their hold on the club as swiftly as we can ,we should do everything we can to hasten this.
 

RogerH

New Member
A new club might be all that's left to do.
Picture the scenario - CCFC leave Cov to play wherever. The squad is down to bare bones, there is still a transfer embargo, there must be a strong possibility of relegation next season. By this time much of the support that stayed with the club will have drifted away.
If they do start the process of a new stadium, from the point of acquiring access to the land, right through the process of applying for planning permission with all the consultations needed to the issue of the Building Regulations completion certificate and all the safety certificates would take about 5 years. There would be major objections from locals to having a stadium on their doorstep which could possibly scupper the project. They would need 2 or 3 alternative sites to be sure one of them would be approved.
By the time all this has happened, what league would the club be playing in. The way SISU run things, every chance Blue Square Premier League ?
While all this has been going on, if a new club was set up, perhaps playing at a smaller ground to start with, with a reasonable amount of funding, it is entirely possible that a new club could be playing in the same league as the "returning" club. The support would have aligned itself with the new and properly run, SISU free club, There would be nothing for them to return to. SISU would have spent a shed load of money for nothing. Supporter power would have won the war. When the SISU run club inevitably folded, the new club could be re-named Coventry City, and hopefully return to the Ricoh, with a much healthier future to look forward to.
 

SkyBlueSwiss

New Member
So you think that you'd get as many go as we have season ticket holders now and that will sustain enough revenue to fund the match day costs at the Ricoh? You think an American investor will buy a club 9 leagues down.

3 season ticket holders on this thread have said no to the idea which may say something.

Do you ever remember a 70s American programme where a little guy used to shout "the plane, the plane" - you most still be living there.


Why are you incapable of answering sensibly instead of being such an obnoxious twat all the time?
Sometimes you have sensible things to say, so say them sensibly instead of attacking people!
 

SkyBlueSwiss

New Member
So you'd hope ACL would charge a substantially lower rent then £400k a year if only one stand was opened, especially as a new non league club would struggle to find that kind of money.

Making ACL struggle for money also, if the rent is slashed to next to nothing.

Someone has to subsidise the Ricoh if there isn't a tenant in there that can make it work, and for a lower level non league club the ground would be too big for it by far. Why start a new club and handicap it with needless costs from the start? Other clubs who've re-started don't do that, so why should we?


OR;
perhaps ACL would offer the new club a rent commensurate to the league they would start in, increasing the rent or decreasing the rent as the new club moved up or down the league system.
You know, just like the one CCFC were offered right at the start but which was turned down by the then chairman Mr. McGinnity in favour of the current fixed rent contract that is supposedly at the root of all our current problems?
So many very conveniently ignore the historical FACTS that led us to where we now are.

And it is only your personal opinion that someone would have to subsidise ACL in the meantime under such conditions. The statutory auditors of ACL expressed a different opinion by signing off on the accounts of ACL in full knowledge of the rent strike and the potential loss of that income. I think I prefer to accept the statutory auditors opinion over your opinion in this matter.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Top