One way forward for us - Leicester City buy back Stadium (1 Viewer)

GaryJones · Mar 1, 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21628873

Leicester City owners have just bought back the King Power Stadium for £17 million so it now belongs to the Club. Surely this is the way forward for CCFC - Sell the stadium to Sisu and we can get on with things and move forward!
I know all the Sisu haters will probably disagree but I cant see the problem - Sisu buy the stadium and the club then has scope to move on with building the squad over the next couple of seasons well within the financial fair play rules - If we are succesful on the pitch the fans will be happy - Sisu will be happy and probably consider selling the club on for a profit from a position of strength both on-off the pitch at some time in the future.

The alternative is we go bust and it f*cks the club up and we are carved up from a position of weakness both on-off the pitch.

On the other side of the coin why dont ACL offer to buy Sisu out?

Its obvious they cannot ALL work together.

Something needs to happen and it needs to happen NOW!

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

And how much do the Council want for half of ours? Thankfully for Leicester they weren't' told that "hell would freeze over" before they got their hands on what rightly belongs to a football club. It's ground. Good for LCFC.

CJparker · Mar 1, 2013

Perhaps you haven't followed, but the council/Higgs won't sell to SISU. They don't trust SISU with a valuable community resoruce, fearing that SISU would either bulldoze it or mortgage it straight out as part of some wider gearing plan.

SISU know ACL won't sell up, so have boycotted paying the rent in order to financially cripple ACL and put them into administration, allowing SISU to pick up the Ricoh on the cheap. Thanks to ACL re-financing with the bank, that will not now happen, and because SISU's gamble has burned their bridges with ACL, they are now painted into a corner, hence the stand-off that we have.

Although I am very anti-SISU, I doubt most users of this site would find much to argue with there.

CJparker · Mar 1, 2013

torchomatic said:
And how much do the Council want for half of ours? Thankfully for Leicester they weren't' told that "hell would freeze over" before they got their hands on what rightly belongs to a football club. It's ground. Good for LCFC.

How does the Ricoh "rightfully belong" to CCFC? The club didn't pay anything to construct it, and is now refusing the pay the rent. It was the council who stepped in with millions in emergency funding to built the Rioch - that's how they ended up owning it. CCFC isn't owed anything.

RichieGunns · Mar 1, 2013

CJparker said:
How does the Ricoh "rightfully belong" to CCFC? The club didn't pay anything to construct it, and is now refusing the pay the rent. It was the council who stepped in with millions in emergency funding to built the Rioch - that's how they ended up owning it. CCFC isn't owed anything.

So surely the logical step would be for ACL and the Council to buy the club from SISU?

Would get rid of SISUwankers and also reunite the stadium with the club!

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

But don't forget we have no right to the stadium, do we CJ?

RichieGunns said:
So surely the logical step would be for ACL and the Council to buy the club from SISU?

Would get rid of SISUwankers and also reunite the stadium with the club!

sky blue john · Mar 1, 2013

torchomatic said:
And how much do the Council want for half of ours? Thankfully for Leicester they weren't' told that "hell would freeze over" before they got their hands on what rightly belongs to a football club. It's ground. Good for LCFC.

Maybe they used nicely nicely approach !!!!

luwalla · Mar 1, 2013

alwasy been there

this option has alwasy been on the tabel ( in part ).. and the charity were willing to sell their half, apparently fee was agreed by both side.. but then the council ( as 50% the other share holder ) had to sanction the deal.. which they didnt.

even then the club would only hold 50% .. and would need to buy the other 50% back from the council.. and that is never going to happen with SISU at the healm.. and even if it happened with another owner , i doubt it would be at aanything near the leicester city figure..

covcity4life · Mar 1, 2013

further proof that cov council are evil

fernandopartridge · Mar 1, 2013

CJparker said:
Perhaps you haven't followed, but the council/Higgs won't sell to SISU. They don't trust SISU with a valuable community resoruce, fearing that SISU would either bulldoze it or mortgage it straight out as part of some wider gearing plan.

SISU know ACL won't sell up, so have boycotted paying the rent in order to financially cripple ACL and put them into administration, allowing SISU to pick up the Ricoh on the cheap. Thanks to ACL re-financing with the bank, that will not now happen, and because SISU's gamble has burned their bridges with ACL, they are now painted into a corner, hence the stand-off that we have.

Although I am very anti-SISU, I doubt most users of this site would find much to argue with there.

Please describe how the Ricoh Arena is a community resource.

hutch1972 · Mar 1, 2013

CJparker said:
How does the Ricoh "rightfully belong" to CCFC? The club didn't pay anything to construct it, and is now refusing the pay the rent. It was the council who stepped in with millions in emergency funding to built the Rioch - that's how they ended up owning it. CCFC isn't owed anything.

Ccfc put in a lot more than the council did. 21 mil was all they put in as a bridging loan for a 115+ mill stadium. Who do you think paid the rest. Taking into account other amounts ie grants etc you will find the club paid a handsome amount

thegameaintstraight · Mar 1, 2013

crib from wikipedia:-
The £37 million cost of the new stadium, combined with relegation from the Premiership, the collapse of the English transfer market due to the introduction of the transfer window and the collapse of ITV Digital meant that Leicester went into receivership shortly after moving to the new stadium. Birse Construction who had built the stadium therefore lost a large part of their fee, and they withdrew from any further football ground construction. The main losers from this were, ironically, Leicester's local rivals Coventry City, who were in negotiations with Birse to build their own new stadium.
As part of the deal which brought the club out of receivership, the ownership of the stadium reverted to American company Teachers Insurance, who had supplied £28 million via a bond scheme towards the stadium's construction, with the club taking a long-term lease while the bond repayments were made.
On 1st March 2013, Leicester City's Thai owners bought the ground through their company K Power Holdings Co, Ltd

They have overcome receivership ok but it has taken 10 years. I do remember it was to some degree at our expense.

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

Leicester city being the perfect example of why we shouldn't fear administration.

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

I wonder if R&D said the same thing? Or Chester? Or Halifax?

coundonskyblue said:
Leicester city being the perfect example of why we shouldn't fear administration.

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

torchomatic said:
I wonder if R&D said the same thing? Or Chester? Or Halifax?

50/50 chance. But if Tim Fisher is to be believed then administration is our only chance now.

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

So a 50/50 chance then is not a "perfect example" that it wouldn't happen?

coundonskyblue said:


50/50 chance. But if Tim Fisher is to be believed then administration is our only chance now.

CJparker · Mar 1, 2013

Why would administration help? Our only creditors, other than ACL, are SISU's shareholders. How does it help SISU to write off debt they themselves are owed by the club?

ACL are owned something like £1.3m - SISU's other shareholders it's something like £40m

Ashdown1 · Mar 1, 2013

Its all a bit crap though isn't it, Leicester 'Thai franchise' City. My mates reckon they are bombarded with Thai related marketing for 2 hours non stop on matchday, they'll be asking them to change their colours next a la Cardiff and possibly renamed.................Cardiff Dragons..............Leicester Foxes..............Coventry Elephants blah blah blah !! Can't we just go back to the 70's when the game was followed by working class people, you could have a fag in the stand and drink yourself silly before getting back behind the wheel of your Mk1 Cortina...............Players were paid about the same as senior managers then instead of City bankers !

CJparker · Mar 1, 2013

hutch1972 said:
Ccfc put in a lot more than the council did. 21 mil was all they put in as a bridging loan for a 115+ mill stadium. Who do you think paid the rest. Taking into account other amounts ie grants etc you will find the club paid a handsome amount

Nonethless, the council pumped in millions to fund the ground, and took the equity as a trade-off. Unless you think we are entitled to £1.3m as a gift from the council to help us build the stadium, you will agree that this is perfectly reasonable.

Sky Blue Pete · Mar 1, 2013

If fisher is to be believed!!!! He he

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

Well, I'm sure a lot of us would be willing to be bombarded by a couple of hours of adverts in order to have mega rich owners and total ownership of our stadium. I know I would.

Ashdown1 said:
Its all a bit crap though isn't it, Leicester 'Thai franchise' City. My mates reckon they are bombarded with Thai related marketing for 2 hours non stop on matchday, they'll be asking them to change their colours next a la Cardiff and possibly renamed.................Cardiff Dragons..............Leicester Foxes..............Coventry Elephants blah blah blah !! Can't we just go back to the 70's when the game was followed by working class people, you could have a fag in the stand and drink yourself silly before getting back behind the wheel of your Mk1 Cortina...............Players were paid about the same as senior managers then instead of City bankers !

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

torchomatic said:
So a 50/50 chance then is not a "perfect example" that it wouldn't happen?

Perfect example of how a club CAN survive administration.

Colonel Mustard · Mar 1, 2013

coundonskyblue said:
Leicester city being the perfect example of why we shouldn't fear administration.

We should definitely fear administration. Who would want to take on an unsexy, heavy loss-maker of a club, which resides in League One with no stadium? Maybe, just maybe there is a saviour out there ... but it's a gamble none of us should want to take. If we want to be truly proactive in getting new ownership, then the people of Coventry should fill out that ground.

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

Colonel Mustard said:
We should definitely fear administration. Who would want to take on an unsexy, heavy loss-maker of a club, which resides in League One with no stadium? Maybe, just maybe there is a saviour out there ... but it's a gamble none of us should want to take. If we want to be truly proactive in getting new ownership, then the people of Coventry should fill out that ground.

No league 1 club has averaged over 30k in my lifetime, and I suspect sometime before that as well so I think your a bit deluded if you expect that.

As for admin, I don't want it either, but according to Tim, its our only option left.

The club can't go forward without Ricoh income streams, according to him ACL have blocked this, therefore what other option is open to us?

Colonel Mustard · Mar 1, 2013

coundonskyblue said:
No league 1 club has averaged over 30k in my lifetime, and I suspect sometime before that as well so I think your a bit deluded if you expect that.

We don't average over 30k.

The club can't go forward without Ricoh income streams, according to him ACL have blocked this, therefore what other option is open to us?

A collective movement by the club, fanbase and local media to fill out the stadium every week.

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

Colonel Mustard said:
We don't average over 30k.

A collective movement by the club, fanbase and local media to fill out the stadium every week.

No league 1 club averages over 30k, and I imagine you have to go back about 50 years to find one that did. So why do you expect CCFC fans too?

Colonel Mustard · Mar 1, 2013

coundonskyblue said:
No league 1 club averages over 30k, and I imagine you have to go back about 50 years to find one that did. So why do you expect CCFC fans too?

I am not quite sure where you are going with this. You lauded the club's "30k average" as a selling point, now you're saying they can't do it, so does that give you greater reason to fear administration?

I'm an optimist and think it could be done with a strong, collective effort. Not for the sake of watching League One football, but under the banner of saving the club. For example, I'm not sure how far SISU can legally drop ticket prices, but it could be a worthy loss leader if they can fill out that ground most weeks to pitch the potential of the club to buyers.

coundonskyblue · Mar 1, 2013

Colonel Mustard said:
I am not quite sure where you are going with this. You lauded the club's "30k average" as a selling point, now you're saying they can't do it, so does that give you greater reason to fear administration? .

Think you mis understood me.

You said we should fill the ground, I was just saying no league 1 club is capable of getting over 30k average.

Colonel Mustard · Mar 1, 2013

coundonskyblue said:
Think you mis understood me.

Indeed I did. Apologies.

You said we should fill the ground, I was just saying no league 1 club is capable of getting over 30k average.

28k+ could be possible with a concerted push. We have a huge catchment area. Get the pricing right, get everybody on board to push the message, push the b'jesus out of season ticket sales - frankly, I think everybody could do with believing in a project again.

GaryJones · Mar 1, 2013

If this situation is not sorted soon I can see us going down the same road as Luton Town. In my opinion the Council should rubber stamp the sale that was agreed to sell the stadium to Sisu last year - the Council should then get their money back from ACL and ACL can then piss off and run some other stadium if anyone would have them!

grego_gee · Mar 1, 2013

I have the answer!
a mass council tax boycott!

imp:

Brighton Sky Blue · Mar 1, 2013

coundonskyblue said:
No league 1 club has averaged over 30k in my lifetime, and I suspect sometime before that as well so I think your a bit deluded if you expect that.

As for admin, I don't want it either, but according to Tim, its our only option left.

The club can't go forward without Ricoh income streams, according to him ACL have blocked this, therefore what other option is open to us?

The club basically is in administration to be honest. Doing this would be utterly pointless as all debts are essentially to SISU and there are no prospective buyers.

torchomatic · Mar 1, 2013

That would be immoral.

grego_gee said:
I have the answer!
a mass council tax boycott!

imp:

mrtrench · Mar 1, 2013

CJparker said:
SISU would either bulldoze it .

Do you have inside information? Are you a hedge fund manager? There are not many people on this site that would guess that SISU want to buy an expensive stadium on the outskirts of the boom town that is Coventry and then bulldoze it. Clearly you know also about their plan to buy oil platforms in the North Sea and set them alight.

grego_gee · Mar 1, 2013

torchomatic said:
That would be immoral.

Oh no it wouldn't!

One way forward for us - Leicester City buy back Stadium (1 Viewer)

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