Richardson (1 Viewer)

[oldskyblue58]

OSB - joy still seems to be insisting that SISU have invested over 60 million. i've been following the accounts for years and still don't get close to this figure they keep insisting on.
interviews in the press from various sisu figures a couple of years ago had the figure of around 40 million (think it was from TF and again from the "supersub" Dulieu).

yes I know I cant either

 

---

[Haigha]

That says "He" though

Ahhh... but in the article there is further reference to Richardson as 'he' by McGinnity that is in relation to a deed Richardson is supposed to have done while acting for the club:

"That was under my predecessor's regime," said McGinnity, "and he sometimes lived with his head in the clouds. He sold [Highfield Road] and the money was spent on players as opposed to reducing the debt."

 

[torchomatic]

Didn't Lionel Bird or someone write a book that can only be published after his death? Or am I being a bit dramatic!

trouble is he will take the truth to the grave, we would all be pig sick if we knew the truth! as Jack Nicholson once said "you can't handle the Truth!"

 

[torchomatic]

Also, rather than go cap in hand to the Council the club nearly secured funding from a Spanish bank but that fell through. Shame, it might have been all so different.

Lies, damned lies and PR.

PS at one point the land was owned by the Dutch company HBG Construction that pulled out of the stadium project and they sold the land back to (I think) CCC.
http://www.skybluetrust.co.uk/index...57-ricoh-arena-timeline?showall=1&limitstart=

 

[Astute]

So he is still insisting that he sold land that hadn't been bought or owned by him or CCFC. And some still believe him

 

[Captain Dart]

So he is still insisting that he sold land that hadn't been bought or owned by him or CCFC. And some still believe him 

Yes, I think HBG Construction put up the money to buy the land from BG (about £2M) when CCFC couldn't find the finance, then they sold it back to CCC (not CCFC) for a huge premium before the deal with Tesco (which BR may have negotiated) was done. Something like that and I'd be very surprised if BR took no fee for his brokerage services, but it is all shrouded in confidentiality agreements, so we have to wait till all parties are dead before any more facts emerge.

 

[Nick]

Yes, I think HBG Construction put up the money to buy the land from BG (about £2M) when CCFC couldn't find the finance, then they sold it back to CCC (not CCFC) for a huge premium before the deal with Tesco (which BR may have negotiated) was done. Something like that and I'd be very surprised if BR took no fee for his brokerage services, but it is all shrouded in confidentiality agreements, so we have to wait till all parties are dead before any more facts emerge.

So HBG Construction made a cut, I wonder if anybody familiar has anything to do with them?

 

[shy_tall_knight]

So HBG Construction made a cut, I wonder if anybody familiar has anything to do with them?

Do tell if you know

 

[Nick]

Do tell if you know

I have no idea, this was a bit before my time!

 

[Captain Dart]

So HBG Construction made a cut, I wonder if anybody familiar has anything to do with them?

http://www.skybluetrust.co.uk/index...57-ricoh-arena-timeline?showall=1&limitstart=

14th July mortgage charge registered in favour of HBG Construction Limited. Security for loan agreement dated 14th July 1999 between HBG and Arena 2001 Limited. Floating charge over the Foleshill Gas works site. By 31/05/2001 Arena 2001 Limited owed £13.6m under this arrangement.

Paid for by:
Sale to Tesco .......................£59,420,000 (land owned by CCC bought from British Gas) source : Council minutes

I hope that this is helpful:
The Club never owned the gas works land: they had an option to buy it. They owned a company called Arena 2000. They hadn't any money to exercise the option on the land. The Council did a deal with Tesco which enabled them to buy the land when the Club couldn't and Arena 2000 effectively ceased to exist and a new partnership was formed: ACL. . Arena 2000/CCFC had no money to develop the Arena and it was after a tense meeting of the full Council in October 2003 that the building of the Arena was made safe with ACL as the leaseholder. Not only did the Club not have the money to be a part of the development of the Arena but they had no money to continue to operate as a football club. They sold their shares in ACL so that they wouldn't go into administration. They have an option to buy back those shares. The loan of £21m was not build the Arena. It was to fund an advance payment of rent by ACL.

http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threa...e-SISU-bullshit)?p=97085&viewfull=1#post97085

Who owns the land?

BY far the largest share of the land is owned by Dutch-owned HGB Properties. However, there are 30 other owners of small plots of land on the fringes of the site, which includes a small industrial estate.

The original proposal for the area included a 40,000-seater stadium, leisure facilities, district shopping centre with a giant Tesco and a new railway station and carparking.

HBG (the Hollandsche Beton Groep NV) built the Gelredome Stadium for Vitesse Arnhem in Holland.

It also built the 53,000 seater Schalke stadium in Germany which has a retractable pitch too.

The firm in recent years took over British building firm Higgs and Hill and it bought the land from original owners British Gas last October.

Land Registry documents show HBG got involved from the outset when Coventry City Football Club (Holdings Ltd) and Arena 2001 signed an agreement on July 14, 2000 to buy the land from British Gas.

All very confusing isn't it. Lot of wheeling & dealing going on.

 

[tisza]

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/arena-2001-faqs-3172736

 

[torchomatic]

http://democraticservices.coventry....08 - Arena Construction Completion Report.pdf

 

[torchomatic]

Coventry City chairman Bryan Richardson said: "This really is the beginning of something extraordinary for Coventry City, the city of Coventry and the West Midlands region.


"Arena 2000 will be the most modern and technologically advanced stadium in Europe, if not the world.


"Features such as the retractable pitch and roof have never been seen in this country."


He said the arena would allow the Sky Blues to earn more revenue and attract bigger crowds, better players and new investment.


Arena 2000 will be in use every day of the week and will be the biggest indoor concert venue in the country.


The project is expected to create thousands of jobs, helping with the re-generation of the area.

 

[tisza]

http://democraticservices.coventry....08 - Arena Construction Completion Report.pdf

problem with this is we need to see the october 2003 report referred to. i can't find it.

 

[singers_pore]

The club paid BR a massive bonus for arranging the deal with Tesco. According to the accounts the bonus made him the highest paid club Chairman in the Prem. Not sure why the club paid the bonus given that they apparently did not get any of the Tesco money. Very strange. Why are we cursed with such bad owners and Chairmen?

 

[Astute]

The club paid BR a massive bonus for arranging the deal with Tesco. According to the accounts the bonus made him the highest paid club Chairman in the Prem. Not sure why the club paid the bonus given that they apparently did not get any of the Tesco money. Very strange. Why are we cursed with such bad owners and Chairmen?

CCFC didn't get any money as they didn't have anything to sell. The money received from HR didn't even go towards the project.

What he failed to mention was the money paid by Tescos covered buying the land and the decontamination of it. Nothing else. We couldn't even afford our wage bill and were heavily in debt so couldn't raise any money to build his pipe dream. The money received went on the wage bill to cover it for a few months. Yet all he does is try to blame everyone else for what happened.

 

[Sick Boy]

http://www.skybluetrust.co.uk/index...57-ricoh-arena-timeline?showall=1&limitstart=







http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threa...e-SISU-bullshit)?p=97085&viewfull=1#post97085


All very confusing isn't it. Lot of wheeling & dealing going on.

I wonder what happened to pwkh's Internet connection?

 

[Otis]

I wonder what happened to pwkh's Internet connection?

I think he bought it off Michael Bing.

 

[chiefdave]

What he failed to mention was the money paid by Tescos covered buying the land and the decontamination of it. Nothing else.

Tesco paid £59.4m, land and decontamination costs are itemised in the completion report but are included in other costs (land acquisition costs, decontamination and infrastructure, siteprofiling, fees, joint venture operating costs and interest payable during the constructionperiod). All of that totals £52.5m.

 

[olderskyblue]

So HBG Construction made a cut, I wonder if anybody familiar has anything to do with them?

Italia ??

 

[Astute]

Tesco paid £59.4m, land and decontamination costs are itemised in the completion report but are included in other costs (land acquisition costs, decontamination and infrastructure, siteprofiling, fees, joint venture operating costs and interest payable during the constructionperiod). All of that totals £52.5m.

And the 6.9m would have built us what?

 

[chiefdave]

And the 6.9m would have built us what?

What's your point? The whole project cost £115.8m. The Tesco deal was £59.4m, so 51.3% of the total cost. Richardson's standpoint is that this deal was done by him on behalf of the club and therefore CCFC contributed 51.3% (actually would be higher due to the interest) of the total cost and therefore should have had a similar stake.

The council must have agreed with this at some point as the original idea was for CCFC to own 50% of the freehold.

 

[chiefdave]

And the 6.9m would have built us what?

The council put in £10m and got 100% ownership of the freehold and 50% ownership of ACL.

 

[stevefloyd]

How did it go from the land being owned by CCFC to freehold to Council? Where did the 66 million go?

Now Nick stop being so Naive... where politicians are involved corruption usually goes hand in hand with it along with lies avarice and deceit

 

[SkyBlueSid]

Richardson has kept quiet for years, presumably as a result of these confidentiality clauses. It would be interesting to be able to unpick it all with the benefit of hindsight. I believe Richardson was by no means the only one who was responsible for the mess the club got into. Robinson and McGinnity were others, along with the one that was hands-on throughout but tends to be forgotten, namely Graham Hover.

My opinion has always been that any investigation should have been a criminal one, by the Fraud Squad. Far too many stones remain unturned.

 

[Hobo]

We are the Sweeney and we haven't had any dinner! We need Jack Regan to punch a few guts.

 

[tisza]

The council put in £10m and got 100% ownership of the freehold and 50% ownership of ACL.

and had access to development funds and got the necessary loans to complete - something the club wasn't able to do.

 

[Jack Griffin]

The council put in £10m and got 100% ownership of the freehold and 50% ownership of ACL.

Wrong, the equity injected was £10M, the Council also paid £24M for the land. It is in Appendix 2 of the Council Construction report under the heading land acquisition. I do wish you wouldn't misrepresent the facts.

 

[Ibby]

So Richardson explain the interest free loans & confidentiality agreements. Great businessman when you rent back your 'home' for what you sold it for, leaving you potless. Never commented before but l can't believe this man dare show his face

 

[chiefdave]

Wrong, the equity injected was £10M, the Council also paid £24M for the land. It is in Appendix 2 of the Council Construction report under the heading land acquisition. I do wish you wouldn't misrepresent the facts.

Appendix 2 is a company structure diagram? Appendix 1 is the outturn report, is that what you are referring to? It lists the land purchase as £24m but as far as I can see doesn't say the council put £24m in to cover that.

If the council did in fact put £34m in then that means there is over £20m that is unaccounted for - where did that go?

 

[Astute]

Appendix 2 is a company structure diagram? Appendix 1 is the outturn report, is that what you are referring to? It lists the land purchase as £24m but as far as I can see doesn't say the council put £24m in to cover that.

If the council did in fact put £34m in then that means there is over £20m that is unaccounted for - where did that go?

Towards building a stadium.

So CCFC put in how much? If we had at least bought the land so some could be sold then yes. But nothing was paid for so nothing could be sold. Richardson says that he sold it to Tesco. He couldn't have. Yet you believe everything he says.

 

[Hobo]

I don't believe any of them. But we are still where we are now and only the future can change our position.

 

[chiefdave]

Towards building a stadium.

Stadium cost (including buying land) was £118.7m.

The funding was £10m from CCC, £59.4 Tesco deal, £9.6m in interest, £0.5m hotel, £5m residual land sale, £21m borrowing, £4.4m ERDF grant, ACL £1.1m, AWM grant £4.8m. That totals £115.8m

Jack stated the council put in an additional £24m for land. In that case there is a surplus of £21.1m that doesn't appear to be accounted for.

So CCFC put in how much?

£6,808,425

If we had at least bought the land so some could be sold then yes.

Did we ever own the site? I thought HBG took the site as security on a loan to Arena 2001 (and then later took ownership), that couldn't have happened without ownership. Might have that completely wrong, don't have the documents to hand and its been a long time since i read them.

Yet you believe everything he says.

Can you show me where i have said I believe everything he says? What I've actually said is that it is Richardson's view.

 

[Astute]

Stadium cost (including buying land) was £118.7m.

The funding was £10m from CCC, £59.4 Tesco deal, £9.6m in interest, £0.5m hotel, £5m residual land sale, £21m borrowing, £4.4m ERDF grant, ACL £1.1m, AWM grant £4.8m. That totals £115.8m

Jack stated the council put in an additional £24m for land. In that case there is a surplus of £21.1m that doesn't appear to be accounted for.



£6,808,425



Did we ever own the site? I thought HBG took the site as security on a loan to Arena 2001 (and then later took ownership), that couldn't have happened without ownership. Might have that completely wrong, don't have the documents to hand and its been a long time since i read them.



Can you show me where i have said I believe everything he says? What I've actually said is that it is Richardson's view.

Check your figures. CCFC put in 1.7m. I am 100% sure on that.

And Tescos paid for the land. We never owned it not even for a day.

 

[chiefdave]

Check your figures. CCFC put in 1.7m. I am 100% sure on that.

Accounts for CCFC Group show a net investment of £6,808,425 in the Arena Project

And Tescos paid for the land. We never owned it not even for a day.

If Tesco paid for the land why on earth would they then pay £59.4m to lease it?