In some ways last night was a waste of time, in other ways it just proved once again that the information we are drip fed by SISU, to be very charitable, is somewhat misleading - others might term it outright lies. The sad part is now matter how many times they are caught out there is still a decent chunk of our support who believe what they are told and that there will be a new stadium.
The atmosphere was fairly hostile but I felt much better than the usual fans forums where everyone shouts over everyone else. Everyone was angry but points were put over very well.
Started off with what do we want at the ground. This didn't get a great response, as you can imagine most people feel asking if the seats should be padded or not isn't the most important thing to be talking about.
The person from CBRE, who looked terrified, gave the usual I can't tell you anything it's all confidential but then said it was now 4 sites, all outside the city boundary. She didn't really want to say how far away and had to be pushed to give an answer, which as you know was 6 miles. Wasn't really clear if that was from a certain point (I believe the FL used the council house as the measuring point) or from the boundary. Had no answer as to why all the FOI request responses indicated that no talks were taking place, did fudge an answer that some of the sites they were talking with the land owners and not the local authorities. Don't expect to find out where the sites are anytime soon by the sounds of things.
What struck me with her answers were that they are clearly at odds with what Labovich and Fisher have been saying and why would anyone at anything other than the very first stage of enquiry not have spoken to the relevant council about building a stadium?
Architect didn't know anything more than what we've seen in the picture so wasn't much use him being there.
Garlick got some stick, admitted she attended Sixfields and that the 2 forums had been paid for by CCFC / SISU. Said she would be providing feedback to SISU as a result of the forum, it was made very clear to her that the feedback should be that the team needs to play in Coventry, preferably at the Ricoh, and a stadium outside the boundary is not acceptable.
There were also calls for her to resign, basically she was told if she went ahead with this she was going against the wishes of the majority of supporters and she should stop working with SISU and join the majority in opposing the club playing outside the city. All got a bit too much for some people who walked out.
General consensus at the end of it was nothing new learnt and a bit of a waste of time.
As for the attendance of CBRE and the architect chap I guess they are being paid by the club to attend. Being associated with SISU can't really do them any harm as long as SISU are paying the bills. There's been plenty of sites and designs for various clubs new stadiums that haven't come to fruition but that's never really been a black mark against the companies involved.
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