Coventry Leaving The Ricoh (Again) | Page 3 | Vital Football

Coventry Leaving The Ricoh (Again)

I'm only feeding on what I have seen on SSN. The only other option is St Andrews. However, the EFL are currently baulking at that.

You are correct, it is being reported.
But Butts Park Arena has one stand with 3000 seats plus another space for 1000 more standing.
That surely cannot meet even the minimum standards for a Football League stadium, let alone be anywhere near enough to cater for Cov's support.
I also read a new stadium is being considered. But that can only be further down the line at best.
Maybe EFL would accept Birmingham City as another temporary home so long as Cov can demonstrate that the new stadium idea is viable within a reasonable timescale.
 
Pulling out of the Ricoh may only be a leverage for Coventry City fc to reduce their current rental tariff of £100,000pa that they currently pay to the owners.
I`m sure Wasps holdings won`t find it easy to replace that income .....watch this space.
one place they won`t be going to is Burton Albion.....

Having read a recent article post the Supreme Court ruling i retract what has been said above.
see thread link below.
 
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Pulling out of the Ricoh may only be a leverage for Coventry City fc to reduce their current rental tariff of £100,000pa that they currently pay to the owners.
I`m sure Wasps holdings won`t find it easy to replace that income .....watch this space.
one place they won`t be going to is Burton Albion.....
That doesnt seem all that expensive.. less than half one match day takings.
 
Latest ruling gives some hope for Coventry to stay at Ricoh?

Interesting article...puts new light on what is going on down there,it`s complex?
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/


Ahh!! Now that's more like it. That must be end of SISU legal action.
And that being the case, Wasps should now be willing to negotiate a continuing lease of Ricoh to the Football Club.
It really makes no sense for Cov to be playing anywhere else. The stadium was built for them after all.
 
Ahh!! Now that's more like it. That must be end of SISU legal action.
And that being the case, Wasps should now be willing to negotiate a continuing lease of Ricoh to the Football Club.
It really makes no sense for Cov to be playing anywhere else. The stadium was built for them after all.

SISU (the CCFC owners) can still take their case (as spurious as it would seem it is) the European Courts and I would suspect that unless they make a statement to the effect that they will not be doing that, then there is not likely to be any movement from WASPS.
 
For those who do not know the history of this, it has been chaotic from the start. Coventry were hugely in debt, so much so that they sold Highfield Road and leased it back to raise funds. They had a deal to develop the old Gas Works where the stadium now stands and to fund the whole thing by selling 30 acres of the site to Tesco for over £60m. Unfortunately, they didn't have the money to buy the land, despite having an agreement to do so and when the construction company had decontaminated the ground on CCFC's instructions, CCFC couldn't pay them. The company went to put a charge on the land to secure what they were owed, found that the land was still owned by British Gas, promptly bought the whole site and told the council if you don't buy it from us we will build a retail site and there won't be a stadium. The Council spent £20m on the land, sold 30 acres to Tesco for £60m+ and the Chairman of CCFC reportedly got a £1m kick-back for organising the deal. This left CCFC without control over the development, or the money to build the stadium, or an existing Stadium (having sold it) and then they got relegated. Since then they have had no money at every turn and have even lost the 50% share in the ground and now it has been sold to Wasps,

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/s...-news/ricoh-arena-deal-simon-gilbert-12006939

SISU (the hedge fund that have owned CCFC for over 10 years) are portraying themselves as victims and that everyone has conspired against them to prevent them generating funds from match days, but the long and short of it is that CCFC could never afford the RICOH in the first place, have never owned it at any point and are the architects of their own situation. SISU put out a statement that seeks to lay out their tale of woe,

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/contentasset...17d/sisu-open-letter-background-13-mar-19.pdf

It makes interesting reading, but I am not entirely convinced by it. Basically, I don't think they wanted to take on the financial cost of owning the stadium themselves and then got gazumped by Wasps. They are now trying to do all they can to get themselves out of a hole, but having alienated all the other parties, they now need them to co-operate in order to come up with a viable plan.

It reads like a classic case of reaching too far and not having a sustainable business model, but one that goes back over 30 years.
 
They were leaving, then staying, and now, because SISU haven't disclosed something to Wasps, the latter have apparently pulled the plug again so a groundshare somewhere is now, again, the only other option.
 
They were leaving, then staying, and now, because SISU haven't disclosed something to Wasps, the latter have apparently pulled the plug again so a groundshare somewhere is now, again, the only other option.

The perils of not owning the stadium that you play in. What a mess!
 
I read something somewhere about SISU taking their case to a European court. Presumably that’s what Wasps aren’t happy with. I guess they’re still in dispute.
 
I read something somewhere about SISU taking their case to a European court. Presumably that’s what Wasps aren’t happy with. I guess they’re still in dispute.

Yep, lodged in February apparently so SISU knew about this all along in negotiating with Wasps recently. Club statement in an hour apparently.
 
I read something somewhere about SISU taking their case to a European court. Presumably that’s what Wasps aren’t happy with. I guess they’re still in dispute.
It relates to the sale of the ground to Wasps in 2014. SISU (the owners of Coventry City FC) had asked for a judicial review of the sale and took their case to the Supreme Court. SISU lost that case last month, at which point Wasps agreed to re-enter negotiations to ground share. However, Wasps view the referral to the European Commission in the same way they viewed the original legal action over the sale and have pulled out of negotiations. They also say SISU should have disclosed the EC referral to them at the time negotiations recommenced (of course they should have - why didn't they?).

EFL clubs are set to vote on Coventry's membership on 29 May. That could be three clubs about to disappear from football's radar within the next few months.
 
EFL clubs are set to vote on Coventry's membership on 29 May. That could be three clubs about to disappear from football's radar within the next few months.

That won't happen, the clubs won't vote Coventry out of the EFL - its akin to Geese voting for Christmas and the old boys network of the re-election days will prevail. Bolton will start next season (albeit with a significant points disadvantage) the EFL will see to that, Harvey has already made overtures to that effect. Bury are in the most parlous situation and possibly the only club that might perish, but that has some distance to run yet.
 
Cov will doubtless find a groundshare and I think had one provisionally arranged (Walsall?? Birmingham?? Cov Rugby's little one stand venue??).
It will inevitably cost them a lot financially and prolong and worsen the mess they're in.

The sojourn at Northampton must have been a financial disaster. The next episode will surely prove the same.