Brian Richardson. (1 Viewer)

rob9872

Well-Known Member
Didn't the sale to Tesco come after relegation?
Not sure but if it did then I imagine we gambled on returning. Can't remember loads spent on players in that era unless it was wages (Eg Hughes, Bellamy cost £10m but recouped £8.5 for them)
 

Adge

Well-Known Member
Ah yes-the man who said that he had earmarked some land to build a new stadium on, and it actually got built!
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
No I do not agree actually
There's certainly areas of grey. My issue witgh Richardson isn't that he ballsed up, but that he ended up the fall guy. It was that which allowed his partners in crime to continue at the club, and be in a position to sell off every asset they possibly could, to try and salvage their failed investment.

Plenty Richardson can be criticised, although ultimately it's a reach for the stars, but coming down to earth with a crash after getting too close to the sun. Admittedly interviews like this CWR one where he (feings?) ignorance do him no favours at all.

So, contributory factor no doubt, but not exclusively so at that time.
 

Philosorapter

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I've always tried to keep off these threads but I do have some questions.

Namely the construction costs.

OSB quoted a figure of £76M just for construction costs to build a stadium but this article back in 2004 quotes around £34M for the complete costs of a regional stadium.

Were there more costs that were associated with the Ricoh and not just the building costs?

What was the total cost of building and fitting out the Ricoh?

Cost model: Football stadiums

I am wondering why there is such a discrepancy between these figures?

Is a regional stadium bigger than a normal football stadium? I do not know.
 
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Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I've always tried to keep off these threads but I do have some questions.

Namely the construction costs.

OSB quoted a figure of £76M just for construction costs to build a stadium but this article back in 2004 quotes around £34M for the complete costs of a regional stadium.

Were there more costs that were associated with the Ricoh and not just the building costs?

What was the total cost of building and fitting out the Ricoh?

Cost model: Football stadiums

I am wondering why there is such a discrepancy between these figures?

Is a regional stadium bigger than a normal football stadium? I do not know.
The Ricoh costs were huge but they included the hotel, casino, exibition hall and a hell of a lot on decontamination none of which I think are included in the model you are looking at.

It is also on a fair old slope which pushes up the earthwork and groundwork costs, though on the other hand roadworks cost were relatively modest, a few tunnels a footbridge and a big roundabout (unless I have misjudged the cost of tunneling under a running railway).

Google "coventry council arena construction report" for some costs, but it does not go deeply into construction details but uses some very broad headings.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...20Report.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15lud2UnNR3KIyT9h_iTz1
 
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torchomatic

Well-Known Member
I've said before but I genuinely can't remember there being a bit apetite for a new stadium at the time. We were all given leaflets and brochures weren't we showing how perfect it was all going to be. Even then I wanted to stay at HR.
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
I've said before but I genuinely can't remember there being a bit apetite for a new stadium at the time. We were all given leaflets and brochures weren't we showing how perfect it was all going to be. Even then I wanted to stay at HR.
tbf I was all excited with the original plans - that seemed a proper step forward. Then it got swamped by England and got too big (and suspicious why we went for the national stadium), then we downscaled to flatpack, nothing special.

That's when we should have backed out.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
tbf I was all excited with the original plans - that seemed a proper step forward. Then it got swamped by England and got too big (and suspicious why we went for the national stadium), then we downscaled to flatpack, nothing special.

That's when we should have backed out.

Yeah all the roll-out pitch stuff was shit. I really wanted to stay at HR as we moved to the new East Stand when it was built and it was great.
 

no_loyalty

Well-Known Member
Yeah all the roll-out pitch stuff was shit. I really wanted to stay at HR as we moved to the new East Stand when it was built and it was great.

The sliding pitch idea was modelled on a stadium in Holland, I recall.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I've always tried to keep off these threads but I do have some questions.

Namely the construction costs.

OSB quoted a figure of £76M just for construction costs to build a stadium but this article back in 2004 quotes around £34M for the complete costs of a regional stadium.

Were there more costs that were associated with the Ricoh and not just the building costs?

What was the total cost of building and fitting out the Ricoh?

Cost model: Football stadiums

I am wondering why there is such a discrepancy between these figures?

Is a regional stadium bigger than a normal football stadium? I do not know.
I've questioned this again and again. It doesn't really stack up to me either
 

pusbccfc

Well-Known Member
The original plans for Arena 2000 were phenomenal. It would have been the 00s version of the Spurs ground now.
 

Paul Anthony

Well-Known Member
The original plans for Arena 2000 were phenomenal. It would have been the 00s version of the Spurs ground now.

As a 10 year old lad at the time, it all seemed very exciting. They seemed to be changing times, and that we were about to take a major step forward. Being a young kid, of course, meant I had a very simplistic, probably naive view of such things. Never even occurred to me about the politics involved. Didn't really understand the financials either. It had a sliding pitch, and a moving roof, it looked out of this world. that was cool! The reality, however, ended up a totally different matter.....
 

Magwitch

Well-Known Member
This is a true event involving Bryan Richardson which as a match day steward along with others I personally witnessed which indicates the bloke was basically thick and ignorant.
Remember the players tunnel at HR and remember the canopy leading to the pitch with some sponsors name on, can’t remember who. Well it was first game of the season v Chelsea the canopy was pulled out and it was too long and when fully out obscured the view of a lot of fans in the lower tier of block H and it needed to be fully extended to show the sponsors name, this was pointed out and Richardson personally came I have to say hurtling down and went into a tirade and tantrum about it, wanted us to remove the supporters who couldn’t see some being ST holders, somewhere, anywhere, so the canopy could be fully extended before and during the match but as I said it was too long and would have been only a yard or two from the pitch and fully extended other fans couldn’t get to their seats because it blocked their path. He wanted two stewards to pull the canopy in and out as fans came piling in, imagine that. He eventually scuttled off beetroot red, I’m glad I wasn’t his cat.!
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
I discovered today the Ricoh Arena Construction Completion Report (2006) has disappeared from the CCC website. Good job I downloaded it. :emoji_confused:
upload_2019-4-9_11-52-2.png
 

Nick

Administrator
Im not going to store stuff like that. Porn and Football Goals only.

(if you upload it as an attachment it does get stored)
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
It does. :bag:
 

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  • 08 - Arena Construction Completion Report.pdf
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eastwoodsdustman

Well-Known Member
Did I read something about Richardson having an involvement in the company decontaminating the land? I’m sure it cost way more than anticipated at the time.
 

Magwitch

Well-Known Member
Did I read something about Richardson having an involvement in the company decontaminating the land? I’m sure it cost way more than anticipated at the time.
The main reason Ricoh happened was because of fingers in the pie. HR could and should have been re-designed. Loads of land there if we count the old Mercer’s site which the club owned. There were a few people connected to ccfc at the time came out a lot wealthier than they were at the beginning.
 

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