Thank you for the questions. In answering these I am not promising to answer any that get put as I just won’t have time.
ACL’s lease includes the car parks. It has always been the intention to develop the car parks. If you look back to my post of 21 May 2012
http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threads/17269-Higgs-Charity-CCFC-Sisu-City-Council you will see that I talked about continuing the regeneration of the north east of Coventry.
I think that there are two strands that are entwined and they are important. For the Football Club to survive, let alone be successful, it needs to have its income at least match its outgoings. In order to match its outgoings it needs to increase its income or reduce its costs. The profits from ACL, as it is at the moment, would not be sufficient to fund the Club as it has been run since the late 1970s. ACL has been investing each year in the facilities inside the main building, now it needs to develop the surrounding land. With the surrounding land developed, ACL will generate greater profit. In order for the Club to share that non-football growth and profit it has to have a stake in the development. That will come about if CCFC buy the Charity’s share in ACL and then joins with its then partner, the City Council, in investing in the surrounding land. You ask why should the Football Club be interested in developing that land? The answer is simple: so that it can make more money. No football club can live on its gate and shirt sales. Adding burgers and pints is not the solution: earning 365 days a year is the solution. That can be achieved through investment in and around the Ricoh. I thought this was what all the fuss was about: CCFC having sold its stadium and not being able to generate income. This I think answers your first two questions.
I think you have conflated two things in your third question: it is the duty of any directors of any company to collect money owed to the company and that is what we have been trying to do. Seeking to place CCFC in Administration will stop Sisu liquidating CCFC and simply walking away from the situation. Fisher had already threatened liquidation and it was confirmed by the other CCFC director Mark Labovitch. Once a liquidation process is begun it cannot be reversed into administration. It can be stopped by a purchase and refinancing but nobody would start a liquidation process if they thought that there was someone prepared to purchase and refinance: that is what administration is for. On whether promotion to the Championship alone would mean financial safety for CCFC or not, we will have to disagree.
I am afraid that you are wrong about the Manhattan Group fiasco. They never made an offer for the shares. I do not know where this myth came from although I can probably guess. The Option to purchase the shares remains with CCFC and were the shares to be purchased through that mechanism the procedure is already set out. The Trustees, however, I am sure, would look at any deal structure that was sensible and that would achieve a mutually satisfactory result.
I do believe that putting a stake into a football club is a gamble. I cannot see any charity investing in a football club. It is clearly a very high risk investment as my late brother-in-law found to his cost. How many clubs have gone to the wall? It is almost a pub quiz question. We don’t yet know what will happen in the coming days and weeks. As to the points deduction: if, and I say if, the Court starts the Administration process on Friday we are advised that there will be a 10 point deduction this season, if there is then a purchaser who can come to a deal with Ms Seppala there would be no deduction next season. If a Company Voluntary Arrangement is arrived at and CCFC emerges from Administration there would be no further deduction of points.
There are many ifs and maybes and I cannot foretell the future. There are enough opinions dressed up as fact on this forum for me not to add more.