Sub
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200% Coventry City, New Ground, The Charity and The Hedge Fund (5 Viewers)
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bigfatronssba
Well-Known Member
"Alan Higgs was a businessman who became a multi-millionaire from a variety of businesses in Birmingham and Coventry, but most notably from a house building business in the Coventry area. Upon his death in 1979 his estate, which was worth around £26m, was put into a charity which was set up specifically to help deprived children from Coventry and an area within twenty-five miles of the city. In keeping with this, The Alan Higgs Centre was opened in 2004 to provide sports and leisure facilities for people living in the south east of Coventry, and the charity is a part-owner of Arena Coventry Limited, which owns The Ricoh Arena."
So a local man works hard all his life, building up a successful business, decides to leave his estate to help the deprived children of Coventry.
Hedge fund scum then decide they will try and destroy the charity to avoid paying what is apparently peanuts to them?
These are the dirtiest low lift scum bags I think I have ever come across.
Shame on any Coventrian who tries to defend this.
So a local man works hard all his life, building up a successful business, decides to leave his estate to help the deprived children of Coventry.
Hedge fund scum then decide they will try and destroy the charity to avoid paying what is apparently peanuts to them?
These are the dirtiest low lift scum bags I think I have ever come across.
Shame on any Coventrian who tries to defend this.
letsallsingtogether
Well-Known Member
Well there are at least 2 I can think off that will find they were to blame.
bigfatronssba
Well-Known Member
I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now in that they didn't realise the history of the Higgs Charity.
If they still think Higgs are to blame after reading that then its disgusting.
WillieStanley
New Member
Without putting my personal opinion forward, an organisations noble history does not absolve it from making bad decisions in the present or future.
Rusty Trombone
Well-Known Member
Are you suggesting that their bad decision was to trust SISU to pay the fees, or was the bad decision agreeing to discuss the sale of their share?
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
Shame on anybody who thinks it was a good idea for a charity dedicated to the deprived children of Coventry(as you put it) to help bail out the struggling millionaire owners of the club when they paid the bankrupt CCFc for the half-share.
Sir Peter Higgs was on the CCFC board at the time wasn't he?
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
The guy who invented the God Particle?
Maybe he can explain the hole in the finances then.
italiahorse
Well-Known Member
I believe it was an investment with a small calculated payback.
I think SISU maybe have misunderstood who owed who !
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
WillieStanley
New Member
The first bad decision was to buy the share from CCFC in the first place. The second bad decision was to renege on their agreement to sell the shares back for the price they bought them at. Their third was to trust SISU in any kind of financial agreement other than a straight sale. There were also bad decisions regarding the Academy.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
Made from a Charity where one of the two trustees was also on the Board of the organisation making the payment to?
Come on, if that happened in any other walk of life, or particularly with Sisu you wouldn't be able to move with suspicion and hysteria on here.
Sure all above board though...
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stupot07
Well-Known Member
Ironically, they don't like the deprived children and scally's using the Alan Higgs Centre......
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
What? AFAIK what was agreed with Sisu was less than the agreed formula.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure on that to be honest, hadn't we always used Ryton beforehand?
WillieStanley
New Member
Rusty Trombone
Well-Known Member
They may agree with point one, I'm not aware of them reneging on a sale deal, any more info on this? What was the deal if it wasn't a straight sale? The Academy bad decisions, are they related to trusting SISU too much as well?
James Smith
Well-Known Member
Did the Higgs have much of a choice though? As was stated in the article the Higgs had to try and recover the money because they're a charity. Sisu didn't have to counter sue but did so anyway despite it being a PR own goal, they could have just defended the original case.
When the Higgs bought the share from the club Sisu weren't even on the horizon. The idea as I understand it was that the Club would buy back the share ASAP and be partners in the Arena. There was a formula put in place so that the club could buy back the share at a reasonable price. Yes rhe rent was high but had the club bought the share back they could have had a say in how the arena was run and what the rent and revenues were. The Club then changed hands and Sisu came in but the Higgs still had the share and were still keen to sell it and the logical purchaser was us.
Would we have been happy if they had sold the share to someone else? Yes I know that it's not guaranteed that someone else would have come in for it but it could have happened. Would the Higgs have been as keen to sell to someone else, I don't know. But given they were willing to sell to the club when they were first approached even after the rent boycott had started it says to me that they were still trying to help the club (even if they had no one else wanting to buy).
Did the Higgs have a choice in who the people who bought the club were - no they didn't. Would we all have been up in arms if they hadn't agreed to talk to Sisu - probably. I suspect that our owners would have been shouting that they were being treated unfairly from every rooftop and media outlet they could find.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
http://www.cwn.org.uk/skyblues/2001/02/010206-new-academy.htm
Dunno how it became the Higgs Centre, but that's how it started.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
Our previous owners were great at ideas, just had no fucking idea how to put them into place from the looks of things with this and the Arena.
James Smith
Well-Known Member
I thought that I read a post from someone (not necessarily on here might have been on GMK or somewhere else) years ago complaining that he was recusing (?) himself from meetings where the Arena was being discussed and something about this bugged the poster . Think it's standard practice in the City to do that. I'll try and find the post but don't hold your breath, if it was on the telegraph website it will be near impossible to find from back then.
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Astute
Well-Known Member
Sounds just like our present owners.
James Smith
Well-Known Member
Like most things involving the club we probably didn't have the money.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
To be fair never understood the old "excused myself from the meeting" thing used by all sorts of people when conflict of interest questions arise.
It's not like you're going to suddenly not know about it are you?
Rusty Trombone
Well-Known Member
Apart from the bit about having great ideas.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
The present owners are great at ideas??
letsallsingtogether
Well-Known Member
Well we built the connection then sold off half to another company and have remortgaged the remaining part a few times too I believe
James Smith
Well-Known Member
I think it was more about decision making than knowledge. My work terms and conditions state that I may not work for another business in competition with ours and for one connected to ours (e.g. a supplier) not without approval and may not pass on any info or make decisions on anything to do with that firm.
lordsummerisle
Well-Known Member
To be fair he probably didn't have any problen getting approval, as the only other trustee was his wife.
Though if she was anything like my ex-wife, then agreement would be very slow in coming if at all!
James Smith
Well-Known Member
99% that's Mrs PWKH (although whether she was at the time I don't know) who is a Higgs you mean, as PWKH said on here he married into the family.
1966skyblue
Well-Known Member
Agreed. They have no respect for any of the people of Coventry. I would prefer we play in Northampton and they sell to a new owner rather than they get their dirty hands on the Ricoh. They couldn't be trusted with it. Even trying to sell our training ground.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Higgs paid for the academy
Council paid for the stadium
Directors/Investors paid for players
Inter Milan paid for Robbie Keane (allegedly)
And the Co-Op Bank paid the wages
Good old Richardson.
Your ex wife was always very slow at coming, if at all !!