... and we'll never know it.
Back in 2011 it slowly dawned on most of us that the club couldn't continue losing millions every year. The Ranson, Hoffman, Elliott failure left the club drained of cash and low on owner confidence. The board lead by Ken Dulieu was another complete disaster.The Hoffman take-over attempt (remember the letter head farce?). Tim Fisher taking over as chairman initiated the talks to reduce the rent at the Ricoh followed by the mutually (CCC/ACL/CCFC) agreed roadmap to buy the Higgs shares including the rent strike and attempt to legally rob the Yorkshire bank. When that failed next up was administration, transfer of the club to Otium, move to Northampton, court cases, coming back to build trust and let bygone be bygone. All was good, but then the stadium was sold to a nomadic Rugby club and it seems that we soon have to vacate the Ricoh and the Higgs training center.
And somewhere in that storyline we are introduced to fan groups urging the council never to sell to the club. And to stop us putting any pennies into the clubs revenue streams. And to support us coming back to the Ricoh on a clever scheme that would make us put a lot of pennies in Hoffmans pockets.
That is the truth, or part of the truth.
One thing we can (almost) all agree is that sisu has fucked up to put it mildly. They should never have moved the club to Northampton. We will never forget this and we will never forgive this.
But I wonder, did they actually leave by choice?
Here's another storyline:
When ACL was formed, it was poorly financial secured. The whole construction was simply not viable as there was not enough revenue for both the club and the stadium to survive. Only if the club returned to the premier league or if ACL secured enough extra revenues from non-ccfc operations would it possibly become a viable construction. But neither happened.
The then £20m+ loan to Yorkshire bank was a time bomb and it took some clever and creative initiatives to produce positive ACL accounts year after year. All while the club paid a hefty £1.2m rent plus match day cost.
Even before sisu came in the previous owners tried to negotiate a more reasonable rent, but ACL wouldn't have it.
But finally in early 2012 talks began and the parties agreed the end result would be the club taking over Higgs shares as well as paying up the Yorkshire loan (after YB had taken a hefty hit on the balance).
The parties were not totally aligned as far as the rent strike. Initially ACL bought the idea of the club being publicly reported as almost bankrupt. This would scare the ACL creditors as it ultimately could lead to ACL bankruptcy. The aim was to 'prepare' Yorkshire Bank to accept a bid for the loan around £2m-£5m.
It looks like everything were moving forward until something happened a few months later in the summer 2012. ACL started to move away from the plan and eventually agreed their own deal with the bank, leaving the debts (and carpark c) with the council and a good £1m extra in ACL coffers (acutely needed due to the rent strike).
And then followed the threats of sisu (club could go out of business) and the threats of ACL (we will put the club in administration) all while new rent offers were put on the table, but all in vain as the club entered administration in the summer 2013.
But WHAT exactly happened between April and August 2012? Why did ACL suddenly walk away from the roadmap?
The details we will probably never know, but we do know that it was about the time Wasps must have turned up (Eastwood said in October 2014 they had worked on the deal for 2 years).
And now we know the club was offered a deal to come back and start building trust. We know that Wasps seem ready to end our stay at the Ricoh and also remove our academy.
In fact it does look a bit like the club has become an alien in its own city with no support from the council.
This sorry debacle started way before sisu came here. It was the construction of ACL and the YB loan that set light to the fuse. The club didn't get promoted back to the big money, and for many years ACL didn't produce enough extra revenue. It was always going to end in tears and now we are crying.
But what did happen in the summer 2012? Maybe JR2 will tell.
So next step is to prevent JR2 from ever happening.
Back in 2011 it slowly dawned on most of us that the club couldn't continue losing millions every year. The Ranson, Hoffman, Elliott failure left the club drained of cash and low on owner confidence. The board lead by Ken Dulieu was another complete disaster.The Hoffman take-over attempt (remember the letter head farce?). Tim Fisher taking over as chairman initiated the talks to reduce the rent at the Ricoh followed by the mutually (CCC/ACL/CCFC) agreed roadmap to buy the Higgs shares including the rent strike and attempt to legally rob the Yorkshire bank. When that failed next up was administration, transfer of the club to Otium, move to Northampton, court cases, coming back to build trust and let bygone be bygone. All was good, but then the stadium was sold to a nomadic Rugby club and it seems that we soon have to vacate the Ricoh and the Higgs training center.
And somewhere in that storyline we are introduced to fan groups urging the council never to sell to the club. And to stop us putting any pennies into the clubs revenue streams. And to support us coming back to the Ricoh on a clever scheme that would make us put a lot of pennies in Hoffmans pockets.
That is the truth, or part of the truth.
One thing we can (almost) all agree is that sisu has fucked up to put it mildly. They should never have moved the club to Northampton. We will never forget this and we will never forgive this.
But I wonder, did they actually leave by choice?
Here's another storyline:
When ACL was formed, it was poorly financial secured. The whole construction was simply not viable as there was not enough revenue for both the club and the stadium to survive. Only if the club returned to the premier league or if ACL secured enough extra revenues from non-ccfc operations would it possibly become a viable construction. But neither happened.
The then £20m+ loan to Yorkshire bank was a time bomb and it took some clever and creative initiatives to produce positive ACL accounts year after year. All while the club paid a hefty £1.2m rent plus match day cost.
Even before sisu came in the previous owners tried to negotiate a more reasonable rent, but ACL wouldn't have it.
But finally in early 2012 talks began and the parties agreed the end result would be the club taking over Higgs shares as well as paying up the Yorkshire loan (after YB had taken a hefty hit on the balance).
The parties were not totally aligned as far as the rent strike. Initially ACL bought the idea of the club being publicly reported as almost bankrupt. This would scare the ACL creditors as it ultimately could lead to ACL bankruptcy. The aim was to 'prepare' Yorkshire Bank to accept a bid for the loan around £2m-£5m.
It looks like everything were moving forward until something happened a few months later in the summer 2012. ACL started to move away from the plan and eventually agreed their own deal with the bank, leaving the debts (and carpark c) with the council and a good £1m extra in ACL coffers (acutely needed due to the rent strike).
And then followed the threats of sisu (club could go out of business) and the threats of ACL (we will put the club in administration) all while new rent offers were put on the table, but all in vain as the club entered administration in the summer 2013.
But WHAT exactly happened between April and August 2012? Why did ACL suddenly walk away from the roadmap?
The details we will probably never know, but we do know that it was about the time Wasps must have turned up (Eastwood said in October 2014 they had worked on the deal for 2 years).
And now we know the club was offered a deal to come back and start building trust. We know that Wasps seem ready to end our stay at the Ricoh and also remove our academy.
In fact it does look a bit like the club has become an alien in its own city with no support from the council.
This sorry debacle started way before sisu came here. It was the construction of ACL and the YB loan that set light to the fuse. The club didn't get promoted back to the big money, and for many years ACL didn't produce enough extra revenue. It was always going to end in tears and now we are crying.
But what did happen in the summer 2012? Maybe JR2 will tell.
So next step is to prevent JR2 from ever happening.
