If you're doing negotiations for a living, then surely you know that past reality is far from the same as present reality. Business plans fails all the time - more so in the wake of the financial crisis and the credit crunch.
So you can't really use the past to anything more than playing the blame game. And that brings absolutely nobody anywhere.
At this point in time it seems the club is skinned and can't afford the rent. So it is either stay at a reduced rent or leave.
If you put yourself in chairmans seat in ccfc boardroom ... what would you do?
(You have already presented a budget that was turned down by the owners as they are not going to put in more money - the club will have to be self sufficient).
Past reality should be current reality if the business plan is robust, dear chap. The financial events of the past few years haven't had a bearing on attendances in either the championship, or this league; I've posted such facts previously so that's not a factor. Our current position directly resulting from relegation. If its too expensive for the championship, it's certainly going to be even more profoundly so with £3m-worth of lost gate receipts.
The easy answer to your question would be a cop-out. I would like to think I'd never be in this position. Primarily as that the income drop they've seen wasn't an unthinkable sequence of events or Act of God; it was a clear and present possibility. It really and truly should have been accommodated within the broader thinking of the due diligence process. That's why u have so little sympathy; as these folk purport to be business people, and this is a childish faux pas. If indeed it was mistake and that they always planned on doing this in the event of relegation, but that's another issue, eh?
I would have wanted to income-gear the rental agreement, with a deal of say £1.2m for when in the premier league, £500K for when in the championship, and £300K for when in this league.
That stated, we are where we are, and everyone needs to save a little face, so if I were Fisher, given the £400K has allegedly already been knocked-back, I'd run with a counter offer of £300K and an additional £150K in the event of promotion. As such, public opinion would then fall upon ACL to accept as they could be seen to actually fare better than their last offer.
Thereafter, with the traction of an agreement, I'd want to renegotiate the terms along the lines of that I describe above.
I wouldn't go on the radio and question ACL's financial stability et al, that's certain