Wasps complete 100% purchase of Ricoh (1 Viewer)

theferret said:

Note on their forum fans are already calling for the seats to be changed to black and gold, which I am sure will happen eventually. Personally wouldn't mind that - I think it would convince many doubters that our future really does lie elsewhere. If only we can convince Fisher that any new home has to be in the city itself for the majority to get onside with the idea.

Click to expand...

I'm with you I hope we disappear completely from the stadium. Nice little 18000 capacity within the City

Macca said:

I'm with you I hope we disappear completely from the stadium. Nice little 18000 capacity within the City

Click to expand...

I think we can be more ambitious than that.

skybluetony176 said:

I think we can be more ambitious than that.

Click to expand...

Not for me. We need a ground with atmosphere. We aren't going to be playing top flight football for many many years so why not build a small ground with option for expansion.

Nick said:

So not too far away from the cash up front offer from SISU and less than the one with payment terms? Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

I wonder if anybody will think Wasps were stealing from the mouths of poor children etc.

Click to expand...

Only you I think, but then you don't give a fuck do you?

I recall the original idea was a modular stadium that has the ability to increase in size/capacity as we grow our success.

I think the call for a stadium within the city is now a strong one. Perhaps SISU have played a blinder all along?

What land asset is suitable in Coventry right now?

oldfiver said:

You might find cats can live in hell

Click to expand...

You might find they burn like everything else in hell.

Nick said:

So not too far away from the cash up front offer from SISU and less than the one with payment terms? Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

I wonder if anybody will think Wasps were stealing from the mouths of poor children etc.

Click to expand...

It would/will (or am I hoping for too much) to see what the full details of the "very generous offer" from the club actually amounted to. Having read the article it appears that the Higgs are going to be getting cash from every Wasps game, assuming that they sell any seats in the North stand - anyone know what the capacity is? We've not seen the details of either of the bids and when/if we do then we'll be in a more informed position as to whether Wasps were offering more to the charity.

Ultimately this was always coming ever since the Wasps Deal was announced. Posters who are better educated in these matters than myself (like Grendel and OSB58) have said this would be the case. All the allowing the liquidator of Ltd to make an offer was just to try and remove the chance of any legal action. The higgs to my mind have been piggy in the middle, and caught out by the council agreeing to sell to Wasps (the higgs can't have increased the length of the lease only the council etc.). I don't think the Higgs would have gone for Wasps lightly given their history with the club. It's sad that they opted to go with the council decision and sell to Wasps, I was surprised that we hadn't made any statements regarding wanting the Ricoh lease/ACL when the Wasps deal was announced. Joy even said that she wouldn't interfere with the wasps deal and mentioned the new stadium again as a permenant home for our club in the same statement. When we returned to Coventry we were saying we were coming back on a temporary basis whilst we continued with the new stadium plans. Personally I blame the Higgs for helping us out in the first place, by loaning us money when we were at HR to stay afloat. We should have been allowed to go bust then and rebuild from the ashes, it would have been painful but nothing like the pain that we're suffering now. They've lost money and that's their tough luck it was an investment (even if it was made with the best of intentions) and investments can go down as well as up.

Sisu have been basically outmanouvered by the two faced hypocritical council & wasps and we've not helped ourselves but there's nothing we can do now Wasps have 100% of ACL. I've said for sometime that the longer we go without saying we're still interested in ACL the less likely it is we'll get any part of it, If we say we've moved on once too often ACL will move on too and we'll be stuffed. This was always a dangerous consequence of the move to Northampton and all the statements about the New Stadium. Quite how the council square the statements made about us going to/playing at Sixfields and then them turning round and selling to Wasps I don't know.

Joy will either have to build us a new stadium (in which case the council should be bending over backwards to help with the planning permission) or negotiate a better deal going forwards at the ricoh - or whatever they end up calling it Jaguar Land Rover Arena or some such and we'd better hope (sorry wasps fans) that Wasps don't have a very bright financial future and we can buy our way in.

thought they only had a long lease not the same m8

Paxman II said:

I recall the original idea was a modular stadium that has the ability to increase in size/capacity as we grow our success.

I think the call for a stadium within the city is now a strong one. Perhaps SISU have played a blinder all along?

What land asset is suitable in Coventry right now?

Click to expand...

The council have recently identified a shed load of greenfield land within the city that they plan to build housing on, so it's not as though they can claim there is no land available. Whether or not a stadium proposal would have to include a residential element in order for it to be acceptable under the terms of the 'city plan' isn't clear, but I fear there has already been a decision made on this. I have heard Baginton (not far from Toll BAR) mentioned by two separate people - but could just be the same rumour circulating, so don't shoot the messenger on that.

theferret said:

The council have recently identified a shed load of greenfield land within the city that they plan to build housing on, so it's not as though they can claim there is no land available. Whether or not a stadium proposal would have to include a residential element in order for it to be acceptable under the terms of the 'city plan' isn't clear, but I fear there has already been a decision made on this. I have heard Baginton (not far from Toll BAR) mentioned by two separate people - but could just be the same rumour circulating, so don't shoot the messenger on that.

Click to expand...

I've heard the bagington rumour to from someone who always gets good info, apparently the work they are doing on the Tollbar opens it up to that kind of development and the identified land falls just outside the CCC boundaries.

theferret said:

The council have recently identified a shed load of greenfield land within the city that they plan to build housing on, so it's not as though they can claim there is no land available. Whether or not a stadium proposal would have to include a residential element in order for it to be acceptable under the terms of the 'city plan' isn't clear, but I fear there has already been a decision made on this. I have heard Baginton (not far from Toll BAR) mentioned by two separate people - but could just be the same rumour circulating, so don't shoot the messenger on that.

Click to expand...

Why not build it at the Ricoh on the other side of the railway line

Chez78 said:

I've heard the bagington rumour to from someone who always gets good info, apparently the work they are doing on the Tollbar opens it up to that kind of development and the identified land falls just outside the CCC boundaries.

Click to expand...

The Toll Bar work still has about 2 years to run.
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a45a46-tollbar-end-improvement/

Our stadium has about 10 years still to run

Jack Griffin said:

The Toll Bar work still has about 2 years to run.
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a45a46-tollbar-end-improvement/

Click to expand...

So would finish 2 years ahead of the likely completion date for a new stadium. Not saying it will be there, just heard a rumour. Something about a slip road directly off the A45 to a new stadium site next to industrial estate opposite airport (by the air museum).

Don't see a slip road or sufficient land on the highways agency plan..
http://assets.highways.gov.uk/roads...provement/A45-A46 Proposed Scheme Drawing.pdf

Remember Tim was talking about 60acres!

Jack Griffin said:

Don't see a slip road or sufficient land on the highways agency plan..
http://assets.highways.gov.uk/roads...provement/A45-A46 Proposed Scheme Drawing.pdf

Remember Tim was talking about 60acres!

Click to expand...

The slip road would be part of a planning application that doesn't even exist yet! It wouldn't appear on HA plans at this point.

There is plenty of land too https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...m2!3m1!1s0x4870b151656e22b7:0x4f660f5564f0689

...but again, I have no inside information here, just a second hand rumour that could be way off the mark.

Paxman II said:

I recall the original idea was a modular stadium that has the ability to increase in size/capacity as we grow our success.

I think the call for a stadium within the city is now a strong one. Perhaps SISU have played a blinder all along?

What land asset is suitable in Coventry right now?

Click to expand...

Can we get one that shrinks as we fuck up?

theferret said:

The slip road would be part of a planning application that doesn't even exist yet! It wouldn't appear on HA plans at this point.

There is plenty of land too https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...m2!3m1!1s0x4870b151656e22b7:0x4f660f5564f0689

...but again, I have no inside information here, just a second hand rumour that could be way off the mark.

Click to expand...

All in the green belt.

chiefdave said:

.....

Can't see this as anything but bad new for us. I suppose at least it draws a line under things.

So onwards with the new stadium ....

Click to expand...

There will be no new stadium. It makes more sense for all parties for CCFC to continue to rent time at the Ricoh (or it's soon to be new name). There was no way CCFC could ever afford to buy it anyway.

chiefdave said:

..... So that leaves either renting, which we keep getting told by SISU isn't viable, or a new ground which is going to add to our debt by tens of millions .....

Click to expand...

We would be 'renting' in either case. Ether renting from Wasps or 'renting' from whatever company or bank loaned CCFC the money. There is no way CCFC will ever own it themselves.

Otis said:

I still think building a new stadium is a madness, so where does that leave us? Somewhere between a rock and a hard place I guess.

As you say, we are in a very bad place as it is. Taking us down a route of adding to the debt by 10's of millions is surely a fruitless excerise.

If we were to build any stadium it would surely be over 10 years before we would see any good come from it and with it most likely being a distance outside of Coventry, the most likely outcome is the loss of a few more thousand City supporters to boot.

Click to expand...

The only sensible way forward, (which is a 100% about turn for SISU, so cannot see it happening) is to invest in the team and gain promotion. That would bring in money for a new stadium. The alternative (much cheaper) is to work out some long-term rental agreement with a share of matchday revenues.

Jack Griffin said:

A new stadium will take something like 10 years to build, ....

Click to expand...

They're going to build it. I thought they were just going to inflate it.

Cheshire Sky Blue said:

Why is the donation of 50p per ticket and the renaming so wrong?

The attitude of WASPS towards the charity (and others from what I can see) is considerably more collaborative and beneficial than the attitude of SISU towards them. (Taking the charity to court over a £29k bill they refused to pay etc etc)

Click to expand...

That's wrong, Sisu didn't take the Higgs to court, it was the other way round when Sisu decided (correctly as it turns out) that they didn't need to pay the 29k. Counterclaiming for 10 times that amount (which the judge also threw out), causing the case to be moved to a higher court and making unfounded suggestions about the Higgs trustees probably didn't help our case when it came to this offer or the costs involved.....