Rugeley Villa Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 (edited) I sometimes drink in Coventry as my wife has family there and I always make sure I'm wearing one of my villa retro shirts just to annoy them. I've watched a few villa games there and always over celebrate when we score. Edited February 8, 2017 by Rugeley Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 8, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 8, 2017 3 hours ago, villa89 said: What's the full story with their owners and the ricoh arena? Are the owners assest stripping the club or are they just incompotent? They don't own the Ricoh. They were only ever renting it at extortionate prices which they could just about afford when they were in the prem, and as soon as they weren't in the prem it became a problem. I think Cov Council were doing them a deal to keep them in there but once Wasps came to town they bought half the Ricoh and Cov City basically got kicked out, hence why they played at Northampton. Wasps now wholly own the Ricoh as far as I'm aware and this deal to get Cov City back in ends in the summer so they're out of a ground again, and Wasps have no interest on doing a deal this time. So as of the summer they have hardly any players, no stadium, no academy facilities (Wasps took that over too) and absolutely no money to rectify any of that. They will fall and carry on falling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: They don't own the Ricoh. They were only ever renting it at extortionate prices which they could just about afford when they were in the prem, and as soon as they weren't in the prem it became a problem. I think Cov Council were doing them a deal to keep them in there but once Wasps came to town they bought half the Ricoh and Cov City basically got kicked out, hence why they played at Northampton. Wasps now wholly own the Ricoh as far as I'm aware and this deal to get Cov City back in ends in the summer so they're out of a ground again, and Wasps have no interest on doing a deal this time. So as of the summer they have hardly any players, no stadium, no academy facilities (Wasps took that over too) and absolutely no money to rectify any of that. They will fall and carry on falling. Mostly correct although they never played in the premier league at the Ricoh - they were relegated in 2001 , also the rent was far from extortionate - in fact quite generous. cov didn't pay the agreed rent as thy believed they should have the right to matchday hospitality revenue , kiosks, etc which they had waived when signing the original deal . sisu were mainly after the Ricoh and now they have lost it they seem to be running the club down to the bare bones . my late grandad was a Vice President there in the 80s and I live and work in the city - I would wear villa colors anywhere on holidays etc but never in Coventry - last time I did my car window was smashed the same day many years ago. Edited February 8, 2017 by Eastie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 56 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: They don't own the Ricoh. They were only ever renting it at extortionate prices which they could just about afford when they were in the prem, and as soon as they weren't in the prem it became a problem. I think Cov Council were doing them a deal to keep them in there but once Wasps came to town they bought half the Ricoh and Cov City basically got kicked out, hence why they played at Northampton. Wasps now wholly own the Ricoh as far as I'm aware and this deal to get Cov City back in ends in the summer so they're out of a ground again, and Wasps have no interest on doing a deal this time. So as of the summer they have hardly any players, no stadium, no academy facilities (Wasps took that over too) and absolutely no money to rectify any of that. They will fall and carry on falling. Yeah, @Eastie is right, but in addition, Wasps going to the Ricoh wasn't the reason Cov stopped playing there - in fact Cov returned to the Ricoh having been groundsharing with Northampton before Wasps even moved to the Ricoh. Cov started whichever season it was in August at the Ricoh and Wasps moved in a few months later, if memory serves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 (edited) 6 minutes ago, hogso said: Yeah, @Eastie is right, but in addition, Wasps going to the Ricoh wasn't the reason Cov stopped playing there - in fact Cov returned to the Ricoh having been groundsharing with Northampton before Wasps even moved to the Ricoh. Cov started whichever season it was in August at the Ricoh and Wasps moved in a few months later, if memory serves. You're right - cov returned to the Ricoh in sept 2014 and wasps arrived in dec 2014 . cov left the Ricoh over a year before any talk of wasps arriving. Edited February 8, 2017 by Eastie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 SISU pay 100k a season to rent the Ricoh from Wasps, a deal that ends at the end of next season I think. Bearing in mind that SISU were/are still taking CCC and Wasps to court over the former lending the latter the money to buy the Ricoh (a loan which has now been repaid in full}, when a meeting was held in the summer to negotiate Sky Blues continuing at the stadium, Sisu representatives turned up with a hefty listsof demands for Wasps to meet before anything could be agreed. After about half an hour, Wasps called a halt to the meeting and refused to negotiate any further, understandably so. And that's been that since, no new meetings, just talk of moving at Butts Park where Cov Rugby play, which is, well, not as good as the Ricoh!!! I've heard rumours that the Wasps' owner, Derek Richardson, made Sisu an offer of £20m for the club, which they refused and asked for over £60m, which is frigging ridiculous, if true. Sisu bought CCFC with the aim of getting the 2nd best stadium in the midlands on the cheap, but obviously they've lost out to an organisation with a sound business plan and a fair amount of ambition plus an eye for what the community and surrounding areas want. This has obviously shown up how shit they are and they don't like it. TBH, Blues had enough crap from Carsen Yeung but Sisu are in a different league entirely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 (edited) Wasps don't need Coventry city and will be better off without the hassle of them - wasps are buIldiNg quite a fan base iN the city and proving very successful . As for the butts it's been ruled out by the owner and a non starter - sisu have no intention of building a new ground and 3 years on still haven't even found a site - they will probably end up back at six fields if the league allow it although the original move was agreed only on the basis that Coventry would find a new stadium in the city . no doubt getting to wembley will see the return of many fans on the day and they will sell 40.000 allocation but as for anyone buying the club we will have to see - no assets really , no ground , no academy , shit team miles adrift in league one and heading for relegation - hardly great selling points - and of course sisu insisting they are not selling . joy sepalla is a tough cookie and she has proved protests will not sway her in the slightest, she is as stubborn as they come - I think they will actually liquidate the club eventually . Edited February 8, 2017 by Eastie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Interesting piece here - In comments critical of Sisu, the judge said that in coming to his conclusion, he had “taken into account all relevant matters”, including that fact that: “the failure of CCFC/SISU to pay rent – and their refusal to consider paying any rent except on SISU’s terms – put the Council an invidious commercial position. As it was intended to do, it placed ACL in considerable financial distress, compounded by the indications that CCFC/SISU were unwilling to pay any rent unless and until a commercial deal was struck on their terms, including a significant (at least 50%) share in ACL; and by SISU’s indications that they were fully prepared to put CCFC into administration or even liquidation.” http://footylaw.co.uk/tag/sisu/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Probably been linked before, but this article gives some fairly jaw-dropping details: 'There are times in football when you hear a story that sounds so daft, so utterly inconceivable, that if it happened in just about any other sport you would probably think it might be too far-fetched to be true. Unfortunately, this is football, land of the absurd, and it all fits into the narrative to learn that Coventry City, under the permanently bewildering Sisu regime, briefly discussed the idea – no kidding – of being the first club in England to introduce a “text‑a‑substitute” option during matches. Supporters would be given a number they could text, at premium rates, to say who the manager should take off and who should come on. An announcement would be made at the appropriate time about the most popular vote and the manager, the poor patsy, would be under instructions to comply with the crowd’s wishes. [. . .] Dulieu was so embedded to Sisu he turned up at Coventry proclaiming himself to be the man who would save the club and announcing he used to “look after security operations in Northern Ireland”. Orange Ken, as he became known because of his perma‑tan, became chairman, then head of football operations, and started attracting suspicion when he ordered himself a training kit bearing his own initials. He invited himself into the dressing room when the manager, Andy Thorn, was giving his team talk and watched one game from the dugout, apparently living out some childhood fantasies, before the stink it caused led to his resignation. He left Coventry in the Championship’s relegation zone, proudly claiming to have “turned the club around” and, unless someone can tell me otherwise, he has not worked in football since. It is amazing the kind of people this sport attracts and, unfortunately for Coventry, they have suffered more than most when it comes to the list of those passing through with big ideas, little expertise and the general sense that they think running a football club must be a doddle. Another was Leonard Brody, a Canadian entrepreneur and social media guru, who joined Coventry at the same time as Dulieu, forming part of the club’s “best-ever board” and in one meeting announced he had a master-plan to stop the club haemorrhaging so much money. The details are recounted in A Club Without a Home, a splendid new book telling the story of the Sisu years in the words of Simon Gilbert, the Coventry Evening Telegraph’s award-winning chief reporter. “Leonard Brody said he had 10 ideas, so I said: ‘What is your best idea?’” Gary Hoffman, the former vice-chairman, tells the author. “That was when he talked about ‘text a substitute’. I said even if that was allowed under Football League rules, how do you think that’s going to transform the revenues of Coventry City?” Another idea was to make a Sky Blue Rolls-Royce available for wedding hire. Then, at the end of the meeting, someone asked if there was any other business and Hoffman remembers Sisu’s representative, Onye Igwe, raising his hand. “Onye said: ‘Yes, I want to raise the subject of our mascot.’ The club was going bust and he said: ‘I think Sky Blue Sam is too fat and it’s not setting a good example for children.’ That’s when Ray Ranson [the former chairman] said: ‘Onye, it’s a **** elephant.’” 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 46 minutes ago, Eastie said: Wasps don't need Coventry city Well the pitch would be better without them, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 On a side note I'm surprised the fa haven't imposed punishment as several games have been disrupted by fans from pitch invasions, to throwing plastic pigs and tennis balls on the pitch and blowing whistles to disrupt games . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 What happened with the Ray Ranson lad who bought the club? he was always linked with buying us when Doug was in charge and think we might have dodged a bullet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 1 minute ago, Zatman said: What happened with the Ray Ranson lad who bought the club? he was always linked with buying us when Doug was in charge and think we might have dodged a bullet He saw the light and left . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leighavfc Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 I remember around 2/3 years ago driving through Sutton and seeing a car towing one of them billboard trailers.... It was asking for support with protests or something like that.... i laughed my head off, driving through Sutton which is 99.9% Villa asking for support!!! Tbf though it is a f*****g disgrace what has happened to them... The FA should have done more imo. The only Villa Cov game ive been was the last time we saw them in 2001, what a game! Juan Pablo's first goal for us if i remember correctly? Outside the ground was pure carnage!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 On 2/8/2017 at 12:36, Stevo985 said: e Ricoh as far as I'm aware and this deal to get Cov City back in ends in the summer so they're out of a ground again, and Wasps have no interest on doing a deal this time. So as of the summer they have hardly any players, no stadium, no academy facilities (Wasps took that over too) and absolutely no money to rectify any of that. They will fall and carry on falling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 The Ricoh deal ends at the end of 2017/18 season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 9, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 9, 2017 I got a lot of facts wrong in my post But the general gist was bang on. They're ****. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Yeah Sisu are one of the worst owners in the league. They took over Coventry I think 5 years ago when they were mid table in the championship and still had decent ambitions to get back in the prem. They'll be in league 2 next season. Bracket them with Pompey and Blackpool. Negligent owners who aren't in it for the best interests of the club. Suppose you could say Lerner aswell but he just lost interest and obviously wanted to sell up in 2014 but couldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Congrats to Cov on winning the EFL Trophy today. Easily a bigger achievement than Celtic winning the SPL, I'd say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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