Coventry City chairman Ken Dulieu has stated that it is vital for the club the buy a stake in th The Ricoh Arena as soon as possible as a way of stemming the estimated £500,000 an month losses the club is currently making.
Mr Dulieu said not owning their own ground is making life tougher and that buying a share is now a priority.
He said to the CT: “We don’t own the stadium and that makes it a lot tougher for us because we only have roughly half the turnover against the other 23 teams in our division. I have got one hand tied behind my back but that doesn’t mean to say I can’t fight."
“If we are losing half a million a month and you don’t own the stadium it is not worth a great deal, but if we turn things around and start to break even then it is going to be worth substantially more and I have managed to convince the owners that that is achievable."
“It is not as simple as saying we would like to own the stadium. It is a question of working with the community, the council and the operator to say ‘is there a way we can all win?’ You have to prove yourself every minute of the day; I did a major presentation and as a result of that the owners are prepared to keep funding the club."
“They recognise the professionalism that is going into the business and that funding is there as long as we do well, as long as we do our job. If we don’t I expect I’ll be shown the door. I can’t say there is funding there for the next 100 years."
"What I can say is we have put another proposal to them because we were running out of money and they have accepted that proposal and there is a substantial amount of cash at our disposal."
“If we bugger it up then we will be in trouble again, so it is my job to ensure I get on with trying to raise funds and keep the morale of the team on track.”
Sisu are not prepared to lose the £30m they have invested in the club which they would do if they accepted the terms of Gary Hoffman's offer to buy the club for £1, but Mr Dulieu said he had met with Mr Hoffman and would meet with him again to discuss future investment in the club.
He said: “I have already had three meetings with Gary and I am happy to meet him again. The last one was arranged with investors and they didn’t show up but we have another meeting arranged and I am optimistic that they will show up this time and that we can have a meaningful discussion."
“I am open to discussions with anyone but I will not do that through the media.”
Mr Dulieu didn't know if there was a basis for an agreement with the Hoffman led bid and when asked admitted, “I have no idea. I think if I offered a pound for your house you would tell me to take a run. The owners have put quite a lot of money into the club and they’d quite like to get it back."
"Gary told me some names of people in the City but I haven’t spoken to any of them; they are proper people but I don’t know if they are proper people willing to invest. My job is to listen to anyone who has proof of funds and is prepared to invest in this football club and if I can reduce that £30m debt then fine."
“I can totally understand if Gary wants to have another go at this because he is fanatical about the club, he’s been in the paper more than any of my players over the last few months, so he’s obviously keen.”
“You never say never in life. At the end of the day it has got to be real and genuine," said Mr Dulieu in response to being asked if Sisu could work alongside Mr Hoffman's potential investors.
He continued: “If someone wants to buy your house, there’s the money, it’s in the bank and my lawyers have verified it and these are the conditions under which we will buy, then you would take it seriously, but if a tramp came off the street, what would you say? This is not about any one individual."
"There’s a lot of people who want to invest in football clubs. The majority tend to live in La La Land or a planet I’ve never visited. There are some genuine ones but, believe it or not, they’d like to see a return on their money."
"Of the rest we’re talking about trophy hunters like Roman Abramovich. If there are any more Abramoviches who would like to talk to me I’d be only too delighted. I saw dozens of people like this when I was on the board treading those choppy waters at Southampton, Paul Allen, one of the richest people in the world, sheiks, Russians, you name it."
"I would love to see some funds proved to me against a financial model that works, but my job is also to ensure that money exists and to know where it is going to be invested and how is it going to be invested."
“Sisu have asked me to head up all investor relations and then come back to us with any forthcoming proposal but I haven’t got a proposal to put to them.”