Ah ok, thats the answer i was looking for. They bought the company then from Pearson et al.

The more i hear about the SMC been a seperate independant company i question why the council dont set up a function and manage it themselves and take the profit? Wonder what the rationale is for effectively sub-letting the stadium?

By leasing the stadium out it made it difficult for the city council to sell the stadium within that fifty years



At the end of the fifty years the stadium will be past it anyway, so in around 30 years time you ( that are still around) will be looking at a new stadium

Fair points!



Slide different slant, will it ever pay for itself?

Its making money if thats what you mean, it can't fail too at the moment. I don't think it was set up to pay for itself, but money should be salted away against future expediture if and when it is required.

It has been noticed that there is now grass growing in the superstructure, always a sign of neglect or corner cutting.



Look above the East stand, great big chunks of it coming out of the water channels

I can just imagine how well and how efficiently the stadium would be run in public hands





They can't even get the fecking bins emptied

Fair point!!



(wasnt actually meaning public hands, the council do have numerous ltd companies that they own, maybe they could have just set their own SMC up)

Why didn't you let any of us know this before now? It would have given us something to watch this season!

the council as usual completely cocked it up. It was stated in the HDM the other year that the council actually pays to rent the office/learning space in a stadium it built with its cash!

they handed over far too much control IMO, I can understand the rational in having a private company do the day to day running of the company, but they seem to have little control now.

i dont know of any other businesses that have built a product and rented it out to only then rent space back!

ffs at least you fc fans have somat to talk about...............now the seasons over.

Yours will be over next weekend on the evidence of tonight's performance.

Duffen's still not convincing me with his comments in todays HDM

apparently Turner needed to be sold to help the club 'evolve' funny, I'd have thought keeping a player who's been voted player of the season 2 years in a row would have helped the club evolve. And getting rid of the deadwood would be the better option.

he's also likened the collapsed £12million deal to buy Negredo from Madrid (which I never really thought would happen...) to buying a car on credit, and saying they never had £12million to pay up front anyway.

as I said in a previous post, City, FC and KR have had more than their fair share of dodgy chairmen and silly decisions for the fans not to be cynical.