Coventry City have issused the following press statement after their bid for shares in Arena Coventry Limited were rejected by the Higgs Charity.
The statement reads as follows:
"This morning the liquidator's offer for a stake in the Ricoh Arena company, was turned down by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity.
Naturally, the club are extremely disappointed. Our proposal was for a far-reaching partnership with the Higgs Charity to work together on community projects. Our offer was a unique opportunity to meet the twin objectives of the Club and the charity, using the power of football and sport in creating community cohesion and for the benefit of the whole Coventry community.
Despite the fact that access to critical documentation was denied, the liquidator's offer for the charity’s 50% stake in the Ricoh Arena was generous – around £2.8 million – and guaranteed above market value price. Alongside the proposed CCFC-Higgs Charity partnership, we felt this was the right deal for everyone concerned that demonstrated our ambition for the future of the club in the city. We have pursued every possible avenue.
Our deal at the Ricoh with Wasps remains in place. We will be playing our home matches there for the next four seasons and look forward to working with Wasps to ensure our mutual success on and off the field.
Our ultimate goal is to return CCFC to the Premier League but we can only do this if we own our own stadium, allowing us to access 100% of our revenues. In the near future, we will be able to give our fans more details of our plans and tell you where the new stadium will be.
The liquidator has declined our request, in the interests of transparency, to publish the full details of the offer. We have released in full the detail of our proposed community partnership with the Higgs Charity. We have continually stated since our return to the city, that community will be at the heart of our development and that still remains very much the case.
City proposition - http://www.ccfc.co.uk/documents/20141105-otium-community-support-letter144-2083689.pdf