Angus Young's report on yesterday's court case... Witnesses giving evidence on oath today were HCC chief legal officer Ian Anderson, SMC director Ehab Allam and arena manager Mark Hagues. Up first, Ian A outlines HCC case: breach of lease by SMC as arena no longer open to all thanks to 3G pitch installed without consent. Under cross-examination, Ian A accepts arena liaison cttee mentioned in original 2004 SMC lease has never actually met. Ian A says HCC continuing to process own planning app for alternative bubble pitch near KC to support SMC. Judge confirms any HCC guarantee of planning approval for bubble pitch as requested by Ehab Allam would have been illegal. Ehab up next, says 3G installed to meet Cat 2 rules for Hull City academy and to make arena more profitable. Ehab says eviction of amateur sports clubs necessary because five-a-side football brings in more cash. Ehab argues no breach of lease, says arena still available to hire by anyone on first-come first-served basis. 'Cat 2 requirement for 'exclusive' use of indoor 3G by Hull City academy doesnt exclude use by others, ie when arena not booked by academy'. Ehab says SMC want to 'offload' arena to Tigers Trust to secure 80% rate relief and save £100 per year. Asked if SMC has business plan in place for arena/3G/transfer to Tigers Trust, Ehab: 'That's the business plan, It's very simple. One line'. Ehab says arena was losing 5-a-side footie business to competitors before 3G installed. Asked where teams were going, Ehab replies: 'There are many places you can play 5-a-side. You can play it in your back garden.' '3G pitches make money, sports centres lose money' Ehab tells court. It's part of a 'total restructuring' of the SMC. Ehab: 'The preferred plan for the club is to build (an indoor3G) at Bishop Burton. We are in discussions with the college at the moment.' Ehab: 'There is a (Cat2) requirement to have that in place by July 2016' 3G at Airco would remain. Mark Hagues tells court SMC looking at rugby, lacrosse and American football as potential new users of Airco 3G. No takers as yet. Current users are academy, Tigers Trust, 5-a-side footy bookings, Bubble Football (look it up) and children's parties.
Asked where teams were going, Ehab replies: 'There are many places you can play 5-a-side. You can play it in your back garden.' He really is incredible, I can see the club losing if they come out with rubbish like this.
The hearing finishes tomorrow, but the judgement will not be announced until a later (as yet unconfirmed) date.
Airco Arena hearing: Decision to evict amateur clubs ‘driven by need to reduce SMC losses’ please log in to view this image Hull City vice-chairman Ehab Allam says the decision to evict a number of amateur sports clubs from the Airco Arena was partly triggered by the need to make the venue more profitable. Hull City Council is taking legal action over the controversial move by the SuperStadium Management Company (SMC) to install an artificial 3G pitch inside the arena in April. The council claims the SMC broke its lease agreement by laying the pitch on top of the arena's original sprung wooden floor without the consent of the authority, which owns the building. At an injunction hearing at Leeds County Court, the council argued the move had effectively turned a multi-use venue for sports such as netball, gymnastics, trampolining and competitive roller skating into an indoor football pitch. Mr Allam, who owns the SMC along with his father Assem, told the court that alongside Hull City's need for an indoor 3G facility to meet the criteria for an upgrade of its youth academy licence, was a need to generate more money at the Airco. He said: "The financial losses being incurred by the SMC were significant, in the region of £250,000 a year. "We looked at solutions in that regard and found the biggest profit-making potential was five-a-side football; the rest of the sports there were loss-making." Mr Allam admitted there was no written business case to justify the change. Instead, he said the need to reverse losses was the driving factor. "There is no business plan. The plan is remove those losses. It's a very simple one-line plan. I do not like complicated words," he said. The court heard the 3G pitch was now being used by Hull City's youth academy as well as being hired out on a first-come first-served basis to any interested organisations. However, its use has so far been limited to five-a-side football and children's parties. Venue manager Mark Hagues said the SMC was hoping to attract new uses, including rugby, lacrosse and American football but accepted none of the sports were currently using the arena. Mr Allam said the timescale over the licensing requirements for Hull City's application had left no option but to go ahead with the installation of the 3G pitch at the Airco after initial plans to build one at the youth academy's base at Bishop Burton College had fallen through. He said City's long-term aim was to build an indoor 3G pitch at Bishop Burton but insisted the artificial pitch at the Airco was also here to stay and denied any breach of the lease. Council barrister Mr Edward Deneham said the lease clearly spelled out a requirement for the arena to be made available "for the residents of Hull and the community in general". He said there had been no mention of financial losses or the need to change the venue's operations when Mr Allam had held talks with the council in March over the issue. The hearing continues later this week. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Airc...tory-27596921-detail/story.html#ixzz3igGUO4jw
Hull & East Riding FA reveal their new facilities for next seasons five-a-side league... please log in to view this image
God help you if you tried to play footie in my garden, the missus lives out there, you even look a plant in a aggressive manner and she goes mental.
OK that made me laugh. I was talking about the size of your garden as opposed to actually suggesting we hold a Not606 5 a side tournament there!
He's getting like a caricature of himself. If only I had a garden. Alas, I have a balcony covered in pigeon ****.
"Ehab argues no breach of lease, says arena still available to hire by anyone on first-come first-served basis. 'Cat 2 requirement for 'exclusive' use of indoor 3G by Hull City academy doesnt exclude use by others, ie when arena not booked by academy'." Surely the Cat 2 requirement means nobody else can use it.
