I have the minutes of the meeting you attended with Assem Allam. I'm sure he said Hull City Council offered him a joint venture to develop the sports village.
The key is not what Hull City Council want to do but what the Chinese want. They will be paying millions in rent to a company they own but doesn't make a profit and needs loans to keep it going. They cannot extend the stadium unless they pay cash to the builders. Which leaves them with three alternatives. Buy the freehold, renegotiate the lease or move Hull City AFC to another purpose built stadium.
Making the SMC profitable with the development of the existing site is easy and all the plans are already in place.
What about City moving to Costello and giving the KC to the mighty black and whites for nowt ? Be a popular move at Guildhall.
Sorry if covered before or maybe I am being dim (it happens!) but does that imply selling the whole site including stadium or can the site be sold but with the stadium remaining in the council's hands? I don't see that as practical from an access point of view and neither do I suspect the buyers would find it agreeable.
Nothing needs to be sold for the proposed development to go ahead. As things stand currently there's a fifty year lease on the entire site and that lease is under the control of the SMC.
So - the buyer of the club would own the SMC. Under the lease that they would then enjoy on the whole site, they can develop that site (subject to planning laws and approval which they would face anyway) - and if all approved and development goes ahead, the SMC profits from it and not the tax payer? Makes it even more odd. The buyer will not invest in developing the site unless he can profit from it, but the site is not his to do that with other than under a lease but if you are saying the SMC are entitled to the profits of development under the lease then that makes it a lot easier to understand although I would be surprised the council had ceded all that potential away for 50 years...
When you lease a property, you effectively own it for the term of the lease. At fifty years (of which about a quarter has already gone), it's too short for anyone to invest in a significant development, so it would need to be extended, but on a long term lease there's nothing to stop the site being developed, or even the stadium extended (should it be required).
Yep, get that but Alrawdah's comment about profit share helps my understanding of it. The council has ceded ownership subject to the terms and limits of the lease but has not given away the benefit of its freehold but instead uses SMC's management of the site to deliver some share of its potential. That makes sense.I can see where the new buyer benefits without the status quo being altered. Thanks a lot. There's other stuff to read today apparently.....
100% this. There's far too much waffle about something really quite simple - Hull Fair the only key hindrance, which should not be for very long. Hull needs to move forward and stop waffling.
That wasn't the impression I got from the people I spoke to. Brady and Johnson when CTWD met them were still talking about a joint venture to develop the area around the KCOM including on Council owned land. The question isn't whether the SMC can be profitable. The problem the owners of Hull City AFC have is paying £4 million plus a year rent and the restrictions on using the lease as security to finance the expansion of the stadium.
Maybe wait till some announcement is made rather than speculate. Just because they made their money from property (building shopping centres actually) doesn't mean anything at this point with the stadium.
The SMC pay a peppercorn rent to Hull City Council. I can't remember the details but its a few pounds a year. Hull City Tigers Limited have a user agreement with the SMC and in the year ending 30 June 2014 paid £4.3 million for the use of the stadium. I'd call that rent but it may have another more technically correct term.
The council receive no rent for the stadium, Hull City pay rent to the SMC, but they also own the SMC, so they're just paying themselves.
Sorry but how was the council paid for the stadium in the first place if they receive no rent now? I am sure I am missing something hence the sincere apologies!
