We didn't pay for the conversion from an athletics stadium to a football stadium. We paid for the stadium to be fitted out (i.e. for concessions, hospitality, offices, etc).
The key figures, though are:
According to Sport England (though the relevant report is no longer on their site), the only option if there was no viable tenant for CoMS was to build a temporary athletics stadium for the Commonwealth Games and then scaling it down to a small athletics stadium afterwards. Sport England further said that the difference in cost between that option and the option of building the stadium City eventually got (including conversion after the Games) was GBP 60 million. So this, in effect, is the cost of getting City into CoMS.
We paid the Council GBP 6 million in cash and transferred Maine Road into the Council's ownership. That transaction valued the old stadium at GBP 27 million, which was its value in our books at the time. However, I believe that it only realised GBP 14 million for the Council when sold for development, so let's be conservative and take that sum as the value. Thus, from what City gave the Council when we moved to CoMS, GBP 20 million went back to the public purse.
We know as well that the attendance-based 'rent' payments we made between 2003 and 2011 came to GBP 14 million, and it's been reported that, since 2011, there's been a renegotiated payment under our lease of GBP 4 million annually (including a component for in return for us being entitled to sell naming rights). That's another GBP 16 million in the last four years then.
Add these sums together and you get GBP 50 million, meaning that three more annual payments will more than match the cost to the public purse of City moving to CoMS after the games. That will be by 2018, or 15 years after we moved in. And we'll continue paying GBP 4 million per year, ringfenced to finance sports activity in Manchester, for a long time after that.
Now, I admit that the new stadium was a godsend for our club at the time because we could never have financed it using more conventional funding models. But this idea that we've given nothing back in return for our good fortune is simply untrue.
I understand that the Olympic Stadium has cost GBP 272 to convert for West Ham to occupy it and West Ham have paid GBP 15 towards that - without even being required to hand over their own stadium. They have a 99-year lease and are paying GBP 2.5 million per year, so by the end of the lease, they'll just about have repaid that GBP 250 million shortfall! Compare this with the public purse being in profit from MCFC within 15 years.
Now, City have more advantageous lease terms than West Ham. We now are able to sell naming rights, and we keep all revenuse from concerts or other events at ths stadium. But even so, it's in no way comparable.
The key figures, though are:
According to Sport England (though the relevant report is no longer on their site), the only option if there was no viable tenant for CoMS was to build a temporary athletics stadium for the Commonwealth Games and then scaling it down to a small athletics stadium afterwards. Sport England further said that the difference in cost between that option and the option of building the stadium City eventually got (including conversion after the Games) was GBP 60 million. So this, in effect, is the cost of getting City into CoMS.
We paid the Council GBP 6 million in cash and transferred Maine Road into the Council's ownership. That transaction valued the old stadium at GBP 27 million, which was its value in our books at the time. However, I believe that it only realised GBP 14 million for the Council when sold for development, so let's be conservative and take that sum as the value. Thus, from what City gave the Council when we moved to CoMS, GBP 20 million went back to the public purse.
We know as well that the attendance-based 'rent' payments we made between 2003 and 2011 came to GBP 14 million, and it's been reported that, since 2011, there's been a renegotiated payment under our lease of GBP 4 million annually (including a component for in return for us being entitled to sell naming rights). That's another GBP 16 million in the last four years then.
Add these sums together and you get GBP 50 million, meaning that three more annual payments will more than match the cost to the public purse of City moving to CoMS after the games. That will be by 2018, or 15 years after we moved in. And we'll continue paying GBP 4 million per year, ringfenced to finance sports activity in Manchester, for a long time after that.
Now, I admit that the new stadium was a godsend for our club at the time because we could never have financed it using more conventional funding models. But this idea that we've given nothing back in return for our good fortune is simply untrue.
I understand that the Olympic Stadium has cost GBP 272 to convert for West Ham to occupy it and West Ham have paid GBP 15 towards that - without even being required to hand over their own stadium. They have a 99-year lease and are paying GBP 2.5 million per year, so by the end of the lease, they'll just about have repaid that GBP 250 million shortfall! Compare this with the public purse being in profit from MCFC within 15 years.
Now, City have more advantageous lease terms than West Ham. We now are able to sell naming rights, and we keep all revenuse from concerts or other events at ths stadium. But even so, it's in no way comparable.