Bulliac wrote:
The lease itself can only really be worth what it draws in rent and as we were, famously, paying 'peppercorn' before we sold it to the RFL I'm not sure what value would be put on it. The freehold however would be a different story. I'm no property expert but I'd suspect the two leases involved would be the biggest drawback to selling the freehold to an outside bidder.
The peppercorn head lease is owned by the RFL and that runs to the year 2152.
The underlease the old Bulls had was only for 30 years. That ran from 2011 so has another 23 years to go. I assume (but have no knowledge) that this underlease was simply passed over to the present Bulls. (They could of course have instead entered into a brand new document).
However as an asset it is certainly of value as IIRC the rent is 72k p.a. Which I would choose over a peppercorn, any day. I'd guess that a value for the remainder of the lease would have something to do with the loss of rental income for the remainder of term which at this point would amount to roughly £1.65m if you ignore rent reviews.
The underlease contained clauses giving the head lessee the right to boot, subject to providing us with a 16000 capacity stadium to play in within 4 miles, if they needed the ground for redevelopment. That is now a real option as the "rugby covenant" expires in the spring. So selling the freehold to an outside bidder may well be very much a live option, but us moving to a suitable stadium would need to be part of any deal.
