Coventry City have been given until Boxing Day to settle their £1.1m debt to the Ricoh Stadium or face expulsion from the ground. They would then have to go into liquidation or face a winding up order.
Coventry City have been given until Boxing Day to settle their £1.1m debt to the Ricoh Stadium or face expulsion from the ground. They would then have to go into liquidation or face a winding up order.
The club has mooted the idea of moving somewhere cheaper, but it is far from clear where that might be. The next highest ranked club in Warwickshire is Nuneaton Town and one could hardly play League 1 games at their ground. There is a vacant stadium of League 1 standard at Nene Park in Northamptonshire, but the idea of a move to Irthlingborough, even if only temporary, would surely be in the realms of fantasy.
ACL, who operate the stadium, claim that they have more than enough business without Coventry City, even though they would prefer the football club to remain. However, the idea of a set of exhibition and conference facilities with a big unused hole in the middle defies belief.
The Sky Blues argue that the rent being charged exceeds that for all other League 1 and Championship clubs where the average is £170,000 a year rather than £1.2m. Other clubs also benefit from food and drink sales.
The club may well come up with a partial payment before the deadline, but that would come out of the money available to rebuild the squad in the January transfer window.