Coventry City are in the third tier for the first time in 48 years, having for a long time been a constant if quite often relegation threatened presence in the top flight. A famous FA cup victory is still cherished by fans.
The club’s debts amount to £60m. Ownership of the 32,500-seat Ricoh Arena is shared between Coventry City Council and the Alan Higgs Charity, a local trust. Coventry pay £1.2m rent and making nothing from sponsorship or corporate events.
Coventry City are in the third tier for the first time in 48 years, having for a long time been a constant if quite often relegation threatened presence in the top flight. A famous FA cup victory is still cherished by fans.
The club’s debts amount to £60m. Ownership of the 32,500-seat Ricoh Arena is shared between Coventry City Council and the Alan Higgs Charity, a local trust. Coventry pay £1.2m rent and making nothing from sponsorship or corporate events.
The club’s only sources of income are gate receipts and player sales. With the club having to use youth players, the latter source of funds has dried up.
The club is owned by a hedge fund, SISU. They are both unwilling to pump any more money into the club and unwilling to sell it because nobody will pay enough to offset their losses. There is little the city council can do as they try to cope with funding cutbacks.
There is, of course, a broader story here. When I moved into Coventry in 1971, it was a prosperous place with one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe. Although there were warning signs, the car industry was still providing plenty of employment. It had attracted many migrants from all over Britain and Ireland and elsewhere to the city. It was unusual to meet anyone who wasn’t young who had been born in the city.
The car industry spiralled downwards and unemployment rose. The Ricoh itself was part of an effort to regenerate North Coventry. Is this a case of moving to a new stadium not working? Highfield Road, recently celebrated by a work of public art, could be described as an ‘atmospheric’ stadium but it was not really suitable for a club seeking to retain Premier League status.
There has been some rebalancing of the city’s income, but challenges remain. The by-passing of the city by the proposed High Speed Train is a concern. Some think that if Birmingham votes this week to have an elected mayor and Coventry does not, the city will be disadvantaged.
Some Sky Blues fans switched their support to the ice hockey team, Coventry Blaze, but they encountered financial problems this year as attendances fell off. It’s going to be a long rebuilding task for Coventry City, but hopefully that process can start.