Major problems with the owners of the Ricoh and Coventry.
This is a real carcrash of a club.Left Highfield Road sold off by the then owners.Built a new ground that they felt befitted their status and a series of incompetent directors and owners have wrecked a once successful club.
Now they may have to play games elsewhere as they no longer own their ground.
Its very sad .I always saw Coventry as a similar club to us and their fans were always very friendly.
Chris Eagles played well there last time we played there.

Didn't they groundshare with Northampton Town some years ago? Maybe they could do that again.

Real mess there.

I might be wrong but they never seemed to buy success ...a bit like Burnley as you say. A shame as to what's happened to them but don't know the ins and outs...is the council a problem??

A real shame to happen to any club, Coventry was once a great club who we all remember winning the FA cup, a great stadium alas now going to waste, a tragedy for the club and the fans who were always a decent lot, i really hope things work out well for them, dosnt look good tho.

ElectroClaret wrote:Didn't they groundshare with Northampton Town some years ago? Maybe they could do that again.

Real mess there.

I heard something on the radio a few weeks back that the EFL had said they would only permit them to play their home games in Coventry and that obviously the ground must meet EFL standards. Which basically meant they had to sort the problems with the ground owner (SISA?) and play there or face expulsion from the league.

Don't they still groundshare with Wasps RUFC ?

I think the Ricoh is a horrible stadium
A bit like the one here in MK where you get a better atmosphere on the moon!
And every time I have been there in the past it always seems so cold even in August

evensteadiereddie wrote:Don't they still groundshare with Wasps RUFC ?

Yes they do, as you enter the stadium complex all you see is the Wasps club shop and shirts, no mention of the football club

I think the rules are that they must play within a 6 mile radius of the centre of Coventry . As with all the other clubs in difficulty , i hope they can sort the problems out . I remember going to Highfield rd , and i can assure you that not all their fans were friendly .

Burt wrote:Yes they do, as you enter the stadium complex all you see is the Wasps club shop and shirts, no mention of the football club

No, I think Wasps bought the ground off the council.

They now have good crowds and Cov are not happy.

Yes Wasps own it but have a rental agreement with Cov this season only

I think the problems started when they took out a long term rental agreement at the Richo and once they got relegated from the Premier League the crowds diminished and it didn't cover the rent. Even the Catering was owned by the Stadium with nothing going back to the club.

I don't think they ever owned it, I'm sure it was funded by the Council and a private enterprise.

Selling your major asset and renting based on future anticipated income streams sounds like a recipe for disaster particularly in football.

JohnMac wrote:I think the problems started when they took out a long term rental agreement at the Richo and once they got relegated from the Premier League the crowds diminished and it didn't cover the rent. Even the Catering was owned by the Stadium with nothing going back to the club.

I don't think they ever owned it, I'm sure it was funded by the Council and a private enterprise.

Coventry had already been relegated before they played at the Ricoh. It was owned by the council and a private enterprise.

Having been once (1-0 defeat under Laws, interesting when Burnley fans were singing 442) it was a cold and dull experience. It was not solely built for football and if you now google the Ricoh arena it is all about the other events that you can go there for including Wasps rugby. I seem to recall there been a casino at the ground.

Anyway, after the game it kicked off with the locals and the stewards outside. They had been instructed to block the exit to car park close to the ground that they didn't own, tells it all really.

I don't have lots of sympathy for Cov fans. I started work at ParcelForce, Coventry, back in 1999 and the Cov fans I worked with were giving it large about their success and how much bigger than us they were and that they were going to be even bigger when they spent the money from the sale of Highfield Rd and started renting the Ricoh. Well, the club went and spent all the money, and a bit extra for good luck, without managing to stay in/return to the Premier League but they were still bigging it up saying how much the owners were going to cough up to get them back to their 'rightful place'.

I'm sure all fans do this, but this was all directed at 'small town club' me so that is the opinion of them I have!

Bolton,Coventry...these clubs keep going to the brink,then claw there way back for a few months then back to the brink again they bore me to tears shut them down and put them out of their misery.

Thankfully, we only let Paul Fletcher fantasize about developing Turf Moor, we never actually let him do it.

Coventry have been offered facilities by several league clubs, whether the EFL accepts that is debateable.
Wasps are in dispute with the Coventry owner(SISU) and won’t renew until they withdraw a legal action against them.

Steve1956 wrote:Bolton,Coventry...these clubs keep going to the brink,then claw there way back for a few months then back to the brink again they bore me to tears shut them down and put them out of their misery.

It sounds harsh but maybe that's what is needed to bring football to it's senses.

tiger76 wrote:It sounds harsh but maybe that's what is needed to bring football to it's senses.

It is Harsh we have been close once or twice,but Bolton are paying the price for mismanagement probably Coventry as well they deserve to go to the wall.

We should never move from the turf. And we should never sell it again.

Hopefully coventry sort it out. But would be ironic if they were the club that folded. After Jimmy Hill was the one who championed aboloshing the maximum wage.

As above. Went once. Was bloody freezing. Zero atmosphere. Amd worse of all Marlon King scored.

To add. Only ever met decent coventry fans.

Used to like watching them in the prem. They were practically unrelegateable even with some **** teams. That said they also had some very exciting players. Chippo. Hadji. Huckerby. Keane. Dublin.

If you look at the Ricoh Arena from above it looks a bit dodgy. It's a bit suspect, what goes on there.

expoultryboy wrote:I think the rules are that they must play within a 6 mile radius of the centre of Coventry . As with all the other clubs in difficulty , i hope they can sort the problems out . I remember going to Highfield rd , and i can assure you that not all their fans were friendly .

Some of the most unfriendly fans south of the border (excluding Aberdeen)

i think they were banking on promotion in last seasons play offs getting beat was as detrimental as it was to Notts County
Two clubs feeling the back lash of gambling to succeed

I'm not sure how the finances of some stadiums are worked out. While Wasps are a fairly successful Rugby team, I'm sure at the back of my mind that they migrated to Coventry from London. I haven't a clue what they get as attendances, but would presume that Coventry City could more than match them. So why couldn't City afford to stay there.
Darlo have been hit the same way. The Northern Echo Arena was a lovely ground for a lower league club, but Darlo couldn't afford it. Now its home to Mowden Park Rugby Club, I know what you're asking yourselves, Who?, yet apparently they can afford the up keep of the ground.
Rugby teams play fewer games over a season than soccer, so that's even fewer games to generate income. Again I'm only guessing here, but I assume that entrance fees would be cheaper for Rugby than football. So how do they manage it?

Of course the obvious answer for both Wasps and Coventry, and Darlo and Mowden is to ground share, but it always seems to be a problem, and thats another one I don't understand.

Friendly fans or not, no footy fan likes to see the mess currently surrounding clubs like Coventry and Bolton (and shed loads of others in the recent past too). It's yet another lesson in being thankful for sensible owners (like ours!) and reaslising that for every well intentioned take over/saviour there are about 10 dodgy ones.

Colburn_Claret wrote:soccer.

Wash your ******* mouth out.

It's very strange situation and I have way more sympathy for Coventry than I do Notlob. The FA needs to pull its finger out and create some robust and enforcable rules to cover football club governance. I'm not holding my breath though, as the premier league riches are the driving force behind every decision and its taint spreads through all the leagues in England.

Colburn_Claret wrote:I'm not sure how the finances of some stadiums are worked out. While Wasps are a fairly successful Rugby team, I'm sure at the back of my mind that they migrated to Coventry from London. I haven't a clue what they get as attendances, but would presume that Coventry City could more than match them. So why couldn't City afford to stay there.
Darlo have been hit the same way. The Northern Echo Arena was a lovely ground for a lower league club, but Darlo couldn't afford it. Now its home to Mowden Park Rugby Club, I know what you're asking yourselves, Who?, yet apparently they can afford the up keep of the ground.
Rugby teams play fewer games over a season than soccer, so that's even fewer games to generate income. Again I'm only guessing here, but I assume that entrance fees would be cheaper for Rugby than football. So how do they manage it?

Of course the obvious answer for both Wasps and Coventry, and Darlo and Mowden is to ground share, but it always seems to be a problem, and thats another one I don't understand.

I don't know about Wasps but I've been to watch Saracens a few times and tickets aren't cheap. Easily on par with Premier League football. I think Wasps are average 15k+ crowds so are probably making a fair bit more money than Coventry. I reckon you also earn a lot more in food and drink sales at rugby too. Beer sales in particular will be much higher.

Colburn_Claret wrote:I'm not sure how the finances of some stadiums are worked out. While Wasps are a fairly successful Rugby team, I'm sure at the back of my mind that they migrated to Coventry from London. I haven't a clue what they get as attendances, but would presume that Coventry City could more than match them. So why couldn't City afford to stay there.
Darlo have been hit the same way. The Northern Echo Arena was a lovely ground for a lower league club, but Darlo couldn't afford it. Now its home to Mowden Park Rugby Club, I know what you're asking yourselves, Who?, yet apparently they can afford the up keep of the ground.
Rugby teams play fewer games over a season than soccer, so that's even fewer games to generate income. Again I'm only guessing here, but I assume that entrance fees would be cheaper for Rugby than football. So how do they manage it?

Of course the obvious answer for both Wasps and Coventry, and Darlo and Mowden is to ground share, but it always seems to be a problem, and thats another one I don't understand.

Agree on the income side but neither Wasps or Mowden Park will have the wage bill of any football team. So they probably turn a profit.

Woodleyclaret wrote:Built a new ground that they felt befitted their status and a series of incompetent directors and owners have wrecked a once successful club

Coventry City didn't build the new ground - they moved into a new ground that wasn't theirs and that was the start of the problems. They weren't making any money out of it, not even on match days. It's gone much worse since because of the owners. I think they might probably get to stay at the Ricoh eventually but, if not, they'll have to play out of town again as they did a few years ago.

There's talk of them playing at Burton Albion ground, thats over 40 miles away.

Strange goings on at the Ricoh arena. Just look at an aerial photograph of the place from above. REALLY strange.

Cocker Claret wrote:There's talk of them playing at Burton Albion ground, thats over 40 miles away.

If there was any money to be made out of it I bet Winkelman would do anything needed to get Coventry to ground share at Milton Keynes

mkmel wrote:If there was any money to be made out of it I bet Winkelman would do anything needed to get Coventry to ground share at Milton Keynes

Much quicker for Cov fans to get to than the Pirelli Stadium. Both MK and Burton are much further away than EFL 6 mile rules permit though.

bfcmik wrote:Much quicker for Cov fans to get to than the Pirelli Stadium. Both MK and Burton are much further away than EFL 6 mile rules permit though.

This 6 mile rule is all well and good. But its going to be one rule for Coventry and one for others.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:This 6 mile rule is all well and good. But its going to be one rule for Coventry and one for others.

Bolton centre to the stadium is less than 6 miles as the crow flies or even if you walked

Tottenham were given an temporary exemption whilst their new stadium was under construction.

Not entirely sure what the map to b%st%rdland was intended to show

I’m sure I read somewhere that The Macron Stadium is closer to the centre of Wigan than it is to the centre of Bolton.

CricketfieldClarets thats funny...one sh*t tip to another

Was a terrible decision moving to the Ricoh. One of the worst grounds I think I've been to.

jrgbfc wrote:Was a terrible decision moving to the Ricoh. One of the worst grounds I think I've been to.

Do great concerts there though!

Lord Beamish wrote:I’m sure I read somewhere that The Macron Stadium is closer to the centre of Wigan than it is to the centre of Bolton.

Bit like the thread a while back that Stockports ground is closer to the Mersey than the Reds and Blues of Liverpool

bfcmik wrote:Bolton centre to the stadium is less than 6 miles as the crow flies or even if you walked

Tottenham were given an temporary exemption whilst their new stadium was under construction.

Not entirely sure what the map to b%st%rdland was intended to show

the distance to their spiritual home!

Its obviously not as funny if I have to explain it mind.

East Lancashire Recycling don't do hazardous waste products though

Oshkoshclaret wrote:Thankfully, we only let Paul Fletcher fantasize about developing Turf Moor, we never actually let him do it.

That office block of the Ricoh stand is like the plan for the Cricket Field Stand. Yuk!

Steve1956 wrote:Bolton,Coventry...these clubs keep going to the brink,then claw there way back for a few months then back to the brink again they bore me to tears shut them down and put them out of their misery.

Sympathy post of the week?

Football needs to make it’s mind up. Is it a business or a sport?
If a business they should go to the wall. If a sport the field needs levelling.
Ending loan deals would be a start. All transfer fees paid in full within 1 month would be even better.
That would screw Ken Andersons business model up. No more borrowing players, playing them but not paying them.

For those wanting to properly understand the situation for Coventry this is a good start -

https://ftballdna.com/2019/04/08/home-i ... -coventry/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Football DNA appeared in the last couple of weeks and has already become a respected source of good quality journalism for the game

Despite having "City" in their name they've never packed them in at their various grounds. Bit of a non-entity of a club TBH.