Coventry City .... fiasco
Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 9:10 am
I've only really viewed Coventry as a club who punched above its weight for twice as long as we did, one who redefined the concept of escaping relegation by the skin of its teeth for year after year after year.
Famed for its Chairman being Jimmy Hill, some pretty dodgy strips atop a generally rather pleasant sky-blue, their pitch having its grass cut in circular fashion and some dubious strokes being pulled (like kicking off a final game of the season, where they were yet again on the precipice of relegation, 20 min later than everyone else due to crowd safety' reasons and so knowing they only needed a draw in the final few minutes).
I always felt that if they lost their top league status they could plummet ... and they did ... really quite spectacularly.
However, I've sort of taken my eye of them in recent seasons ... noting they went into Division 3 and were struggling there, watching take-over after take-over. The Ray Ransome fronted sagas. Their really very impressive new Ricoh Arena is as fine a new stadium as any. I knew they'd had financial issues, but I was oblivious to their extremity and to the current position.
So, today, I was taken aback to read that they were in dispute with the owners of the Ricoh. That the ground had been re-mortgaged, that the club was in Administration and some dodgy splitting of the business meant the left hand, literally, didn't know what the right hand was doing and that they were looking to exit the Ricoh (which would then do what, I ask ?!?!?) and build a new one (another ?) this time outside Coventry as the Council won't give planning permission for another in the city boundary (I assume accompanied by "... there's a perfectly good one already" sort of remarks.
New owners are sought and it looks like a consortium of more or less the people who've just fckd it all up have won that chase.
In the 3 years that will take to build they are now planning to play 36 miles away at the 7,500 capacity Northampton Town ground ... presumably to gates of 5,000 or so normally.
Sheesh ... we should count ourselves blessed.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/c ... an-4865748" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2 ... oventry-fc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Famed for its Chairman being Jimmy Hill, some pretty dodgy strips atop a generally rather pleasant sky-blue, their pitch having its grass cut in circular fashion and some dubious strokes being pulled (like kicking off a final game of the season, where they were yet again on the precipice of relegation, 20 min later than everyone else due to crowd safety' reasons and so knowing they only needed a draw in the final few minutes).
I always felt that if they lost their top league status they could plummet ... and they did ... really quite spectacularly.
However, I've sort of taken my eye of them in recent seasons ... noting they went into Division 3 and were struggling there, watching take-over after take-over. The Ray Ransome fronted sagas. Their really very impressive new Ricoh Arena is as fine a new stadium as any. I knew they'd had financial issues, but I was oblivious to their extremity and to the current position.
So, today, I was taken aback to read that they were in dispute with the owners of the Ricoh. That the ground had been re-mortgaged, that the club was in Administration and some dodgy splitting of the business meant the left hand, literally, didn't know what the right hand was doing and that they were looking to exit the Ricoh (which would then do what, I ask ?!?!?) and build a new one (another ?) this time outside Coventry as the Council won't give planning permission for another in the city boundary (I assume accompanied by "... there's a perfectly good one already" sort of remarks.
New owners are sought and it looks like a consortium of more or less the people who've just fckd it all up have won that chase.
In the 3 years that will take to build they are now planning to play 36 miles away at the 7,500 capacity Northampton Town ground ... presumably to gates of 5,000 or so normally.
Sheesh ... we should count ourselves blessed.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/c ... an-4865748" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2 ... oventry-fc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
