Coventry City, A New Ground, The Charity & The Hedge Fund
Coventry City, A New Ground, The Charity & The Hedge Fund
By Ian on Jan 18, 2025 in Finance, Latest | 0 comments
A new year has brought little respite for the increasingly beleagured supporters of Coventry City Football Club. On the pitch, the team has gone five games unbeaten since its last defeat at Swindon Town on the Saturday before Christmas, including a win against Championship opposition in the form of Barnsley in the Third Round of the FA Cup, but away from it the prospects of the club returning to the city of Coventry from its self-imposed exile in Northampton now seem to have shrunk to being a mere pin-prick on the horizon.
January started with the club's supporters trust, the Sky Blues Trust, publishing the results of Freedom of Information requests to try and establish the whereabouts of the sites that the club has been claiming that it has identified to build the new stadium that it has long promised. In an interview shortly before Christmas, Mark Labovitch – a non-executive director of the club – claimed that it was in the final stages of securing land for a new stadium and details were likely to be revealed in February, which followed confirmation from Councillor Anne Lucas, the leader of Coventry City Council, that it was time for them to "move on" from negotiations with the club's owner over the future of The Ricoh Arena.
The Sky Blues Trust issued its FoI requests to eight local councils on the twenty-fifth of March, and these requested to know, "whether they had, since 1 January 2025, taken part in any discussions, meetings or correspondence with CCFC, Otium, SISU Capital or anyone acting on their behalf, regarding development proposals within the Council's area relating to the building of a football stadium and/or any other facilities related to the business of the football club." It received six replies confirming that no approaches had been made, and a further one – from Rugby Borough Council – which confirmed as follows:
Rugby Borough Council can confirm that approximately three months ago the Leader of the Council and Executive Director met with representatives from Coventry City Football Club to discuss the club's proposals to develop a Category 2 Academy training facility within the borough. The representatives of Coventry City Football Club were informed that the proposals were unacceptable to the council and there has been no communication with the club since that meeting.
One council, however, remained coy. Nuneaton & Bedworth Council didn't reply to the request and on the ninth of January the Coventry Telegraph "exclusively" revealed that the site being looked at by the club in Exhall, on the south side of Bedworth and only a short distance
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