COVENTRY CITY FOOTBALL CLUB (HOLDINGS) LTD AGM BY KEV MONKS
Coventry City FC (Holdings) Ltd, tonight held their Annual General Meeting in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh Arena.
With shareholders just out-numbering the City Board which included President Mike McGinnity, the main business of the meeting lasted three minutes and thirty one seconds.
During that time, Acting Chairman Geoffrey Robinson apologised for the lack of accounts,saying that this was now a natural sequence due to on-going negotiations with the bank and that the accounts would be available in the New Year.
There were two directors have to stand down each year by rotation and both Sir Derek Higgs and Brenda Price were re-elected to the board with auditors Grant Thornton duly re-appointed.
Questions from the floor followed with the first question regarding the sale of Gary McSheffrey. Geoffrey Robinson said that he was opposed to selling Gary and the club had worked its socks off to try and keep him.
This lead to monies being available for new players when the transfer window reopens next month. Mr Robinson said that the current squad would not be added to but players on loan may be brought in.
Micky Adams was representing the club at another engagement so Adrian Heath deputised and the Assistant Manager told those assembled that City have a good chance of being in the play-offs and that he was backing Kevin Kyle to come good.
A question arose regarding the attendances at home games and it was pointed out that City's average is now 20,700 down from 21,300. Mr Robinson felt that this was a World Cup hangover and attendances generally in the division are 20-30% lower than last season.
Getting supporters to matches is a major concern to the Board and it was said that a train station looks unlikely in the foreseeable future. Plans already submitted did not envisage an Arena station being open on Saturday's! The club would however,fully support any train station on the Arena site.
There were calls for some of un-issued shares to be made available. This had last been done in 1959 but Mr Robinson said he would undertake to consider it.
The final question concerned the Academy which was helped by £50k being raised by The Sky Blue Trust in conjunction with City supporters at home and abroad. Joe Elliott thanked everyone for their support on the matter.
Some twenty minutes and forty three seconds after it started, the Annual General Meeting closed for another year.