COVENTRY CITY FC (HOLDINGS) LTD EGM BY KEV MONKS
Coventry City held an Extra-ordinary General Meeting tonight at the Arena.
With around thirty shareholders in the audience looking on,the top table comprised of Geoffrey Robinson (Chair),Mark Taylor (Auditor from Grant Thornton),Paul Fletcher, Joe Elliott, Ken Sharp,Mel Branigan and first team manager Micky Adams.
Apologies were received from Sir Derek Higgs.Brenda Price and Mike McGinnity who was on holiday.
The main business to discuss the long awaited accounts of year ending May 31st 2005 lasted all of three minutes,thirty seconds with no questions from the floor.
Geoffrey Robinson then made a statement saying that he took over due to Mr McGinnity suffering a heart attack in November and the club 22nd in the league.
Like the team,the fortunes of the club turned around and negotiations with the bank mean that City have sufficient funding for the on-going year although the club will have to trade within banking limits.
For those who don't know, Geoffrey Robinson is the major shareholder in the club and along with Sir Derek Higgs owns around 70% of the shares.
His major objective for the club was to be able to purchase the 50% share of the Arena currently owned by the Higgs Trust. Getting promoted to the Premiership would enable the club to do this as would big gates and outside investment. He hoped for a top six spot as well.
Mr Robinson felt that with no Chief Executive, that a new management team needed to be brought in and brought in Messrs Fletcher, Sharp and Branigan.
Joe Elliott then spoke about the Bond Holder scheme,saying there had been no serious investment in the club for some considerable time. He was pleased to report that the scheme had been well received with five new Bond Holders and another nine showing interest for the medium to long term. He reiterated his willing to speak to anyone wherever they are in the world about this scheme which will add to the buying power Micky Adams now has.
It was raised from the floor about the rent City as principal tenants are paying to ACL and although no agreement had been reached,the signs were positive that the figure the club were looking at was achievable.
City have moved the Academy offices back to Ryton and the U18's will now train there,so Micky,Alan Cork etc can keep an eye on their progression. Young players accommodation will also be re-introduced.
The future of the training ground at Ryton looks safe unless there is a large capital sum offered or the offer of a suitable venue arises.
Other questions from the floor included plans to close part of car park C. Ken Sharp said that the car parks would be divided into three sections marked A,B and C. The scheme means an extra 150 cars are able to use the car parks at the ground.
Another included changes to the ground to save supporters having to wade through hoards of away supporters and avoid the trouble which occurred a number of times last season. The club are working on plans to move the away supporters towards the Main Stand, keeping them between thirty and forty metres away from the "naughty corner" rather than the current ten to twelve metres.
Micky Adams was asked what he hopes to achieve in the forthcoming season. Adams sporting a fine suntan said that he had strengthened the side in all areas bar one which was in progress. He wanted the side to be competitive and wanted to push on. He added that in order to have the ground full, we need a good product on the pitch. He was unable to say how long it would take his new players to gel but said that we'll give anybody a game.
I asked about the future of the reserve side which is no longer in the FA Premier Reserve League. Micky said that he was against using players from the U18's up to three times a week in matches, especially if they were to enter the old Central League and have to travel to the likes of Preston and Burnley.
Financially, it was a burden on the club as well and it was his request that the reserves play fixtures as and when on a friendly rather than league basis and all at training grounds.
This is something I support. Now granted that watching City Reserves last season was by and large an enjoyable experience, even if it did mean trips to Norwich, Portsmouth and Southampton, but these trips are expensive as is hosting a home game which has to be on a ground up to a certain standard. I asked that thanks be passed onto Alan Cork,Darren Robinson and Brian Borrows of the U18's for the good work achieved last season.
After 43 minutes and 54 seconds the meeting came to a close.