City Issue Rentgate Statement

Last updated : 27 November 2012 By Covsupport News Service

Coventry City have issued a statement in response to the comments made by Arena Coventry Limited over the rent row and current stalemate with Ricoh Arena owners Arena Coventry Limited.

CEO Tim Fisher said in a press statement: "Coventry City's long standing financial issues have been a result, in part, of having to pay levels of rent significantly higher than most football clubs whilst also not benefiting from stadium match day revenues such as food and beverage, as other clubs which rent their stadia routinely do.

The overall transaction with ACL was designed to address these problems which put Coventry City at a severe disadvantage compared to most other clubs.

The club continues to pay match day costs, previously included within the rent, in full on a match-by-match basis to ACL. On a full-year basis, this will exceed more than £200,000 or double what a typical League One club pays in rent. We appreciate that ACLs financial position must be particularly fragile at the moment, especially given its very high debt levels, the recent withdrawal of multiple stand sponsorships and the upcoming drop in naming rights revenue. However, the club remains committed to continuing our negotiations to put things on a normalised financial and business footing. Sisu continue to fund the club whilst these negotiations progress.

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