Coventry City's chairman Ray Ranson has issued a plea to all absent Coventry City fans to return to the fold and boost the numbers in the stands at The Ricoh Arena.
Average gates at The Ricoh this season are 17,344 which is well short of the current predicted break even gate of around 23,000.
It is Ray Ranson's hope that the recent upturn in form will encourage some fans to return to The Ricoh this season. He is also hopeful that the new signings will prompt fans to buy their season ticket for next season.
Already this year the club has made some exciting signings, players who have made a positive impact and have helped to produce a recent good run of form resulting in climbing the league table up to tenth.
Carl Baker and the combative Gary Deegan, have already made a big impression on the supporters. Jon Stead impressed on his first start for Coventry in the win over Crystal Palace and will be hopeful of making further good impressions in Saturday's home game against Scunthorpe.
Richard Wood has worked well with fellow defender James McPake and the two defenders have the makings of an effective partnership. The other two loan signings, Leon Barnett and Freddy Sears have added further options to Chris Coleman's thinking and give him, for the first time for a while, some strength in depth to cover for injuries and suspensions.
Mr Ranson hopes that with improved gate receipts, there will be further funds made available to Chris Coleman to strengthen his squad still further. The team is still not quite complete in Coleman's mind, a situation which should be rectified in the summer.
Mr Ranson said, “It’s been a very busy couple of months and when you add on the signings we made last January and then in the summer, there are a lot of new faces here at the Ricoh. We knew it was going to take four or five transfer windows to put together the type of squad that Chris Coleman wanted and I would say we are very close to achieving that now.
“When it comes to buying and selling players, all we want is the best for Coventry City and it is only by getting a successful team on the pitch that we will achieve our aim of challenging for a place in the top six in the Championship and, ultimately, getting into the Premier League.”
So far, since next years season tickets went on sale the club have sold over 1,500 tickets and Mr Ranson is hopeful that that the new faces and good run of form will encourage further season ticket sales saying, .“We need our season ticket holders to renew for next season to help us plan for the summer and it would be good to get more fans to the Ricoh between now and the end of the season.”
Mr Ranson continued, “It makes a massive difference both on and off the field and it has been great to see so many people renew already. It is important that supporters continue to commit to the club. That’s why in all our meetings where we set budgets, we have made it a priority to keep season ticket prices as attractive as we possibly can because we need to keep growing the number of regular supporters each season if we are to progress further. When I think about the club we inherited just over two years ago and where we are today, we have taken massive strides but we want to continue that progress and need the fans behind us.
“No disrespect to Scunthorpe, but that is traditionally one of our lowest gates and it would be great for those coming along on Saturday to really get behind the players and cheer them on to another victory.”