According to Norman Smurthwaite who owns Liberty Way Stadium, he has no conversation with Coventry City about the Sky Blues playing in Nuneaton next season.
Rumours have re-surfaced about City playing matches at the current home of Nuneaton Borough and there are concerns about City playing any matches at a ground that will need improvement both in stadia and transport links if it were to be brought up to Football League standard.
City supporting Smurthwaite, told the Coventry Telegraph:“I have never spoken to anyone at Coventry about it.
“The only time I spoke to Coventry was when they arranged a pre-season game against Derby County in the summer and I have not spoken to anyone since that game.
“I can assure you I’ve not had dialogue with Dave Boddy (City’s chief executive) other than over that game, so there’s no truth in it whatsoever.
“I know the Football League wouldn’t agree to coming to Liberty Way because when I bought the ground they made it quite clear at that point that if that was the plan then they wouldn’t allow it.
“But that wasn’t my plan. The plan was to help Nuneaton Borough but it doesn’t seem to have done any good at all.
“It’s not big enough, although it would be if Coventry wanted to put a 25,000 seater stadium there.
“It has the space to do that.
“But it’s outside the city limits so I don’t think it would be allowed.”
Smurthwaite thinks that City's tenure at the Ricoh Arena will be resolved and said: “They will resolve it.
“I can’t believe that they won’t find a compromise.
“I think they’ll leave it to the last minute and strike a deal to stay at the Ricoh and “I think both will give in a bit
“Americans seem to love pursuing things through the courts. It seems to be a cultural thing that we don’t get, the obvious reason being the cost.
“If I was Wasps any agreement would be conditional.
“But they will be at the Ricoh. I can’t see them going to Northampton again because it was too disruptive.”
“What I think Coventry should consider doing is selling Ryton and using Nuneaton as a training facility.
“That would work.
“It’s got the space and it wouldn’t take much to put something in place, building structure wise.
“Ryton has a reasonable property value and it would enable the owners to bring back some of the money they are owed from their mis-management in the past or their decision to buy a football club in the first place.”
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