The latest letter sent by the Sky Blue Trust in a bid to find out answers to where Coventry City will be playing next season.
Dear Mr Collins
I am writing on behalf of the Sky Blue Trust, the largest
independent group of Coventry City supporters, with almost 3000 members.
Following the match against Cambridge United on 30 January 2018, Coventry City have only 8 League Two matches scheduled to be played at the Ricoh Arena before the end of the current season. As you may know, the agreement between the Football Club and the Arena's owners - Wasps Rugby Club, which allows such games to be played at the Arena, expires at the end of the season.
Coventry City are therefore just 8 games away from homelessness. Unless a suitable home ground, which meets all the relevant standards, can be secured before the start of the 2018/19 season, Coventry City may cease to
exist.
You may also know that Otium Entertainment Group Ltd (who trade as "Coventry City FC"), Sky Blue Sports & Leisure Ltd and ARVO Master Fund Limited are taking court proceedings against Coventry City Council and
Wasps. Following a recent preliminary Court of Appeal hearing, mediation is to take place and is due to be concluded by 28 March 2018. That may resolve the issue of the future home ground for the football club. But if it does not, by 29 March 2018, there will only be 3 home games left before
the season - and possibly the Club's very existence - ends.
Under your Chairmanship, what is now the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has carried out some powerful investigations into the state of English football. We believe that the crisis at Coventry City highlights many of the worst features of governance in our national game.
Therefore, please can you tell me what steps you could now take, as a matter of urgency, to bring about a resolution to the continuing grave uncertainty as to where Coventry City will play their home games? I hope you share the strong wish of Sky Blues fans everywhere that the Club must be enabled to play their home games in the City of Coventry beyond the end
of the current season?
I have recently written in similar terms to the following Members of Parliament for constituencies in and around Coventry:
Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East)
Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West)
Jim Cunningham (Coventry South)
Dame Caroline Spelman (Meriden)
Mark Pawsey (Rugby)
Marcus Jones (Nuneaton & Bedworth)
Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth & Southam)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry)
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford)
Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire)
Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington)
Several of those have replied to me and I gather may be considering some sort of joint initiative.
As Coventry City supporters are increasingly alarmed about the growing urgency of this matter and the apparent brinkmanship of the various parties involved, please could I have your response to this message by Saturday 10 February 2018, the date of the home game with Accrington Stanley?
Yours sincerely
Roger Ellis
Secretary, the Sky Blue Trust