We must mow our own grass
Over the last twelve months, our football club has lurched, both on and off the field, from one difficulty to another. Relegation, already looking probable at the turn of the year, became a stark reality and with all the attendant financial implications that go with it. And, despite the now annual change of manager, the prospect of a return to the Championship may yet be some way beyond the next corner. However, for all the incredible goings-on at a handful of other clubs, Coventry City remains in business. News on the financial front appears in certain respects to have improved, and there is the prospect even of repossessing half of the turf we play on. Or is there?
The football club and ACL appear locked in an interminable dispute over rent for the use of the Ricoh Arena. To those of us who travel hundreds of miles regularly to support the club and, indirectly, the city to which it belongs, we perceive the squabbling with ever-growing incredulity.
Outsiders some of us may be, but nearly half-a-century ago we were witnesses to the recovery of a great city, and how that recovery was given such potent expression by the vision and dynamism of Derrick Robins and Jimmy Hill and by the Sky Blue revolution we have recently been recalling.
Coventry is a city that over the centuries has regularly needed to adapt and rediscover its identity, a city which has been savagely attacked and in recent years has been at the focus of industrial decline.
Again in 1987, the wonderful achievements of the local football team transcended the life of the city and its people.
The Ricoh Arena is a splendid sight as you approach from the motorway, a great multi-purpose stadium at the heart of England - venue for Olympic Games, other international football, rugby union, concerts, exhibitions and more. But not a great deal more.
Where would the Ricoh Arena be without its regular major tenant? This marriage is intrinsic to the community. Where would the catering contracts be, the rent deals? Whether it’s 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 people visiting the Arena every fortnight, that’s a mountain of pies, an ocean-full of drinks.
The football club do not expect to play at the Ricoh for free. And they are not playing there for free.
The popular myth is that the club has ceased to pay anything at all since March. This is complete nonsense. It has continued to pay match day costs, previously included in the rent, in full on a match-by-match basis to ACL. Over a year, that represents well over £200,000 or double what a typical League One club pays in rent.
Not a single penny you and I spend at the Ricoh Arena, other than on our ticket and programme, goes to the football club. With the reality of Financial Fair Play almost upon us, the club’s inability to demonstrate a sufficient sale of chips and cokes etc on its balance sheet will undermine its right to compete for decent players – a major reason why the club aspires to buy back the Higgs Trust half of the stadium.
A city needs its shrines - of religion, learning, culture and sport. And Coventry has them aplenty. It also needs those centres that are the expression of the multi-cultural diversity of the city. The Ricoh Arena is one of Coventry’s most significant totems.
This squalid bickering has got to stop. We are where we are, for all the dreadful mistakes and errors of judgement that may have been made. ACL and the football club must resolve their issues for everybody’s sakes.
Five goals in twenty-seven minutes at Hartlepool and a steady flow of improving results is worthy of cheer. Mark Robins is making progress. The future, in any sense, is far from ensured. But there are at least the seeds of some conviction.
There is no better yardstick than relegation for sorting out genuine fans from fair-weather ones. But for City supporters, having endured so many years of such abject disappointment, relegation brought with it a new view. Suddenly, we were in a humbler home but one where we hoped we really might be able to mow the grass at last. Our neighbours were new and unfamiliar. There have been new maps, new grounds, new stations and new pubs to explore.
It may seem odd, even distasteful, to report that this has been quite an exciting time to be a member of CCLSC. We have rediscovered some of the sense of adventure that accompanied our Saturdays in far-off days.
There is one fervent wish I carry into 2013. That is for a healthy resolution to the seemingly intractable problems of Coventry City and the Ricoh Arena. This great stadium must be enabled to become the real home of this great football club. One of the solutions to the undoubted difficulties of ACL lies in a shared responsibility and common sense of purpose with the football club.
Jonathan Strange, Deputy Chair of the Supporters Consultative Group, Chair of Coventry City London Supporters Club and Sky Blues International