I have been following Coventry City since the very early 1960's when my grandfather took me to Highfield Road to watch his beloved Coventry City. He had been taken to his first football match by his grandfather to see a team called Singers. He told me he went to see the very first game that the recently renamed Coventry City played at their new stadium when City beat Shrewsbury 1-0.
For the younger fans that means my grandfather first saw Singers around 1896/7 and first went to Highfield Road in 1899.
I was about six years old when I saw my first game, but I can't say I was hooked from that day on. I do remember being scared. Once I had got over the shock of thousands of huge working men shouting, swearing and singing and a bit more searing, OK a lot more swearing, I gradually became hooked.
I am rather embarrassed to say, I cannot remember who was playing that day, or what the score was. All I can remember seeing was the back of the legs of the men in front of me and, when I was hoisted onto my grandfather's shoulders, much to the annoyance of those behind us, I saw a team in white and a team in red and white stripes.
One of my earliest and most enduring memories of Highfield Road was not the football, but the rows of invalid carriages and wheelchairs parked close to the touchline. Many of the invalid carriages were light blue and I my innocence, I though they were something to do the the club. My grandfather, a veteran of WWI and a Civil Defence volunteer in WWII in Coventry during the bombing, soon enlightened me. The men in the carriages and wheelchairs were injured or maimed servicemen of both wars.
In those days the team played in white and were still called The Bantams and I was taken to most home games for a couple of seasons. Then my dad was told his job was being relocated to a town thirty five miles from Kenilworth and we didn't have a car, so I couldn't go to many games.
I did get to a few games over the next few seasons and by this time the Jimmy Hill revolution had started and the team were now known as The Sky Blues, but the football was still very much lower league stuff, Division 3 (now known as League 1).
Heady days those were, promotion from division three in 1964 courtesy of beating Colchester United in the last game of the season to clinch the League Champions spot. I was there as a hysterical nine year old, much to the embarrassment of my grandfather and uncle and amusement of those around us, but there was little dignity among the fans that afternoon.
Anyway, time passes and I survived to adulthood and into the world of employment, but my job meant weekend work and as I was working 40 to 50 miles from Coventry couldn't always get to many games, but I still went to as many as I could on a Saturday afternoon. A season ticket was a waste of money, but in those days you could turn up and hand over a fiver or whatever it cost and get in easily.
Oh if things were as easy today.
Fast forward again a few more years. I am getting older, priorities changed. Marriage, mortgage, bills, work, all hindrances to getting to see the mighty Sky Blues, but then disaster. Well for me anyway.
A normal day at work and suddenly I am in agony. I can't move my limbs, I am having difficulty breathing, in short, I am petrified.
Long and short of it, I have fractured several vertebrae and suffered from a crushed spinal chord. I have what is known as an S.C.I. a Spinal Chord Injury. I am told I am lucky, although I don't quite see why.
All of a sudden I have gone from working hard, earning a living in agriculture and horticulture to either looking at the ceiling or examining the carpet.
Over the time I do recover the use of all of my limbs, although my legs don't always do as they are told and my arms are considerably weakened. I can walk again with the aid of sticks, but need to use a wheelchair if I am going to be 'walking' for more than a few minutes. After ten years I have come to terms with the pain and the disability.
For the first time in my life I have the time to go to The Ricoh and watch Coventry City whenever they are playing. Of course there is a fly in the ointment. Now I have the time I haven't too much spare cash as I cannot find anyone who will employ a disabled, wheelchair bound manual worker, in fact finding any employment at all is nigh on impossible. No work no wages and as we all know, watching football is no longer cheap.
However that is not the biggest problem I have to contend with. Our beloved club, a club desperate to attract more people to buy tickets, a club desperate for cash to reinvest in the club,a club that does very little to help.
Allow me to explain. I am what many fans call a stay away fan. Until my injury I was not a fair weather, or glory hunter fan, if I could get to a game I did, if not I didn't! This all changed after my injury.
Ten years ago, I tried going to see a variety of sporting events, football, rugby, cricket and back then being in a wheelchair things were very different to today. Very few venues had facilities for the disabled.
Access was difficult, very few venues had ramps, toilet facilities were non existent and for most of the time the view of the game was obliterated by people in front standing up. Quite simply I thought this is a waste of time and money and stopped going.
Then last year I went to The Ricoh and realised that things had improved drastically, so had the cost. Access into the venue was easy, although the lift was a bit on the small size and meant I had to either reverse in or out of the lift and that is not easy when you can't twist and see if you are going to run into someone.
I also went to The Stadium MK to watch a pre World Cup friendly between Ghana and Latvia. I mention this so I can make a comparison between two grounds.
I phoned the Stadium MK to enquire if they had any wheelchair spaces for the international. The phone was answered quickly by a polite girl who had to check if there were any wheelchair vacancies. Yes there were, how many did I want? I wanted three tickets, One for a wheelchair space, one for an ambulant disabled and one for the carer. I also wanted to park my car in the stadium car park, so please could I book a space and how much would it cost?
I had to pay full adult price for the two tickets for the disabled, but the carer's ticket was free. I didn't need to book a parking space, just turn up and park, no charge. If you had a disabled blue badge. The tickets arrived in the post a few days later.
I wish it was that easy at The Ricoh. Last week I tried to phone The Ricoh to see if there were any wheelchair spaces available for the Leicester game.
The first time I tried the phone rang and rang until eventually I was cut off and told to try again later, I obliged and had the same thing happen over and over until I gave up.
I briefly considered emailing the club, but decided not to because of past experience. OK I hear some of you saying I should have tried and maybe I should, but the times I have emailed the club I have either not had an answer at all, or the reply arrived too late to be of any use.
I resorted to the phone, again I was cut off and heard “please try later”, so I did and much to my surprise I actually spoke to a real live human being. “Are there any wheelchair spaces available for Saturday's game against Leicester?” Silence. Eventually she told me she didn't know!! .
Funnily enough, I had mentioned my dilemma to some friends and one of them took it on himself to enquire on my behalf and he had exactly the same response. Funny way to run a ticket office.
I don't live in Coventry, I live about 50 miles away, not too far, but that is a 100+ mile round trip and if I can't get in, it is a wasted journey. Add to that I need to dismantle my wheelchair, load it into the car, unload it at the other end reassemble it. It is an electric one and very heavy and ideally I need help with it, although I can manage on my own.
Apart from the singularly unhelpful response from The Ricoh Arena Ticket office, I need to park my car somewhere near the stadium. In the past I have parked in car park B. I don't mind paying for the convenience, it is also quite a smooth ride in my wheelchair, unlike some of the pavements and kerbs that need to be negotiated if I park the minimum of two kilometres from the stadium and with a spinal injury,that is important to me. Neither do mind being held back for a few minutes while the pedestrian traffic clears the stadium as it takes a while for me to negotiate past these pedestrians to get to my car and dismantle the wheelchair and get it into the boot.
However can I park easily in car park B (or A or C) at The Ricoh? Of course not. I have to pre book at least a week in advance and it is quite expensive to park for a couple of hours, but as I mentioned before, I don't mind that too much, but compare that to the parking at The Stadium MK where you just turn up and park for free if you have a disabled blue badge.
As for knowing if I will be able to travel on a match day, I don't really know the answer to that question until the match day, let alone over a week in advance! I can only conclude that parking for the disabled is not very user friendly.
On the plus side though, Coventry City do offer concessions for their disabled supporters and carers get in free, so credit where credit is due. It is just a pity that the wheelchair disabled have to turn up on the day and risk being turned away because the club doesn't know if there are any wheelchair spaces available. That is is bad enough being turned away if you live in Coventry, but imagine the disappointment of being turned away after driving a long way.
What about booking on line I hear you say, except if you are disabled and in a wheelchair you can't, not that I can see anyway, you have to phone.
As yet I haven't found out how much I will be charged to park and how much the entrance fee will be, so I can't say if I will have to pay more on the day because I can't pre book. All that is academic anyway. I won't be going to the Leicester game because it is too late to pre book the parking and I am not going to turn up on the off chance I will be able to get in. I can't afford to waste money on petrol, food and parking, then have to turn round and come back home again.
I don't expect special treatment because I had the misfortune to suffer such an injury, but is it too much to ask to be able to buy a ticket to a football match? Other venues don't seem to have problems so why do Coventry City?
The club desperately wants more fans coming to The Ricoh, but as far as I can tell, they are doing little to encourage fans like me, in fact it almost looks as if they are trying to discourage wheelchair bound fans. Now compare this to that at Highfield Road when I was a young lad and the club allowed hundreds of invalid carriages and wheelchair users to sit close to the touchline.
The disabled of today have it much easier than those unfortunate men did in the 1960's, but at least they got to watch a game of football on a Saturday afternoon.