Coventry's roller coaster ride

For years, Coventry had lived a charmed life in the top flight, pulling off a few dramatic escapes either side of a glorious FA Cup success in 1987.  I knew someone who spent a season with the club writing a book in the anticipation of relegation: they stayed up. But by May 2001, making the short trip to Aston Villa for their penultimate game, they needed a minor miracle.  It didn’t happen, but fans hoped they would soon return.

Those next 25 years saw three relegations, one administration and, worst of all, two periods of exile from their own city, forced to play their home matches in Northampton and Birmingham due to a bitter rent dispute between Coventry City Council, which part-owned the stadium, and SISU Capital, the hedge fund that bought the club in 2007.

Sky Blues fans had more than their fair share of setbacks

For a time, Coventry became the ultimate illustration of English football’s need for governance reform: playing in front of meagre crowds 35 miles away in Northampton while their own stadium stood empty. A hardcore of fans travelled to support them not from the terraces but, by way of protest, from a hill overlooking Northampton’s Sixfields ground. They were bleak times.  SISU nearly destroyed the club, whatever their intentions.

And now, to a combination of joy and disbelief, they are back, under owner and Stratford upon Avon based Doug King and the leadership of former Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard. Those years in the wilderness are behind them, but they will not be forgotten easily by the club’s supporters.

For many years their one remaining asset was the training ground at Ryton.  As I drove past it to my eldest’s home nearby it was a forlorn sight.  Now it is surrounded by high screens and there is often a knot of supporters at the gate hoping to spot players or even Lampard himself.

In 2005, five years behind schedule and four years after the jolt of relegation from the Premier League, Coventry moved from the rather dilapidated Highfield Road in inner city Coventry to a new home, initially called the Ricoh Arena.  It was part of an effort to boost North Coventry economically and socially.  As so often, the new stadium was portrayed as a symbol of a brighter future.   It staged some games in the 2012 Olympics.  It had room for trade shows, although my main memories are of covering election night counts until the early hours for BBC Coventry and Warwickshire.

The move was beset by problems from the start. Coventry had been in debt for years, compounded by relegation and the collapse of the English Football League’s (EFL) commercial deal with ITV Digital, and made only a small contribution to the construction of the new stadium. Instead, it was funded almost entirely by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs Charity, which took ownership of the Ricoh Arena in a joint venture called Arena Coventry Limited (ACL).

Under the new arrangement, Coventry were tenants, paying roughly £100,000 a month in rent (about $180,000 in 2005), with no access to catering, parking or non-matchday income.

The arrival of SISU

Rather than move on to better things, Coventry drifted. The team stagnated, the surge in attendances didn’t happen and, by 2007, the club faced the threat of administration, at which point they were bought by SISU Capital, a London-based hedge fund.   I could never work out what their strategy was although the Coventry Evening Telegraph routinely rang me up to comment.

In April 2012, Coventry were relegated again, dropping down to the third tier for the first time since 1964. But even more damaging was a rent dispute. SISU began to withhold rent payments in the hope of forcing a renegotiation. ACL offered reduced terms, but a standoff ensued. Amid threats, counter-threats and court hearings, it was, inevitably, the club and its supporters who suffered.

Coventry entered administration, citing an inability to pay the outstanding £1.3million rent bill. The threat of homelessness loomed and, shortly before the following campaign began, the club announced it would play home games in Northampton for the next three seasons, a decision the EFL approved with “deep regret”.

Coventry’s average league attendance had fallen from 21,302 in their first season at the Ricoh to 10,950 in year eight as disillusionment — and anger with the owner — grew. Now it fell to just 2,348 as thousands of fans boycotted Northampton in protest. A small group of others watched from the hill, hoping the absurdity of the situation would draw attention to the club’s plight.

An uneasy truce saw Coventry return home — if it could still be considered home — the next season. But an opportunity to buy the Ricoh was missed. Instead, the stadium was sold to Wasps, a rugby union club with no previous link to the city.   My next door neighbour switched his allegiance to the egg chasers, but they eventually effectively went bust.

In 2019, with the Ricoh dispute unresolved, Coventry were forced to relocate again to Birmingham City’s stadium. The travelling distance was ‘only’ 18 miles — and at least they were in their home county, West Midlands, not back in Northamptonshire — but the city is not, as outsiders might imagine, a satellite of Birmingham.

Against the odds, Coventry won promotion back to the Championship in a season curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2021, the club agreed a 10 year rent deal to return to the Ricoh, which was renamed the Coventry Building Society Arena shortly afterwards.    One plan that had been floated was to build a smaller stadium on land owned by Warwick University on the city’s outskirts.   (There were some complexities in this episode which I know something about, but as a former employee of the university, I need to respect confidences).

The club was sold to King who had made a fortune in commodity trading and had a clear strategy for taking the club forward, even if the introduction of Lampard as manager was not initially popular.   The club bought the stadium in a £25m deal and secured promotion to the Premier League.

Coventry had a baptism of fire in the top flight away to champions Arsenal.  The 3-0 defeat was predictable but no disgrace.   Most pundits seem to think that all three promoted clubs will go down, although they admit that the Sky Blues have the best chance of staying up.   Much depends on Lampard who could be a target for other clubs in the managerial merry go round, but seems minded to stay.