A wide range of Coventry City supporters have taken part in the first CCFC Stadium Forum...
The first meeting of the CCFC Stadium Forum committee, chaired by local businesswoman Sandra Garlick, has taken place.
Sandra has put together a committee of people of varying age groups and backgrounds on the back of two open meetings earlier in the year.
The forum has been assembled to advise Coventry City of what supporters want from the new stadium the club is planning to build so it can return to the Coventry area.
Garlick said: “The committee is made up of a wide range of supporters - some young, some more experienced. Some are Season Ticket holders, some don’t go to Sixfields and one member of the committee stands on the hill!
“We’ve also got two additional slots on the committee – one that will be shared by supporters groups such as members of the Supporters Consultative Group including the Sky Blues Trust. The other will be for organisations such as Sky Blues in the Community and the Former Players’ Association.
“It’s absolutely vital that all views are heard and that everyone knows they are getting a say.
“The first meeting was very much a ‘getting to know you’ exercise but we did have the chance to discuss how we imprint the club’s history on the stadium, how it becomes a community hub and leisure facility and transportation.
“Ultimately, we want to get across what it means to be a Coventry City fan and how we make this new stadium home.”
Tim Fisher, chief executive of Coventry City Football Club, was invited to join the meeting for the final half-an-hour to answer questions on the new stadium.
It was put to him that a 12,000 starting capacity would not be enough.
He said: “This has been presented to me a few times so we’ve spoken to the architect and we are going to look to increase that to at least 15,000 as a starting point.
“Of course, the ambition is to be in the Championship at the point when we open the new stadium, so we might then look to go even further in terms of opening capacity.
“But the reason we are going for the type of design we are looking at is the flexibility of capacity. We are balancing economics with the atmosphere of the stadium and that is why this feedback is so vitally important.”
In attendance at the meeting were:
David Busst (SBiTC)
Jonathan Strange (SCG)
Nigel Warren
Ravinder Takhar
Jim Brown
Simon Smith
Pat Raybould
George Ireland
Ben Evans
John McQuillan
Michael Garlick