The club would like to reassure fans about our right to play in the Ricoh Arena and the club's future plans...
We want to update you on our plans for the future and reassure you about our right to play in the Ricoh Arena in light of the ongoing press coverage about the sale of the stadium to the Wasps.
We, like you, know nothing about any deal between Coventry City Council and Wasps, other than what has been reported in the press. We've not been contacted about this deal and Coventry City Council’s decision to engage with Wasps has triggered a pre-emption right for the Council which means that the Council will engage with parties other than the club in trying to sell the stadium.
But, we can reassure you that we have a deal with the Ricoh which secures CCFC's right to play our home games up until the end of the 2015/16 season, with an option to extend for a further two years. This means, if the deal goes ahead with Wasps, we have a contractual right to play our home games at the Ricoh.
However, we share your concerns about the potential effect on the club and specifically how the pitch will be kept up to a standard required for our style of play and we need to know that the club will not be adversely affected by any change in ownership of the Arena. That is why, with the support and representation of Fans' Groups including the Sky Blues Trust and the Supporters Consultative Group, we’ve written an open letter to the city's counsillors outlining our joint concerns and we've also approached the Chief Executive of the Wasps RFC to express similar concerns.
None of this changes the fact that we remain totally determined to deliver a strong and stable long-term future for the club and you, our fans. For the first time in years, we are pleased to say the club is financially stable thanks to hard work, tough and sometimes unpopular decisions.
We share your ambitions for Coventry City Football Club. We want to see the club succeed on and off the pitch and this requires long-term planning to build a sustainable and solid club. As part of this commitment, we will develop and progress local talent through our Academy to the first team.
We also want to ensure that the club is a community asset as the community is the source of our support and we want to build on the great work of the Sky Blues in The Community by attracting the next generation of Sky Blues’ supporters through their many initiatives and programmes.
But, if we are to make this happen we must own our stadium. We need access to our own revenues not just on match days but every other day as this is the only way we can only achieve a strong and stable financial base that will enable us to compete successfully with other football clubs.
We realise you are frustrated on the lack of information on the new stadium plans but we simply can’t discuss the details of our latest stadium development plans for commercial reasons. However, this potential deal with Wasps shows how important it is that we take control of our own destiny when it comes to stadium ownership.
We want to deliver our vision of a 21st century facility that a proud and successful club, its players and its fans, should have. You, through the stadium forum, will be at the heart of our plans.