After each matchday programme, we will be publishing the 'From the Boardroom' article on our website. For Saturday's match against Cheltenham Town, Coventry City Chief Executive, Dave Boddy wrote the column and his article is published below:
"Good afternoon, today we extend a warm welcome to everybody connected with Cheltenham Town F.C and hope they enjoy their visit to the Ricoh. Cheltenham is a relative “derby” for us in a season that see’s very few local “derby’s” and I believe that it’s their first ever visit to the Ricoh.
Everybody involved with Club is delighted that Coventry won the bid to be UK City of Culture 2021. I was fortunate to be at the Belgrade last Thursday for the announcement live on the One Show and I found it both a very exciting and emotional night. We as a Club have played our part in supporting the bid. We have been involved with the bid by being a bid sponsor, introducing other companies and individuals as bid sponsors and we have promoted the bid across all of our media and social media platforms. Our Commercial Manager Tynan Scope has attended numerous functions and events supporting the bid while players past and present have alongside the Manager and staff, endorsed the bid in many different ways. We shall, of course, continue to support right the way though to 2021 and we eagerly await announcements about future plans.
Next weekend sees the experiment of Friday night football at the Ricoh, when Wycombe Wanderers are the visitors. With the last Saturday before Christmas being traditionally one of the poorest attended days of the season it will be interesting to see if Sky Blues fans have the appetite for Friday night football. We have an offer on for the game to try and encourage groups of people to come to the game, whether it be a group of work colleagues straight from work, a football or sporting team or just a group of friends. We think 10 for £10 each (or 6 to 9 for £15 each) is a fabulous offer and certainly the cheapest form of match ticket we have offered for League matches this season.
Whilst talking about pricing, some fans have questioned our pricing for the forthcoming game against Premier League Club Stoke City in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. It is the first time a Premier League team visits the Ricoh Arena since 2009. We have been able to set prices so that fans can watch us play a Premier League team at the same price as they would normally pay to watch us play a League Two team. It is not unusual to adopt a league pricing strategy for FA Cup games where higher league opposition are the visitors. Last season, Preston hosted Arsenal and charged normal league ticket prices, Plymouth hosted Liverpool (in a midweek replay) and charged normal league ticket prices, and Cambridge hosted Leeds and too charged normal league ticket prices.
Here's hoping for a great game this afternoon and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all supporters a happy Christmas and sincerely thank you for your support during 2017."
Dave Boddy