After each matchday programme this season, we publish the regular column from the Coventry City board on our website. You can read Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy's column our game against Bristol City below:
Good afternoon and welcome to today’s game as we face Bristol City in the Sky Bet Championship.
I would like to take this opportunity to also offer a warm welcome to the players, staff and officials who join us at St Andrew’s today from Bristol City.
Ashton Gate was our destination for our first game of this season on our return to the Championship. We suffered a rude awakening, going behind in less than 15 seconds and my abiding memory of it was the thought: ‘Welcome to the Championship’. We fought our way back into the game and acquitted ourselves well for the remainder of the game, and from that point adapted well to life in the Championship.
We went on sale with our Membership product just prior to my last notes against Wycombe, and at the time of writing ahead of going on General Sale on Good Friday, the uptake from priority holders had been well in excess of 4,500.
As we’ve stated in launching the Membership product again, at the time it was our belief that, despite the Prime Minister’s roadmap to a June 21st return to normality, there was no certainty that we would return to full capacities in August.
Last week the EFL held a webinar for all Clubs with Public Health England, who confirmed our thoughts in indicating that full capacity crowds are unlikely to return before October/November. As with the Prime Minister’s roadmap leading to the 21st June, there are lots of different factors that can affect that but at this moment in time that seems a likely and prudent position.
This underlines the need for a cautious approach to the selling of Memberships that we have undertaken, limiting numbers to 8000 – which represents 25% of the Ricoh Arena capacity.
Inclusive of the 8000 Membership ceiling are the Club’s corporate products, which are also proving very popular. The 42 available Executive Boxes at the Ricoh Arena sold-out before being put on General Sale and likewise our other corporate lounges and products are proving ever popular.
We have also re-introduced seasonal dining in the form of the Platinum Dining Club, which will happen in the Premier Lounge, with seating on the balcony in the West Stand. The general buzz and level of excitement both with the announcement of our return to the Ricoh Arena and subsequent Membership sales is there for all to see and we are as a Club delighted with the response so far.
Work on planning for next season is continuing, including for the building work required for the new Club Shop and the Ticket Office in the South East corner of the Ricoh Arena. We hope to create an excellent joint venue for these operations, really putting our identity on the stadium again and providing an important resource for our fans to support our Club through. We hope to have this open in July, and will keep fans updated on our progress.
Thanks for your support – as always PUSB.
Dave