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 Millwall below:
Good afternoon and welcome to today’s game as we face Millwall in the Sky Bet Championship.
I would like to welcome the players, staff and officials from Millwall for our last game of the season, and our last ‘home’ game.
It will in fact be our last ‘home’ game at St Andrew’s and as I have said many times in the past, we have a huge debt of gratitude to Birmingham City Football Club for allowing us to groundshare with them at St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium for the past two seasons. Without their support in our hour of need, the Club’s very existence might have been jeopardised.
What a two years it has been here! Last season, in a campaign cut short by Covid, we were deservedly crowned League One Champions and this season we have consolidated our position as a Championship Club with a season that most people associated with the Club would have been satisfied with at the start of the season.
To everyone involved with the Blues, a massive thank you from everyone at the Sky Blues!
Since my last notes we have secured our place in the Championship for next season, and return to the Ricoh in August in the second tier of English football. This is clearly an exciting prospect for all Sky Blues supporters and the City as a whole, and this has been reflected in the Ricoh Return Membership scheme, which was capped initially at 8000 Members (25% of the stadium capacity), selling out. As a result of selling out we wanted to make a further product available for those that missed out on Phase 1, so we have introduced Phase 2 of the Ricoh Return Membership with all of the same entitlements as Phase 1 and Phase 2 members being allowed to come to games if the Government restrictions at the time allow for more than 25% of the capacity.
The demand for the Phase 2 Membership is clearly there, with Memberships selling steadily since the launch last Friday. The limit on this product will be 10,000 and only available until 31st May, at which point when allowed to do so by Government restrictions, we will put regular Season Tickets on sale – though Ricoh Return Memberships will be clearly the cheapest way to watch next season.
We look forward with excitement for next season, with lots of work to be done during the Summer on all fronts. As previously stated, we hope to start work very shortly on our own new Club Shop and Ticket Office in the South-East corner of the Ricoh Arena, which is a major project, and further developing the internal structure of the Club to meet the needs of Championship football. From a recruitment perspective, we will be looking to further improve the squad for next season and as is usually the case with our recruitment, we hope to unveil new recruits to the squad at the earliest opportunity.
I would like to thank the players and all the staff throughout the Club for their amazing efforts under extremely difficult circumstances due to the pandemic, in what I think has probably been the longest and most difficult season that I can remember. Once again, the ‘team spirit’ throughout the Club has shone through and hopefully the world can start getting back to some sort of normality for next season.
Finally, I would like to thank Sky Blues supporters for their amazing and unswerving support of the Club during this season and the pandemic. You are the heartbeat of the Club.
It remains for me to wish you a safe and enjoyable Summer. PUSB.
Dave