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 here at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the Sky Bet Championship.
I would also like to welcome the players, staff, officials and supporters who join us from Bristol City this afternoon.
Today is our annual Remembrance fixture, where we honour and pay our tribute to Armed Forces past and present. There will be a collection for the Poppy Appeal around the ground, special matchday content and Standard Bearers and a Bugler pitchside for our Minute’s Silence. Current COVID restrictions around the pitch have reduced our service somewhat, but it is important we pay our tributes as always before the game, while players will also be wearing the Poppy on their shirts. With it being our closest game to the Coventry Blitz, we also remember all those killed and injured in November 1940 and the devastation it caused to the City. I personally think it’s vitally important that future generations remember the sacrifices made for all our futures.
Following on from my notes on Tuesday night with regard to the crowd incidents witnessed at the Derby County game, we have since seen the knock-on effect to the Club. For the forthcoming Birmingham City game, we had initially allocated Birmingham fans an away allocation of 5,000 which we have since had to reduce to 4,000 on Police advice. The lost revenue of those ticket sales along with the subsequent upgrading of Police categories for future fixtures, as well as Tuesday’s game against Swansea and today’s match, resulting in increased Policing costs, has had a significant impact.
There were no reports of any incidents at Tuesday night’s game against Swansea City and I hope that we can continue in a similar vein for the rest of the season.
On Thursday night myself and Mark Robins joined Joy Seppala and Tim Fisher in attending the 45th anniversary dinner of the Coventry City London Supporters Club. The Supporters Club also incorporates Sky Blues International, the group for our overseas fans, and they do an excellent job in providing support and liaison for these fans. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate them on reaching this milestone and wish them continued success as a Supporters Club for many years to come.
This was the first public engagement that we have been able to attend under our strict COVID regime, and whilst we are still not able to return to the normal levels of support we would like to continue to engage actively with the respective supporters groups. The rise of supporter groups pre-pandemic was in my opinion a massive part of the re-building of the Football Club and it is my belief that the supporters groups have helped bring the players and Club closer to the supporters.
Thank you as always for your continued support – enjoy the game, PUSB.
Dave