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 Swansea City below:
Good evening and welcome to today’s game as we host Swansea City at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the Sky Bet Championship.
We extend a warm welcome to the players, travelling supporters and officials of the Swans and hope that they enjoy their first visit here since 2011. In particular I’d like to welcome their Chief Executive Julian Winter and another guest of the Club tonight Steve Hughes, Chief Executive of Coventry Building Society, who is a massive Swans fans.
It was deeply disappointing to witness the crowd incidents we had within the stadium against Derby County last Saturday, which continued outside the stadium. We as a Football Club have worked extremely hard to get the Club back into Coventry and into the Arena and to help build the atmosphere and experience on our home matchdays, which thus far have been outstanding. We will not tolerate the behaviour of a small minority who seemed to be hell bent on causing trouble. Anybody proven to be involved in the troubles against Derby County via CCTV footage will be banned from attending matches home and away, and in some cases for life. There is a full investigation ongoing into what happened, involving ourselves, the Police and the stadium, and we will look at any lessons that can be learnt.
We have had questions asked about levels of policing at games, so I would like to clarify how this works. The policing category for every game which dictates how much Police resource is applied to a game is initially agreed during the pre-season and then reviewed between myself and our dedicated West Midlands Police Football Officer around 6 weeks ahead of the fixture, based on a stringent Police categorisation system – this is based on anticipated level of home and away supporters, and any intelligence that might go with it. Once the categories are finalised, the Club is committed to paying for that Police resource and for the Police to deliver that resource on the day. On Saturday, we had more than ample Police resource at the Stadium.
We are thrilled with the news that we have reached 11,000 Season Ticket holders and I would like to thank everyone who has purchased. To have so many supporters committing to a Season Ticket gives the Club a real platform to build from, this year and hopefully in the future.
The support for the team and for the Club from our fans this season has been superb, with a fantastic atmosphere being created by the Sky Blue Army as they get behind their team. Fans can still purchase a Season Tickets until Midnight on Friday and secure their seat for the remaining 15 games after tonight. It would be an incredible achievement to surpass the 1970-71 total of 11,500, and that is the next target that we have.
Since my last notes we have launched our Third Kit for the 2021/22 season, which we wore for the first time at Hull City on Saturday afternoon. Once again, our ‘design committee’ have pushed the boundaries and created a shirt that has been incredibly well received and the early sales have confirmed that. The combination of the 2 Tone style and nod to the famous tramlines shirts of the 70s has combined to create another iconic kit.
Thank you as always for your support – enjoy the game, PUSB.
Dave