We understand some concerns from fans over the last few weeks and it is important that we address as many as we can.
Over the last five years, as the staff running the Club on a day-to-day basis, we have always sought to be as open as possible with our supporters and it is important that continues to be the case.
Club Finances:
Record Season Ticket sales and kit sales have helped hugely in generating revenue, and we thank fans for their support. This makes a big difference to the Club, both day-to-day and also having the Sky Blue Army behind the team in big numbers on matchdays. Commercial revenues generated also continue to increase, such as sponsorships. This, plus ticket revenue, has amounted to circa £1m increase compared to last season.
However, despite this great effort, the costs of competing in the Championship, squad expenses/wages and the running the Club continue to increase each season and continue to exceed these revenues. For example, running costs, steward/policing costs, necessary staffing increases and facilities investment- such as the new pitch at Ryton, which itself was circa £300k. The Club is also impacted by current ‘cost of living’ increases, such as energy costs, travel costs etc – with around £500k of cost increases on last season.
The playing/football budget for the season has increased compared to last season, by 17% – driven by contractual uplifts to players and extended contracts for players and football staff.
The lack of home games over the last few weeks has also had an impact upon our cashflow.
We must be clear with fans that we are still reliant each month on funding from the Owners to continue to subsidise our losses.
Transfer Window:
On Sunday, the sale of Dom Hyam to Blackburn Rovers was confirmed. Dom has been a tremendous servant to the Club and will continue to hold a place in the affections of fans, and we thank him for everything he has done for the Club since 2017. The decision of the Club’s board to accept the bid for Dom was very difficult and one not taken lightly. While it is never easy, it must be remembered that player trading has always been part of the model which has got us to this point and as such we have not sold a player since Sam McCallum’s move to Norwich City in January 2020.
The Club understands the disappointment that we know fans have felt at this news, but we will again work with the resources we have at our disposal to continue to try and grow your Football Club, as we have done over the last five and a half years.
The transfer window closes on Thursday night. Having added four players to the squad this Summer, we are currently working hard to bring in a replacement for Dom and will look at other options as well until the window closes, as we look to fulfil our aims as a Club and Mark Robins’ aims for the season ahead and maximise the resources we have available to us.
We continue to aim for the Club to improve its league position year-on-year, as we have done successfully over the last five years, and finish as high as possible in the Championship.
It is important to also state that we can only confirm a transfer in or out to fans once that transfer is formally completed – regardless of media speculation or posts on social media, and regardless of us wanting to be as open as we can with fans. We are also not the only Club who states fees as ‘undisclosed’ – this is contractually agreed between Clubs involved in all transfers nowadays.
Pitch:
The pitch is now safe and playable, and looking good ahead of our first home game on Wednesday night.
We apologise again to fans for inconvenience and disruption caused by the pitch issues. Prior to the Commonwealth Games we were confident that the pitch would be playable for us to begin the season, and it was only following the usage at the Games that this changed.
Following the end of the Commonwealth Games and the usage/lack of stadium access that involved, the Club is able to again be in regular dialogue with the stadium regarding the pitch and view the pitch, and we are confident the improvements made will ensure it is in a suitable condition for the rest of this season.
Coventry City are not paying any additional funds on top of our rent agreement fee to fund the pitch improvements.
While the stadium and pitch is not under our ownership or control, it is difficult to directly influence the pitch condition, though we will continue to be in constructive dialogue with the Arena.
Boxes/Lounges v Preston:
Box availability was communicated directly to those Box Holders who were affected, rather than to the wider fan base.
Some Executive Box Holders chose to post this letter on social media, which did not show the full version of the letter in some cases – for example missing the paragraphs where the Club stated they would be refunded.
The late notice for the communication to Box Holders was due to us continuing to work through the logistics with the stadium and the stadium in turn working through this with their event booking. It was a progressive process and changing situation.
For example, had we written to corporate members earlier in the week then the impact of the events was even greater on the club and our corporate members at that time. To give this its true context, last Wednesday there were still 1,285 corporate members who did not have access to the game in corporate areas and we continued to work through this with the stadium. When we wrote to Executive Box Holders on Friday we had managed to reduce this to 226. This morning that number was zero – as we managed to allocate all remaining Level 2 Executive Boxes to corporate areas.
We appreciate this may have been frustrating for Executive Box holders as the situation had changed again and we apologise for this, however it highlights the progressive and changing nature of this and that we were proactively working to accommodate as many Executive Box Holders as possible.
To be clear all Executive Box Holders have been given the opportunity to ask for a refund for this game.
New Stadium:
The long-term New Stadium project is being led by the Owners, with staff at the Club concentrating on the day-to-day running of the Football Club. We know and understand that many of our supporters are keen for a further update regarding this, and the importance of this issue, and we will share news on this as soon as we can.
Kit:
Home, Away and Third kits this season have been extremely popular and sold very well. We believe that through our work with Hummel, we have again created three kits that are iconic and great representations of our Football Club. Training wear is now available, with more items on sale soon.
Home and Away goalkeeper shirts have been incredibly popular, selling the equivalent of three seasons worth of shirts. We are currently sold out and we will let fans know when they are available.
We opened a new Shop in West Orchards Shopping Centre in July and this has proved popular with fans, and it has been great to have a retail presence in the City Centre again.
Away Tickets:
We are pleased that the away ticket scheme has worked well so far – both in terms of the points allocations/periods and also timing of on sale times/dates. We are now receiving tickets earlier from opposition clubs, and getting these on sale to our fans as soon as possible.
Tickets have been available to fans, and even fans who have not initially got the required points have been able to purchase in the General Sale periods for all games so far and build up their points for future use/priority. No games have currently sold out so far this season, though Luton Town is approaching this.
Postponements – Season Ticket Holder gesture:
The Club will be making a gesture to Season Ticket holders following the inconvenience caused by the postponements in August – this will be communicated to fans in due course.
Supporters Clubs:
The Club has put in place a new structure to formalise the way we work with various Supporters Clubs and add transparency to this – showing how Supporters Clubs support the Football Club and in turn how the Football Club then provides benefits to Supporters Club.
This has been discussed and agreed with Supporters Clubs last month and will be communicated more widely shortly.
Supporters Forum:
We are holding our Supporters Forum of the season on Tuesday night with representatives of various supporters groups. Minutes from this meeting will be available online in due course.