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 from our game against Watford below:
Good afternoon and welcome to the Coventry Building Society Arena for today’s game as we host Watford.
I would also like to welcome the players, staff, officials and supporters who have made the trip to the Arena today in support of Watford.
Today’s game is the final fixture for us before the international break, which brings to a conclusion the first section of the season – and a very busy period at the Club.
This week has seen the launch of a new Superstore in the South-West corner of the Arena. This provides a considerably larger retail presence for the Club at the Arena and the Superstore itself is a smart and modern designed space which is befitting Coventry City. Fans will already see a greater range of items in the Superstore, which will continue over the coming weeks and months as new ranges and products become available.
Our retail department has been working tirelessly on this move and also the dispatch of home shirt pre-orders over the last seven days too. As we have explained, the delay to launching the kit, which followed the elongated 22/23 season and change of sponsor, made the timelines for dispatch extremely tight. There have been issues outside of the Club’s control which has affected these timelines, and when they are as tight as they were already, there is no flexibility in the dates to avoid a knock on effect to supporters, which is regrettable. In previous years we have launched kits in May/June, with kits going on sale in June/July, and we expect to do that again in future.
It is clear that the increase in Season Tickets and sales of other items such as kit is a positive thing for the Football Club and it is great to see. However, it does create challenges and logistical issues that it is important that we overcome.
To that end, investment is being made to increase the number of staff and adjust our structure to adapt to these needs. For many years the Club has been understaffed and we have all had to do multiple roles at one time and long hours to ensure the Football Club has kept going.
However now we are able to create new roles at the Club and fans will hopefully see the effect of this over the coming months as these roles are filled and announced. This includes the role of Chief Operating Officer, which is an important role and who will oversee Matchday Operations/Experience and Operations at Ryton – including aspects such as Stewarding/Policing, Safeguarding, HR, Regulatory compliance and Grounds/Facilities. There are also other roles we are filling including in Supporter Services, the Academy, First-Team support structure and other areas which will be advertised in due course, as we look to ensure that Coventry City’s staffing structure is suitable for a Championship club of our stature and fanbase. By creating these roles, it will allow both new and existing staff to be focused on their main roles – rather than juggling multiple tasks – and create a better experience for fans who engage with us.
We are also working closely with the Arena to make further improvements to the matchday experience for supporters, with further branding planned, and also improvements being made to the Family Zone and also the new fans village, plus working with the Arena to promote offers such as their ‘Warm Up’ – which has cheaper food and drink for the first half hour of opening.
There is much work happening on and off the field at your Football Club and we look forward to you continuing to see improvements over the coming weeks and months.
Thanks for your support – enjoy the game. PUSB.
Dave