Are There Any Blue Skies For Coventry City, The Club Without A Home?

The dawn of a new season is meant to be a time of excitement, hope and belief. Instead, the blue skies that had emerged last term over the city of Coventry have once again turned grey as supporters are forced to deal with the latest in a long line of frustrations.

As every other club in English football gets into the rhythm of league matches, home and away, Coventry City have been severely let down by Wasps, the owners of the Coventry Building Society Arena. Last night’s game against Wigan Athletic should have been their second home game of the season, yet instead they are still waiting to kick off their campaign in front of their own fans.

Saturday’s home game against Huddersfield also looks certain to be postponed, and it’s all due to the state of the pitch at the CBS. Over the summer, several concerts were held at the stadium before it hosted the Rugby Sevens at the Commonwealth Games. Over three days of non-stop action which saw 65 matches, the pitch was pummelled into a state of disrepair.

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But that in itself wasn’t an unforeseen issue. When Coventry signed the ten-year deal to return to the CBS last summer, they were assured the pitch would be relaid after the summer events of 2022. However, in May, Wasps went back on that initial promise.

Now, the surface at the stadium is unfit to play football on, and with Wasps kicking off their own Premiership season in mid-September, a resolution has to be found. It seems incredibly unlikely that the pitch is playable for either club by any stretch and issues for the football club are mounting up.

Coventry’s relationship with that stadium, Wasps and the council has been turbulent to say the least. Fall outs have seen the club play away from the city on two occasions, first in Northampton and then in Birmingham, where they defied the odds to win the League One title. But the ten-year deal signed last summer was meant to secure Coventry’s medium-term future in their own city.

With a record number of season ticket sales this term, the feel good factor after a 12th place finish looked set to continue, but so far those season ticket holders haven’t seen any football for their money.

However, Andy Street, the Mayor for the West Midlands brought in to be a mediator between the two parties, is confident a solution has now been found. In a statement he said:

"A number of conversations have since taken place and I'm pleased to confirm that progress has been made. City and Wasps appear to have found a solution for this season, and I hope that Championship football can resume at the CBS as quickly as possible.”

However, for the Sky Blues it never feels like they are more than a moment from more chaos. This latest turmoil has now seen Simon Jordan publicly state on talkSPORT his interest in buying the club having formerly owned Crystal Palace, but owners SISU are unlikely to give up on the club without seeing a decent level of return on their investment. The relationship between much-maligned owners SISU, who bought the club in 2007 and the Coventry fans has improved drastically, as knowledgable footballing people such as Dave Boddy and Mark Robins have helped turn the club around from the dark days of League Two.

But that doesn’t mean the club is stuck in the grasps of owners that have now been involved in the club for 15 years. There have been hints that SISU are now ready to sell up and Jordan’s comment of “It is in play,” would suggest that they are closer than ever before to leaving the city.

But Coventry’s main issue is still the stadium, of which they currently own no part. Wasps bought 100% of the ground in late 2014 and that means, as we have seen this summer, they can decide exactly what events take place at the stadium. The football club, which the ground was built for, has become a second citizen in its own home, and now they are paying the price for being tenants rather than owners.

But when you are a tenant, the landlord is responsible for keeping your home in working order. Wasps have struggled to keep to that agreement and all signs point towards them being in serious financial trouble, with the move to the city having backfired drastically in the past few years. The novelty of having a Premiership side in Coventry has worn off, and total attendances have dropped from a total of 234k in 2016/17 to 177k in 2018/19, and now after the pandemic, last season’s total was just 119k.

Season ticket sales are through the floor, and there is simply no desire for Wasps to be in the city anymore. It’s still a great arena for sport, as the Commonwealth Games showed, so there is money to be made, but the football club needs to own part of it to progress.

This is where new owners could help. The relationship between SISU, Wasps and the council is seemingly beyond repair but a fresh face at the table, with some extra cash to invest, could help all parties. Wasps need financial help, that is for sure, so selling a portion of the arena could keep them afloat. Meanwhile, part-ownership would allow Coventry to have some say over the events at the stadium and most importantly, actually allow them to play home games in the city and have a permanent home.

But blue sky thinking isn’t going to help the Sky Blues out of their current mess. A short-term solution, the pitch being relayed, looks likely to be announced soon, but only long-term ownership of the CBS will prevent this happening again. Coventry City belongs to Coventry. It’s time that their permanent home became theirs again.