Article: What Caused the Downfall of Coventry City Football Club? (3 Viewers)

CovKingChris · Mar 20, 2011

You can view the page at http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/content/23-What-Caused-the-Downfall-of-Coventry-City-Football-Club

sky_blue_up_north · Mar 20, 2011

Sort off, but in my opinion, the reason we are in dire straights today was down to spending the money that Highfield Road was sold for, rather than ring fencing it for the new stadium. Yes players bought may have been part of the problem, but lets not forget we sold Robbie Keane for £13 Million!!

Tonylinc · Mar 20, 2011

I think that HR was sold many years before that and the club had an "indefinate" lease back agreement. I think all the money from that agreement was spent trying to keep us in the Prem.(apart from the sums that went directly to Mr. Richardson)

TheParsonsHose · Mar 20, 2011

Highfield road was re-mortgaged twice and we were tennents for some years once sold. Selling the club to the landlords cost us millions in itself as by the time we left the land was worth much more.....fekin stupid.

Nick · Mar 20, 2011

Where did the money go for the ground? Was it on players?

AmyandAdamsDad · Mar 20, 2011

A SEVEN YEAR OLD ARTICLE........

The Big Question

For Coventry fans the burning question that arose when the club was relegated was 'Where has all the money gone?' The club was reported to be £63M in debt, the ground had been sold and rapidly the best players followed in a desperate attempt to reduce the wage bill. Chairman Bryan Richardson was sacked and vowed to sue. The club counter-sued and, eventually, Mr Richardson's shares were sold to a fellow director in return for a 'non-disclosure' deal. Coventry in 2004 are existing on their youth policy and loan signings. The fans, however, want more and it will be interesting to see how they are to be appeased. Will some 'fairy god-father' appear and buy success for the club? Will they have to fall further before they can climb? Or will some new messianic figure arise to, once more, lead the faithful to the promised land? Down the years the club have proved to be innovators of many of the good things in football repeatedly, and provided a target for every 'small' club in the land to emulate.

derbyskyblue · Mar 21, 2011

What caused the downfall of my club? Hmm, now ive thought about this a lot. Was it bryan richardson?,gordon strachan? No!!! In my mind the guilty party is sky. The premier league encouraged all clubs to chase an impossible dream, only achievable if you are man u, arsenal or chelsea. The last winners of the old 1St div before sky were leeds utd (who were a 2nd division club a couple of seasons before that). Notts forest gained promotion and then won the 1st division the following season as well as two european cups on the bounce( thats champions league for the younger ones). Sky have made it so only man u, arsenal or chelsea can win the premiership. No team will ever get promotion from this league and go on to greater things. Never. We all wanted to see great football at highfield road and the invicibles provided that with hadji chippo and mcallister, not forgetting keane, but i believe we are still paying the price of that impossible dream.

redsox · Mar 21, 2011

It was not just one thing and perhaps us mere mortal fans may never know the full story. My impression was that when Big Ron arrived he changed the make up of the squad from a bunch of battlers who would fight to save the club no matter what to a ,perhaps more talented, but less battle hardy bunch. A lot of money was spent , if memory serves me correctly, for a very little return. When he was 'moved upstairs', the angry ginger Scot with little management experience probably had to make changes. Maybe he made too many, I don't know. It probably is a little unfair to put all the blame at his door as I think maybe the rot had already set in before Strachan took over.

derbyskyblue · Mar 21, 2011

redsox said:
It was not just one thing and perhaps us mere mortal fans may never know the full story. My impression was that when Big Ron arrived he changed the make up of the squad from a bunch of battlers who would fight to save the club no matter what to a ,perhaps more talented, but less battle hardy bunch. A lot of money was spent , if memory serves me correctly, for a very little return. When he was 'moved upstairs', the angry ginger Scot with little management experience probably had to make changes. Maybe he made too many, I don't know. It probably is a little unfair to put all the blame at his door as I think maybe the rot had already set in before Strachan took over.

A lot of money was spent, and a whole lot more came in thru sales of players. But it all went on wages for average (at best) players who really only looked for there next payday. As for the rot, that set in when sky took over.

SkyBlueMania · Mar 21, 2011

derbyskyblue said:
What caused the downfall of my club? Hmm, now ive thought about this a lot. Was it bryan richardson?,gordon strachan? No!!! In my mind the guilty party is sky. The premier league encouraged all clubs to chase an impossible dream, only achievable if you are man u, arsenal or chelsea. The last winners of the old 1St div before sky were leeds utd (who were a 2nd division club a couple of seasons before that). Notts forest gained promotion and then won the 1st division the following season as well as two european cups on the bounce( thats champions league for the younger ones). Sky have made it so only man u, arsenal or chelsea can win the premiership. No team will ever get promotion from this league and go on to greater things. Never. We all wanted to see great football at highfield road and the invicibles provided that with hadji chippo and mcallister, not forgetting keane, but i believe we are still paying the price of that impossible dream.

derby sky blue, it may not be the only reason why we are where we are as a club, but it is why football has lost its soul. Sky produced the now famous 'Top 4', and thanks to Sky the only way in to them is with big sacks of money. An impossible dream indeed.

NevHarvey · Mar 22, 2011

Maybe being overly simplistic, but Bellamy was also a major reason we went down, a complete waste of money, and we created chance after chance, week after week, games like Newcastle away, where they had few shots but scored them all, with Bellamy wasting a hatful of chances before we went behind. It happened so often, and he himself admitted he wasn't interested at Coventry. Okay I'll shut up now!

skyblu3sk · Mar 22, 2011

Wasn't there also director deals where A director would buy a player and then take any profit like in the Keane scenario? It may be wrong but it the feeling I got from reading many articles on it. In the end we did push to hard and spent too much (like we have as a country) on instant success that failed. The HR to Ricoh eventually nearly killed us and for the money the club spent on it we got the shitty end of the stick when the project got bailed out. the rest of the money well who knows apart from the people in the board room protected by there confidentiality waivers. I honestly think that's why the club still feels rotten at the core, because the fans were never informed of the details of our financial issues.

sky_blue_up_north · Mar 22, 2011

Some of the points regarding Sky are probably true, you will never see another Forest, coming up and winning the league. To much money in the top tier so these clubs get richer, and we just get poorer

blueflint · Mar 22, 2011

while i agree with most coments particularly sky it can only be shortsighted directors who hadn't the necessary money to back up the spending plans of managers and still spending any way shame but true

rob9872 · Mar 22, 2011

I've only recently joined SBT and I don't wish to get banned or end up in the courts so I will choose my words carefully!!

Richardson syetematically tore apart the very fabric of my club from a position that I doubt I will ever see it return to. I will never forgive him for that, although from his Jersey yacht I doubt that he will care too much about my opinion!

Slow painful deaths are too good for some people.

skyblu3sk · Mar 22, 2011

rob9872 said:
I've only recently joined SBT and I don't wish to get banned or end up in the courts so I will choose my words carefully!!

Richardson syetematically tore apart the very fabric of my club from a position that I doubt I will ever see it return to. I will never forgive him for that, although from his Jersey yacht I doubt that he will care too much about my opinion!

Slow painful deaths are too good for some people.

It does look like he took a gamble, he won and the club lost big time! Lets hope Ray doesn't fancy a yacht any time soon...

Dinyull · Mar 22, 2011

The Ricoh Arena

Spending millions on a stadium we don't own, make any money out of and is usually less than half full has pretty much killed us.

And as much blame Richardson should take, Robinson was alway's in the background as owner!

derbyskyblue · Mar 22, 2011

Ive often wondered how much profit does the ricoh arena make, take into account the hotel, casino, concerts, conferences and the like. You would think that place would be a cash cow.

rob9872 · Mar 22, 2011

derbyskyblue said:
Ive often wondered how much profit does the ricoh arena make, take into account the hotel, casino, concerts, conferences and the like. You would think that place would be a cash cow.

I'm not keen on SISU but I think they are bright enough and will have done their homework to realise that purchasing their option does not make it yet viable to be worth the risk/reward so perhaps not as lucrative as we might think. The Car Park is separate via ACL (?) and I think the NEC have some kind of tie in with a % of events too. The council and hotel are separate businesses who also have a fixed long term lease and are tennants. With the associated running costs, insurances etc there are many other things to consider but the biggest saving of all would be the £1m per season that we spend on rent and yet still a half empty stadium currently makes it unworkable.

There is an agreement in place for 10 years to buy back ast a fixed fee, which I understand expires in 2015. on expiry that looks the most attractive time to purchase, as the Ricoh deal was also 10 years and a slice of the purchase could be gained straight back through the subsequent naming rights. Time will tell I guess.

derbyskyblue · Mar 22, 2011

So lots of people with there fingers in the pie, and we are left with crumbs.

skyblu3sk · Mar 22, 2011

Not sure the hotel Etc would make a huge amount think its mostly about the events if you can get them in.

Nick · Mar 22, 2011

rob9872 said:
I'm not keen on SISU but I think they are bright enough and will have done their homework to realise that purchasing their option does not make it yet viable to be worth the risk/reward so perhaps not as lucrative as we might think. The Car Park is separate via ACL (?) and I think the NEC have some kind of tie in with a % of events too. The council and hotel are separate businesses who also have a fixed long term lease and are tennants. With the associated running costs, insurances etc there are many other things to consider but the biggest saving of all would be the £1m per season that we spend on rent and yet still a half empty stadium currently makes it unworkable.

There is an agreement in place for 10 years to buy back ast a fixed fee, which I understand expires in 2015. on expiry that looks the most attractive time to purchase, as the Ricoh deal was also 10 years and a slice of the purchase could be gained straight back through the subsequent naming rights. Time will tell I guess.

Silly how the NEC get paid. Are they linked in some way?

I also heard that one of the car parks was being scrapped for a Premier Inn and McDonalds?!

skyblu3sk · Mar 22, 2011

Nick said:
Silly how the NEC get paid. Are they linked in some way?

I also heard that one of the car parks was being scrapped for a Premier Inn and McDonalds?!

I remember hearing something about that too was it the carpark with the bridge over the A444

rob9872 · Mar 22, 2011

I'm not sure Nick, I believe there is soem tie up in them booking and managing events. Whether its a long term arrangement I have no idea.

With regards to loing car park C I believe it was only the top end of it as it has a car park attached and is in an ideal spot. I think it only lost something like 30 spaces and I believe is still being looked at, but as we know everything is always open and above board with cards on the table here, so there definitely won't be aby PR spin to dispell the truth before it suddenly appears

Article: What Caused the Downfall of Coventry City Football Club? (3 Viewers)

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