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Inside story: How Coventry City took on their 'vulture fund' owners - and won

The Championship club, which has been playing at Birmingham City's St Andrews for last two seasons, is finally returning home to the Ricoh


By Jim White 12 March 2021 • 2:46pm

Coventry City are going home. Or at least back to the city that bears their name. The Championship club, which has been playing at Birmingham City’s St Andrews for the last two seasons, signed an agreement this week that ensures it will stage its fixtures at the Ricoh Arena once again from August. And this time, the intention is to hang around. At least for a while.

“It’s been a long and winding road with a lot of bumps along the way,” Dave Boddy, the club’s Chief Executive told Telegraph Sport this week. “But we’re back, we’ve signed a deal for 10 years. And now we have a real opportunity to build revenues and the supporter base.”

Boddy is not exaggerating when he describes Coventry’s recent history as bumpy. It is story of dispute and distressed assets, of relegation and administration, of the locally-elected mayor finally being obliged to step in and act as referee in the negotiations. It is also a tale of the economic effects of lockdown concentrating a few minds.

“Possibly so,” said Boddy, when asked if Covid had changed the approach of those involved.

“Though I will say discussions had started before the pandemic struck.”

At the story’s heart is the place where the club will play next season: the Ricoh Arena. Opened in 2005 on the site of an old gasworks in the Rowley’s Green area of the city, the 32,000-seat stadium was central to a new leisure zone, alongside a conference centre, shopping mall, hotel and casino.

It was built and owned by the local council rather than the football club, whose old stadium at Highfield Road had been modernised into a housing development. Given City did not own their own home, many could not understand why in 2007, when the club was apparently within 20 minutes of folding, it was rescued by the Mayfair-based hedge fund Sisu, an organisation with no history of involvement in football.

After all they weren’t picking up any bricks and mortar assets, they were buying a fading team and its training ground.

Indeed, in the early days of Sisu’s ownership there was little to suggest these were owners with the ambition to restore the club to the FA Cup-winning, top-flight status engineered by its pioneering erstwhile manager Jimmy Hill. Supporters were disturbed by the manner in which the board was constantly falling apart and being reorganised, despairing that their club was being steered by an endless succession of mysterious directors, many of whom lived abroad, most of whom were never seen at matches, and few of whom stuck around for long.

But despite appearances there was a rationale at work. As the club’s then CEO Tim Fisher told supporters in 2013, Sisu is “a distressed debt fund which therefore batters people in court” - also known as a ‘vulture fund’. Distressed debt is a deliberate corporate strategy which seeks to bring down the value of assets in order to buy them on the cheap. Sisu was after the Ricoh, but was not prepared to pay anything like the price the council insisted was its bottom line. The plan was this: assuming they were the only possible tenant, by constantly agitating and disputing, they hoped to bring the price of the asset down and offer to buy it for less than market value.

Part of the strategy was to engage in constant rent disputes. As Mr Justice Hickinbottom summed up at the end of one of the many court cases Sisu had brought against the council: they had deliberately engineered a rent strike in order to purchase the Ricoh “at a knockdown price”.

In 2013 the owners went one stage further in their attempts to force a fire sale: they left Coventry altogether, staging matches at Northampton Town’s Sixfields, the Ricoh abandoned as an empty shell. The fans, however, were not amused. A boycott was organised: more supporters would turn up for away matches than those staged in Northampton; marches and demonstrations were frequent. Seeing their matchday revenue squeezed, the board decided to return to the Ricoh after just a year away.

A month after they had returned, however, the council called their bluff and sold the stadium to another sporting entity: Wasps Rugby Union Club.

Not that that changed things. Cue another endless round of disputes between owner and tenant. In truth, the football club had some cause for complaint about the deals they were offered in terms of revenues from food and beverage sales and car parking (an essential part of the matchday experience for many fans given the risible service provided to the stadium’s railway station). And in 2017 it was announced the club was to leave the Ricoh once again for a new stadium built in conjunction with the University of Warwick.

The announcement came just as Mark Robins was installed in the dugout. Even as the club sank towards League Two, propelled by ever-shrinking playing budgets, he demonstrated its huge marketable potential by winning the Checkatrade Trophy in front of 42,000 Sky Blues fans at Wembley. After just one season in the fourth tier, he bounced them back into League One, only to be told that matches would be conducted at Birmingham’s St Andrews ground for the near future. Instead of 42,000, he was soon organising home games in front of 6,000.

“A lot of fans found it difficult to follow the club to Birmingham,” explained Dave Eyles, the chair of the Sky Blue Trust supporters group. “I didn’t go, it just felt all wrong. When we went to Northampton, there was a united fanbase, a concerted boycott. This time there was silence and a split in the fanbase between those who refused to go and those who reckoned you were being disloyal not to. It was horrible to see.”

Crowd numbers remained suppressed despite Robins, with a budget significantly lower than most of the clubs in the division, steering his side to the top of League One. Then Covid struck. But Coventry were so far ahead, they were promoted last May on points per game. It did, however, mean they began the new Championship season behind closed doors.
“I think the pandemic made it easier to accept that we were in Birmingham,” said Eyles. “After all, if you can’t go and watch, it doesn’t really matter where you are playing.”

As the lockdown fried revenues not just for Coventry but for their old landlord Wasps, the West Midlands mayor Andy Street felt it a good time to bring the parties together in an attempt to find resolution. And, after nearly a year of negotiations, Boddy and Wasps’ CEO Stephen Vaughan this Wednesday staged a shirt swap on the Ricoh pitch to announce a new arrangement had been signed.

“It is the best-ever deal for the football club at the Arena,” said Boddy. “I know our supporters previously had been quite reticent to spend money in the stadium because they felt we weren’t benefiting from it so hopefully we can get that message across to them that it’s not the case now moving forward. This is a real opportunity to put more money into the football budget.”

So it is that Robins and his team will start the new season at the Ricoh, on a pitch that will be relayed over the summer in order to host both football and rugby games. Whether they are still in the Championship will be decided over the next 10 games. But Boddy for one anticipates he will still be able next season to benefit from matches against teams like Derby and Nottingham Forest and their significant travelling support.

“I’m not even going to talk about relegation,” he told Telegraph Sport. “It isn’t on my agenda, nor is it on the manager's.”

Dave Eyles again. The bloke who said he wouldn't go to the Ricoh either.

It doesn't really actually say much, still it gave Eyles a chance to try and sound important again.

It's OK, some errors as usual... we certainly weren't looking to team up with Warwick Uni in 2017, as it says.
Shame they had to include any rubbish from the Trust.

shepardo01 said:

It's OK, some errors as usual... we certainly weren't looking to team up with Warwick Uni in 2017, as it says.
Shame they had to include any rubbish from the Trust.

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We also never played at Birmingham the first season back in league one.

Some inaccuracies but pretty much what happened. The Warwick Uni afterthought by Boddy the other day suggests plan A (the only plan), may still rear its head

“...on a pitch that will be relayed...”

I always find it hard to respect a national newspaper that can’t even proofread their articles before publishing them.

Gregbant said:

Some inaccuracies but pretty much what happened. The Warwick Uni afterthought by Boddy the other day suggests plan A (the only plan), may still rear its head

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What afterthought?

Nick said:

What afterthought?

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Pretty sure the initial statement about the returning made no mention of building a new stadium. Then came a follow up statement about the break clause for the new stadium.

Gregbant said:

Pretty sure the initial statement about the returning made no mention of building a new stadium. Then came a follow up statement about the break clause for the new stadium.

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The break clause has been mentioned for ages.

Do you think Boddy just thought shit I had better get that put in after the announcement?

Nick said:

The break clause has been mentioned for ages.

Do you think Boddy just thought shit I had better get that put in after the announcement?

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Yes thats what I thought, that boddy was sat on the loo and thought, shit I forgot to mention the new stadium better do another quick statement now.

In reality I think they did the initial joint statement, then were reviewing the social media to gage the response and noticed that people were picking up on the fact there was no mention of building a new stadium, so they addressed that with a subsequent statement clarifying that they still intend to build a new stadium.
Or in my opinion still intend to keep hold of the threat as oppose to actually building one.

Gregbant said:

Yes thats what I thought, that boddy was sat on the loo and thought, shit I forgot to mention the new stadium better do another quick statement now.

In reality I think they did the initial joint statement, then were reviewing the social media to gage the response and noticed that people were picking up on the fact there was no mention of building a new stadium, so they addressed that with a subsequent statement clarifying that they still intend to build a new stadium.
Or in my opinion still intend to keep hold of the threat as oppose to actually building one.

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But we already knew about the break clauses........

Sky Blue Pete said:

Have you missed the clear communication strategy from the club this last week?

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Have I misunderstood it? I am pretty sure the joint statement came out and quite a few people noted that their was no mention of building a new stadium and quite a few people were glad. Then there were further updates on a a variety of things including building at Warwick uni.

Nick said:

But we already knew about the break clauses........

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As in the rumours on here?

Nick said:

That’s what I mean you can’t announce everything and so you have a series of announcements ready to come out. I think it’s been brilliant. You will struggle to find anyone who thinks a new stadium will happen but Sisu and ccfc have been very clear in all this and wasps are well aware they may be looking to leave during the 10 years

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I know hardly any of us believe there will be a new stadium, as most of us know its completely incomprehensible. Which leads to the question why is it still getting fed to us?
I think its a shame that, that bollox is still going to linger in the background. The fact it wasn't put to bed shows plan A is still alive and kicking.
Tbf to Nick 'afterthought' wasn't the right term for me to use as it implies it was forgotten about which isn't what I was trying to say at all, I never thought it was forgotten. I did hope when it wasn't mentioned in the main first statement that it may have been shelved as a pressure tactic due to it's unfeasibilty. Previous statements by Fisher in particular have been about negotiating temporary rental deals in order to build a new stadium and the focus of the statements are about building a new stadium. This felt different until the statement about the reason for the break clause. It always feels like they are insulting your intelligence when the new stadium line comes rolling out.

Gregbant said:

Yes thats what I thought, that boddy was sat on the loo and thought, shit I forgot to mention the new stadium better do another quick statement now.

In reality I think they did the initial joint statement, then were reviewing the social media to gage the response and noticed that people were picking up on the fact there was no mention of building a new stadium, so they addressed that with a subsequent statement clarifying that they still intend to build a new stadium.
Or in my opinion still intend to keep hold of the threat as oppose to actually building one.

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So was the new club shop an afterthought too? The new ticket office? Season tickets etc?
None of these were mentioned in the original statement either.

Wow playing in front of 42000?!? They were going to add seats to the Ricoh? Hastily pulled together rehash with nothing new.

A good read............apart from the bits that are wrong

robbiethemole said:

A good read............apart from the bits that are wrong

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Frostie said:

So was the new club shop an afterthought too? The new ticket office? Season tickets etc?
None of these were mentioned in the original statement either.

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Bit late to the party I already said above that afterthought was the wrong term.

Sky Blue Pete said:

Choose not to see it in that way and see if it changes your opinion of it

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Sorry matey, I cant choose to try and accept BS. In my opinion there will be no new stadium and it insults my intelligence when they spout about it.

Sorry to raise a negative about something that overall is so positive for once. Its just that is exactly how it hit me positive positive positive, new stadium (damn that bollox again), positive positive positive.
I guess you can't have everything maybe when Warwick Uni realise what's happening and step away in a few years time that might finally be the end of it.

Sky Blue Pete said:

Or it doesn’t and of course you can be open minded on this. It costs you nothing

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Sorry Pete my options are ignore it or get annoyed by it. Staying open minded on it was lost for me when very senior representatives of the SISU told me to my face the land would be bought in 3 months. That one site was about to complete however there were two back ups ready to go if the first one fell through.
The conflicting statements of our only aim is the Ricoh, our aim is a new stadium. The butts stuff, the Woodlands stuff. We are never coming back, we are coming back. The new stadium will be built within 5 years. The SCG. The new stadium will be in cov, the new stadium will be out of Cov. Drawings of what a stadium looks like. Companies employed to do the plannings and drawings ect. Yet despite all of the above over many many years now not a single piece of land has been purchased, not a single bit of planning permission sought, not a single brick laid.
I have lost my open mindedness on this particular matter you are welcome to yours. However as positive as everything is it did piss me off when that further statement about Warwick Uni came in. My small hope is when Warwick Uni step away after a couple of years of nothing happening hopefully SISU no longer try and feed us that line again.

Sky Blue Pete said:

. Where is the sense in keeping it alive if it’s not a genuine desire?

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That I am afraid is exactly my point. I am a lost cause Pete, I admire your resilience but its 100 percent not happening for me, which is why the question you ask is in my opinion a concern.