Coventry is lost without its football club

This summer the football pages of every newspaper have been dominated by the futures of Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale and Wayne Rooney, three men of considerable financial value. But on the doorstep of our university, a story has developed concerning a value that is harder to quantify: just how much does a city need its football club?

Many of us in our time at Warwick will have visited the Ricoh Arena, Olympic football venue and home until last month of Coventry City Football Club. It is a seriously impressive stadium, a futuristic complex standing in the Rowleys Green district of the city. Now, however, it lies dormant, symbolising the centre of a feud that has ripped professional football out of Coventry.

Coventry’s recent history is a complicated, multi-faceted saga, dominated by greed, mismanagement and, above all, sadness. When the Sky Blues moved to the Ricoh in 2005, it should have heralded a bright new dawn for the club, albeit in football’s second tier. Eight years later, the club stands bottom of the third tier.

The ground, problematically, had always been rented at a high cost from Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), employed to look after the ground by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity and Coventry City Council. With falling ticket sales and underachievement on the field, the football club resorted to selling part of its match-day revenue to the ACL, stretching finances even further. In 2007, with the club facing extinction, a hedge-fund named SISU bought the football club, much to the chagrin of everybody, particularly the council.

The rent dispute escalated late in 2012, when SISU decided that the amount demanded by ACL was excessive: indeed, it was the highest outside of the Premier League. Each party has at some point been cast in the role of villain, but the end product is this: locked out of the Ricoh, the Sky Blues now play their home matches 34 miles away in Northampton, and generations of supporters are left without a club. CEO Tim Fisher, Public Enemy Number One and a focal point of anger for the fans, has recently proposed a site close to Warwick’s campus, but a new ground is years in the future.

Football clubs have long been at the cornerstones of communities, and Coventry is no different. The fans, bystanders in this poisonous feud, have been left with an impossible decision. Follow the club to Northampton, and risk lining the pockets of the villainous owners. Stay away, and the club continues its downward spiral. A ten-point deduction upon entering administration has added insult to injury, and relegation to the fourth tier of English football looks a distinct possibility.

The Ricoh Arena lies dormant, symbolising the centre of a feud that has ripped professional football out of Coventry

Looking for a silver lining is virtually a fruitless task in this situation, but football fans are nothing if not hopeful. For one thing, Coventry have retained their status as members of the Football League, following a last-minute takeover by Otium Entertainment Group earlier this month. Worryingly, this company still has links to SISU, but eleven men still go out to represent the club and the city every week, and that is something to cling to.

To return to my initial point: just how much does Coventry need the football club in its city? The numbers say it all. Over 7000 marched on the city centre as part of the ‘Keep Cov in Cov’ campaign, whilst only a thousand Coventry fans attended the Sky Blues’ first ‘home’ game in Northampton.

The city is a sad, colourless place now. A boycott of merchandise has left Coventry devoid not only of football, but also sky blue shirts and scarves. Perhaps even more depressing is the long-term effect this will have. Legions of potential Coventry fans will now slip through the net, losing out on the chance to see football in their proud city.

Things look bleak. It didn’t take long for mismanagement to drive the fans away. If the club survives, it may take years to bring them back. That, surely, is more important than any great wrangle over debt, rent, or even Gareth Bale.

For up-to-date news on the Coventry City saga, I highly recommend @lesreidpolitics on Twitter.