By David Owen
August 21 – Coventry City, the English third-tier club, will resume playing their home games at home next month, after more than a season in residence at Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium, nearly 50km away.
The former Premier League club said it had agreed a deal to return to the impressive Ricoh Arena, which was used as a venue for the London 2012 Olympics, with its first match back expected to be the clash with Gillingham on September 5.
The agreement with Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), the joint venture between Coventry City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs charity which runs and manages the stadium, is said to be for two years with an option for a further two years.
Steve Waggott, the club’s development director, said he was sure every Sky Blues fan would be thrilled with the news. “We are under no illusion what a difficult 12 months it has been for the supporters and that was uppermost in our thinking as we worked to get this deal done,” he said, adding that while there had been “compromise on both sides”, commercial details of the deal would remain confidential.
Waggott said that the “support and guidance from the Football League, and especially from chief executive Shaun Harvey, throughout our discussions was a key factor in achieving the aim of reaching this agreement and getting the football club back to Coventry”.
For ACL, chair Chris Robinson said everyone there was looking forward to “delivering a top quality service to the club and the fans”.
Coventry began their stay in Northampton with a memorable 5-4 win over Bristol City, but many fans, not surprisingly, stayed away, with the average attendance at 2,570 the lowest in the division.
The club played its first game at the Ricoh in August 2005, beating now Premier League QPR 3-0.
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