The New Stadium: 14 Weeks In - 68 To Go!

By CCFC Sid
April 11 2004

The CCFC equivalent of royalty - Kev Monks, Johnny Barton, Paul McKay, Nigel Eccles, Rory, and myself(!) - were on show at this fans forum, at the Lime Tree Social Club in Tile Hill.

Representatives of the worlds best football club (Currently hiding in Division One, before raising from their slumber to threaten Manchester United and Real Madrid for the title `World's Biggest Soccer Team'), spent an evening in the company of those that matter most (The fans!), and a great evening was had by all - apart, perhaps, from one man, who dared to moan about the quality of CCFC's loan signings.

A visual presentation for the new Arena took nearly an hour of everybodies time (With said display being responsible for causing motion sickness throughout the room!), and impressed most (If not all) - except for the fact the seats are currently far nearer to Leicester's kit in colour than CCFC's! If this doesn't change, I will be selling Sky Blue aerosol cans outside the ground for the first match at the new stadium, so people can re-colour their seat(s)....

Keys to the new stadium will be handed over at the end of July 2005 (Though the club would be wise to check this before booking a removal van - my estate agents told me I was definitely moving in on a certain date, and I ended up £250 out of pocket. And the name of said estate agents is R .... better not) - though this doesn't give the club too long to get things sorted if they want to have a home, pre-season friendly before life back in the Premiership begins....

The news that the away fans will be housed behind one of the goals was not so well received, nor was the news that the stadium will be non-smoking - if CCFC really want to make some/a lot of money, CCFC Nicotene Patches might be a good idea! Rather bizarrely, it was revealed that the new `West End' will occupy the position that the Main Stand currently does, and it's to be hoped this is pointed out to people buying their season tickets, as those OAPs that like the quiet probably won't appreciate having `rowdy people' sitting next to them!

There will only be parking for around 2,000 vehicles (Though some of us have actually moved closer to the ground so as to avoid queues on matchdays!!), and the club are hoping to introduce `Park and Ride' schemes throughout the City in a bid to bring fans in on matchdays. Sadly, it looks as if there won't be a train stopping outside the ground (Surely a must for an out of town stadium?) - though the club are trying to do a deal so that train drivers slow down near the Arena, allowing fans the chance to jump off*....

Whether or not the club have ideas above their station, or whether the arena really will be as flexible as they say is debatable, but it seems that there will be attempts to put on any event that might raise a decent crowd, including snooker! Live music will once again be returning to the City - let's hope such events are better supported than they once were, with every decent sized venue in Coventry having now shut down through public apathy....

The question: `Will it be the best stadium in the country?' was asked .... anyway, some of the executive boxes will double up as hotel rooms, and will include beds! Handy for the next time CCFC play Reading - though fans would be wise to book these way in advance, as there is likely to be a huge queue.

The highlight of the evening was sadly kept to a select few, with the question: `Will the new stadium be visible from the moon?' not being asked out loud - whether it still comes across as funny to the people that read this I don't know, but it had a couple of people at least giggling (and crying!) like school kids! (Especially when Part B was asked: `If not in the day, then what about at night when the lights are on?). I guess you had to be there, though it's fair to say, it wouldn't have been the stupidest question of the evening....

Having finished with the first part of the evening, we then moved onto the Q&A section, with Graham Hover (Who was booed when his name was read out - all in good fun though I'm sure), Eric Black, Mike McGinnity (Who some people had suggested might have had a few drinks - not me though! Not in print anyway. This wasn't helped by his statement that: `The football will still be here long BEFORE we have all gone'!), Steve Staunton, and `Player Of The Season' (Surely??) Steven Warnock facing questions from supporters.

Quite a lot of time was taken up with the usual soundbites that you would expect from such a meeting, while there was also a bit of mutual back-slapping going on too. Better than arguing though....

One such soundbite was Graham Hover stating how terrible it was to see the children of this City wearing kits from other clubs (I blame the parents myself), though one possible solution would be to offer youngsters new CCFC kits at just above cost, as long as another clubs colours was handed in - they we could burn them all!! The answer, it was agreed, is to try to bring in as many home grown youngsters as possible - with the new Academy hopefully responsible for doing just that!

Eric Black confirmed that he would like to bring Peter Clarke and Martin Grainger back next season (Two of the top four on my `Wish List'!), though played down our chances with Grainger, as he still has two years left on his contract at St. Andrews (Though as we all know, contracts are no longer worth the paper they are written on). Should grainger come back, it's to be hoped CCFC actually allow him to take corners and free-kicks, as those I've seen on The Premiership since his return have been of the highest quality....

Sadly, Steven Warnock would not confirm that he will be staying with CCFC, but did say that he is struggling to get hold of Gerard Houllier to see if he actually has a future at Anfield. If he does go back, I hope he becomes a big success there, but the selfish side of me hopes GH makes a regretable decision and allows him to leave the club, with CCFC snapping him up. SW is the sort of player that could get CCFC out of Division One, and back into the land of the elite (Plus Leicester, Wolves, and Aston Villa).

The words `porkie pies' were used to describe statements made by Omandi Lowe before he signed for CCFC, while MM also stated that Julian Joachim will be offered a contract more in keeping with Division One rather than Premiership wages when discussions begin - and can bog off [I'm paraphrasing here] if the offer isn't to his liking. Eric Black also stated that he would like to keep Richard Shaw at the club too.

Once again Mike McGinnity said that he would like to have revealed all about the dealings of the former CCFC chairman Bryan Richardson, but a confidentiality clause still prohibits him from doing so. I'm sure the 200+ people in the room would have kept it to themselves had they been told, but alas .... MM also revealed that there will NOT be a bronze statue of Mr. Richardson at the new ground - though I'm sure this could be another way of making some money! Not sure how, but I reckon it would more than pay for itself....

* Possibly not true....