Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Nick Clegg, plus a host of ministers were at the Ricoh Arena yesterday to launch Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS).
This is the replacement for the regional development agencies including Advantage West Midlands, who contributed £5m towards the buying of the former Foleshill Gas Works site which became the home of Coventry City FC with attachments including an exhibition hall, hotel and casino.
"The good thing about LEP's is they are in local areas which people can identify with," said Mr Cameron to the CT's Les Reid. "Local Authorities and businesses are now in control of it, rather than the regional development agencies which people felt were distant."
The Ricoh Arena's Daniel Gidney who is a board member of the LEP, said: "This highlights the work we are doing regionally is being noticed at a national level.
"The Ricoh Arena is a fantastic example of collaborative working between the public, private and voluntary sectors that has fostered new enterprise and significant job creation in a deprived area of north Coventry.
"We have transformed a contaminated derelict site into an Olympic venue and taken Coventry from outside the top twenty UK conferencing venues to seventh.
However, Coventry MP Bob Ainsworth is quoted as saying: "We should be all working to make the Coventry & Warwickshire LEP a success but there is a dishonesty taking here. There's no way this system put in place by government would have secured the creation of the Ricoh Arena.
"It's a very strange place to hold a celebration of what is effectively a huge downgrading of government funding for regional development."