So it turns out that the suspicions on the tie up with Cov Rugby and CCFC on ticket office, location of club personnel and offices, locations for SCG meetings do amount to something and that a union of two of the city's oldest sporting clubs in terms of a stadium business is under discussion.
Now as far as we know that's all it is - a discussion - but there do appear to be significant merits. Not only would CCFC get 50% of something which is far greater than the current tenant arrangement with Wasps, but Cov rugby also get 50% of a far bigger pie than they currently are able to grasp which is no bad thing either.
BPA is far more accessible for the majority of CCFC supporters, noting that there will always be some that a move inconveniences. There are a greater number of pubs in the surrounding area who would benefit from CCFC match days, and even the council is likely to make money out of the venture via increased city centre parking for match day events. On this though I do feel that there should be an under-stadium car park built for club staff and also disabled and elderly supporters to that they can have easy access to the stadium.
The stadium company could buy the old Fobwatch pub (showing my age) and either turn this into the new Sky Blue Tavern, a supporters club venue, or have this as the official club shop selling merchandise for both the football and rugby teams. There's even the possibility of season tickets combining the football and rugby!
And - should this become an eventually - get the Jimmy Hill statue moved to the home of CCFC along with the entire memorial gardens (and add one for the rugby side of the business too) as well as the supporter bricks, and thus leave the Ricoh to Wasps to do what they wish. It's their stadium now and it feels less like our home.
The fact that the stadium situation could potentially come full circle in that we left a ground that was accessible from the city centre, to move to a larger out of town stadium but could potentially return to the former, might seem a little odd with many but looking at the current gates and those we had at Highfield road why not do this? It's easy to say that we need a big ground to show ambition but do we really? did we have such a demand for seats at Highfield road that we needed the extra seats to fulfil this demand? Highfield Road was 23.5K and did us just fine with a better atmosphere to boot, so build a 20K stadium but please don't call it Highfield Road II.
Most football clubs that move into new larger stadia are on an upward curve and do so to satisfy demand (check West ham and Tottenham to name but two). We're not even there yet, but even if we do climb back to the promised land, do we still need such a big stadium? couldn't we follow the model used by rugby clubs such as Saracens (hired Wembley), Harlequins (hired Twickenham), Northampton Saints (hired StadiumMK) for games where we know there is the demand for seats and would provide a return?
To me, lets see what happens with these discussions and what obstacles the council place in the way of this idea for they've made it extremely plain that they would rather support a nomadic rugby club having no connections with the city of Coventry with everything they want (Is James Haskell as intimidating at council meetings as he is on the pitch?) against supporting the continuation of two Coventry sporting sides who between them have a proud history of representing the city for a combined 275 years.