Coventry City's newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) Paul Clouting has started his reign at his new job by suggesting Coventry City as a business 'look a bit like a basket case'.
It might not sound like the most appropriate statement to make in his first address to City fans, but he does have a very valid point.
Clouting has help positions at Ipswich Town and Derby County where part of his brief was to increase attendances at these club and he succeeded in doing so at both and he is now attempting to do the same at Coventry City.
When Coventry City moved from their Highfield Road home to the Ricoh Arena, the club said it need attendances to average around 22,000 for each game throughout the season for the club to break even, but it has achieved nowhere near this figure and attendances has steadily fallen since the move to the new home.
The club are currently getting home gates in the region of 14-15,000 which is contributing to the estimated £4-6m a year losses being made each year, but now the club have stated they want to buy part or all of the Ricoh Arena, any revenue raised will then go into the club coffers and the club will have a reduced rent bill, which is thought to be around £1m a year.
When Clouting was at Ipswich Town as their Director of Commercial Affairs, he helped to increase their season ticket sales by 13,000, then he moved to Derby County, which is one of the better supported Championship clubs. He will now work hard to convince Coventry City fans to return in their droves thereby increasing the club's income dramatically.
There is no doubt that there are potential customer in the Coventry area. Coventry has a population of around 310,000 and has no high profile competing sporting attractions for the football club. Leicester City has their football club as well as one of Europe's more successful rugby union clubs, but The Foxes continue to get far higher gates than City do and with a smaller catchment area to draw the fans from.
Clouting said to the CT: "It doesn't take a rocket scientist looking from the outside to look at this business and argue that it is a bit of a basket case in the sense of it is losing money and it is not as successful as arguably a club of this stature should be."
He confirmed what other board members have claimed that the club is seeking outside investment.
"We are in advanced negotiations with potential investors into the business, advanced as in a long way down the line," he said.
"We will all kiss a few frogs until deals are done and people are happy with what they are going to get, but the reality is we are at advanced stages. Will it happen? I absolutely don't know, but by the same token I am a great believer in anything worth having you have to fight for and what I get a real kick out of is doing difficult jobs."
Clouting was asked why he agreed to take on such a difficult job at Coventry. He replied, "Sisu continuing to invest in the business which is absolutely critical."
"They were talking to me three months ago and one of the key things was I would be crazy to walk through the front door without understanding that they were going to continue investing in the business because no-one wants to come in and go through the process of upsetting the local community before you have even walked in through the door."
"It will be difficult and anyone who says it is going to be easy either doesn't understand football or doesn't understand how difficult it is to turn the QE II around in some senses, but what I am a great believer in is there are people who come every week without fail."
"You could ask why do people spend their hard earned money and part of it is because they believe in the dream and what can be achieved by their local football club."
"There are lots of people who are out there who don't come because they are not interested and are only interested if the team is successful and we have got to start engaging with those types of people but also share the dream with them."
"We don't get enough people come to watch the football because you could argue the fare isn't good enough, we don't talk to people; a whole number of reasons, but the reality is they don't come. Having a winning team has to be part of that process."
"This isn't about me or Onye Igwe or Ken Dulieu, it is about the supporters."
Clouting spoke about his work at Ipswich saying, "I started at Ipswich Town 12 years ago which was a business with 4,000 season ticket holders and when I left there were 17,000."
"That isn't Paul Clouting, David Sheepshanks or George Burley the manager, that was how the club as a whole acted and what I like to think I bring to the party is one; the understanding of that and secondly; a desire to actually talk to people."
"If you don't talk to people and don't share with people and don't convince them you have got something worth being part of, pack the tent up and head off."
"I spent seven years at Ipswich as commercial director and two years at Derby County as operations director and then I was asked to leave when there was a hostile take-over in 2006. Since then I have been doing interim work going into businesses for six to nine months and doing turnarounds."
"I have worked at companies that have been brought out of administration and because they have been under performing and need to change, and at others that have strong growth ambitions and recognise they need help to get there."
Clouting was ten asked what his job brief is at Coventry City. He said, "It is very simple, the company is hemorrhaging money so the first job was, how do we stop the club going into administration."
"Successful football clubs need people coming to watch them and the wider community. We have to engage with the city council, university and businesses and involve them with the club and then hopefully it will be a commercial business, but we have to recognise that they will only want to spend money if they are happy that their money will be wisely invested and spent within the club."
He believes that is it essential for the club to own their own stadium which, until now, the owners Sisu have been reluctant to do.
"We are here because we believe it will happen," he continued. "We need bricks and mortar, we are aware of that and it is my understanding is that there are conversations that have taken place with the city council when they have said in the event of are you happy to sell?"