Countdown to Homelessness - 9 Games to Go
The following letter was sent to the recipients below:-
Dame Caroline Spelman (Meridan)
Marcus Jones (Nuneaton & Bedworth)
Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth & Southam)
Mark Pawsey (Rugby)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry)
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford)
Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire)
Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington)
I am writing on behalf of the Sky Blue Trust, the largest independent group of Coventry City supporters, with almost 3000 members, including numerous residents in your Constituency.
Following the match against Swindon Town on Saturday 20 January 2018, Coventry City
have only 9 League Two matches scheduled to be played at the Ricoh Arena before the end of the current season. As you know, the agreement which allows such games to be played at the Arena expires at the end of the season.
Coventry City are therefore just 9 games away from homelessness. Unless a suitable home ground, which meets all the relevant standards, can be secured before the start of the 2018/19 season, Coventry City may cease to exist.
You will know that Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, Sky Blue Sports & Leisure Ltd and ARVO Master Fund Limited are taking court proceedings against Coventry City Council and Wasps. Following the recent preliminary Court of Appeal hearing, I understand that some form of mediation is now supposed to be taking place, although no information has been given to the supporters or the general public on progress with that - or even whether a mediator has been appointed. You will realise that fans would like clarity.
Unless the mediation process has made some progress behind the scenes, we fear that it will be some time before any solution to the problem regarding a home ground can be reached. If, for example, the mediation process is not concluded by the 10th March, the date of the home game against Barnet, Coventry City will have just 4 games at home before the season - and possibly the Club’s very existence - ends.
Therefore, please can you tell me what steps the you, as one of the Members of Parliament for a constituency near Coventry, have taken, are taking or propose to take to bring about a resolution to the continuing grave uncertainty as to where Coventry City will play their home games? I hope you share the strong wish of Sky Blues fans everywhere that the Club must be enabled to play their home games in the City of Coventry beyond the end of the current season?
I wrote in similar terms to the three MPs for Coventry constituencies on 22 December 2017. I have had replies from two of them, Jim Cunningham and Colleen Fletcher, which were helpful but did not indicate that any solution is imminent.
As Coventry City supporters are increasingly alarmed about the growing urgency of this matter, please could I have your response to this message by Saturday 10 February 2018, the date of the home game with Accrington Stanley?
Yours sincerely
Roger Ellis
Secretary, the Sky Blue Trust