Ambitous Coventry step up their push for Premiership
COVENTRY chairman Jon Sharp insists there are ‘no limits’ to the club’s ambition after outlining plans to create a Premiership standard facility at Butts Park Arena.
Newly-promoted Coventry are preparing to take the Championship by storm following some highly ambitious recruitment, including former Gloucester wing David Halaifonua, ex-Northampton back row Ben Nutley and hooker Darren Dawidiuk from London Irish.
Sharp intends backing that up with ground redevelopments that will put Coventry in a position to join city neighbours Wasps in the top-flight.
Sharp, who has overseen a revival of the once moribund club, told The Rugby
Paper: “The start point will be an artificial pitch, which we hope to put down next summer and will help us expand our community programme, and we want indoor sporting facilities.
“You can’t run a business on 15 home games a year and we have Coventry Bears Rugby League and Coventry United FC, along with their ladies team, playing at the ground as well, so we’d be better able to use our facilities year round, involving schools as well.
“We need a sustainable business so I’m looking at some complementary commercial development on the site which would provide ongoing income.
“We’ve held discussions with a number of companies which involve housing and retail, plus the aim is to build another stand and a standing terrace to replicate the old Cowshed at Coundon Road. There’s no reason why this can’t all be done within two years.”
Sharp aims to replicate the successful model employed by Exeter, explaining: “We’re looking for a maximum capacity of around 12,000 so that we can meet Premiership standards and I don’t see why that shouldn’t be among our longer term ambitions.
“We attracted a crowd of just under 4,000 for our last match in National One and provided meals for 800 people, so that shows the scale of catering we can do and tells me we can take a punt on investing in more bars and hospitality facilities for supporters.
“The only thing that concerns me is that only one Premiership club made any money last year, but I’ve always had an eye on Exeter’s model where they’ve done a brilliant job by building everything step by step and not doing anything they couldn’t afford.
“The trick is to secure those income streams and then we can assess where we want to be, but why should there be any limits to our ambition? We’ve been a top-flight club before so if we can afford it and think it’s the right thing to do in future, why not?”
Coventry’s summer recruitment also includes Tonga back row Jack Ram, ex-Glasgow and Army wing Junior Bulumakau and prop Charlie Beech from Yorkshire Carnegie.
Sharp added: “There’s a buzz about Coventry at the moment.”