Chairman’s hope of renewing talks over a city return
TIM Fisher says he wants to give Coventry City fans “hope” that the club will return to the city and the Ricoh Arena.
The Sky Blues chairman has revealed he hopes to have renewed talks with stadium owners Wasps in the near future but says the football club’s owners, Sisu, are pressing ahead with plans to build a new ground.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s Jim White show, Fisher was first asked if he was still aware of the dislike fans have towards the owners.
“The narrative has kind of moved on, as it should do because the wake-up call was Bury,” he said.
“And while the fans, certainly the ones that talk to me, of course want to play in Coventry, they also understand that we have to put the football club first and making sure we play the fixtures is critical. And the only place we could fulfil our fixtures was Birmingham.”
Explaining how the deal to extend City’s stay at the Ricoh broke down over the summer, he added: “The commercial deal was all agreed and it came down to legals and the two share holders, that’s the one for Wasps and the one for the football club, weren’t able to agree and, as the management of the football club, we had a Plan B.
“We don’t want to do a Plan B, clearly, but we have to have one and fulfil our fixtures, so we have a deal with Birmingham City.
“Are we hopeful of getting back to Coventry? Of course we are.
“We’d love to play our games at the Ricoh Arena but as we stand here and have this conversation, that isn’t happening. But like all things in football, it’s about hope, so we hope that we will be able to have some discussions with the Wasps at some stage in the near future and try to move it forward.”
As for the thousands that opt to stay away from St Andrew’s, he said: “We know the risk. People get out of habits. Saturday is when you go to games with your wife and kids and you’ll find something else to do. We are determined to do well on the pitch; we have seen what Mr Robins is creating.
“We are eternally grateful to every fan that turns up, and we know it’s hard.
“We had traffic problems (on Tuesday) and getting to the ground is not easy but what we’re finding is the fans are getting behind Mr Robins and the team. The atmosphere at the ground is great and we just want to encourage more fans to come along.
“It’s not about Sisu and the management of the football club other than on the sporting side. It’s about the team and getting behind the team. And the fans at St Andrew’s are having a good time.”
Jim White responded, saying: “But they want to be at home Tim,” to which Fisher replied: “Everyone agrees but we just have to try to unlock the Enigma code and try to get back to Coventry.”
Former Sky Blues striker Clinton Morrison was a studio guest on the radio show and asked if the club still intend to build a new stadium, to which Fisher replied: “The way we separate the football club is that I am the director and responsible for the operational side, making sure the club runs on a day to day and week to week basis.
“And the owners have taken responsibility for sourcing a site and building a stadium.
“And I can tell you that they are fully committed to a new stadium.
“They have spent a lot of time in front of me describing what they are doing and the project they have got running. And of course there are undertakings with the Football League because obviously they want to make sure there’s a new stadium in process.”
Taking a question from a fan who said the owners were not willing to pay the asking price for the Ricoh and that the groudnshare situation is the club’s own fault, he responded: “That’s not right. I led the negotiations when we were looking to buy half of the Ricoh Arena and I am afraid that all the politics got in the way, and that’s a crying shame.
“We are a community asset and this football club needs to be in the middle of its community and we’re not.” Wally Downes
“They really put a shift in and executed what we asked them to do.
“I felt we were worthy of getting something from the game.
“I’m proud of the performance and work-rate. They played to the plan we set out. The way they executed it was terrific.”
Downes felt the turning point of the game was a glaring miss from former Coventry loan striker Michael Folivi, who sent a free header over the bar from close range to pass up the opportunity to extend his side’s early advantage.
Speaking to Londonnewsonline, he said: “We had a chance to go 2-0 up, if we put that away the game is completely different – but we can’t cry over spilt milk.
“Everyone, including the fans, can see we put a shift in.”
He added: “Their heads were down for a while in there but we go again on Saturday against Bristol Rovers.
“As disappointed as they were today, when the win comes – and we hope that is on Saturday, they will enjoy it as much as they were disappointed.”