Coventry City have been given more time to reach a new long-term stadium agreement with Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group – owners of the CBS Arena – before incurring a hefty fine.
EFL clubs ratified a new rule at an AGM last week which means that Championship clubs are liable for a £10,000 fine if they fail to secure a tenancy agreement at their home ground for at least ten years.
Club owner Doug King secured a five year extension to continue playing at the stadium in April 2023 following cordial but protracted talks for several months, with the sticking point at the time understood to have been over the annual rent. As it stands the Sky Blues have just three years left on their current arrangement, and King had indicated that the club would be hit with a fine if it hadn’t secured a new agreement come the end of the 2024/25 season.
But it now appears that the club have until seven working days into the start of the new campaign (August 12) to get their house in order, giving the club another couple of months to complete their negotiations for a new deal.
Following the Annual General Meeting of EFL clubs, a new regulation (3.9) was approved requiring all clubs to have a security of tenure on its stadium for at least 10 years from season 2025/26 onwards.
It’s understood that this new regulation has come about partly due to Coventry City’s recent and historical issues with the owners of their home stadium, most notably Coventry City Council and Wasps, which previously resulted in the club playing games at Northampton Town and Birmingham City. Issues at other clubs have also contributed to the EFL making a change to the rules.
Failure to comply within seven working days of the start of each season will result in a fine of £2.5k for League Two clubs, £5k for League One clubs and £10k for Championship clubs for the first season in breach.
A fine double that of the previous season will then be enforced for each consecutive and subsequent breach until the remaining term of any lease or licence of a club’s stadium expires sooner than the end of the current season, in which case the League [shall][may] expel the club from membership of the League.
Asked by CoventryLive how close the club are to reaching a new agreement, the executive chairman King said in mid-April: “Everyone is aware of the situation. I think things take time, discussions are always happening and it’s obviously always on my mind because I don’t want a fine for the football club. I don’t think anyone wants that.
“But look, we’re commercial parties. This is not a charitable situation. We’re both commercial entities and we have to reach agreements to work for both parties.”
Asked if the long-term aim is still to bring the football club and the stadium together under one ownership, King – who attempted to buy the stadium which was acquired by Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group when he first appeared on the scene – said: “Yes, I think so. If you recall back in November 2022 we tried to do that so look, it should never have been moved away long-term from the football club, in my view. Umm, that was a mistake.
“I know the reasons why that happened but it was a mistake and yeah, obviously my goal is to get it together somehow.”
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