An outsider's view of our ground

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

Is our Carrow Road ground as good as we think it is?

Steve Taylor, reporter, in the Coventry Telegraph:

Surely Coventry City can be bigger club than Delia''s Norwich?

The ground? Not a patch on the Ricoh Arena and not that much better than Highfield Road when it closed. Quite frankly, I prefer ''well-kept and updated tradition'' to ''new and plastic'' every time. What about you?

OTBC

 

 

[Ginja 43]

[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"]

Is our Carrow Road ground as good as we think it is?

Steve Taylor, reporter, in the Coventry Telegraph:

Surely Coventry City can be bigger club than Delia''s Norwich?

The ground? Not a patch on the Ricoh Arena and not that much better than Highfield Road when it closed. Quite frankly, I prefer ''well-kept and updated tradition'' to ''new and plastic'' every time. What about you?

OTBC

[/quote]Coventry''s ground may be big and fancy, but it has no soul or atmosphere, when I went there it felt like death warmed up.The place is huge but most of the ground seems to be dedicated to making money, with the stadium crammed in the middle like it''s an inconvenience.I love Carrow Road and hope we never leave it, we have a good stadium with plenty of potential, just give me some C4 and I''ll deal with that bloody hotel....[:@]

[SouthamptonCanary 0]

I think Carrow Road is a great sadium becasue although it is not the biggest it has character and atmosphere.  If you look at most of these new stadiums now they all look the same....Southampton, Leicester, Reading they are more like AirFix stadiums.

[The Voice of the Thorpe Area 0]

Can only agree with you UEA.

New stadiums may well be bigger and more modern- but the soul gets ripped out of a club. Leicester is a prime example. I used to go to Filbert Street a few times each year (family are big fans). It was a lovely stadium- full of character and atmosphere- and a tough place to go under O''Neill. Now? The ground has 10,000-15,000 empty seats every week, the place is dead, and away teams love going there (I mean we''ve won twice in a row there- that''s how easy a place it is to win!).

Carrow Road is a great stadium- I don''t think we realise how lucky we have it. It''s in a good area of the city, and combines the traditional football ground with more modern elements (some great facilities- the Jarrold for example). It may not have 35,000 seats, state of the art conference rooms or the best media facilities- but it has atmosphere, history and character.

If the board ever put forward plans to move- which I seriously doubt would ever happen- I would be 100% against it.

[Mr.Carrow 394]

Coventry are one of those clubs who for some bizarre reason people have decided have the potential to be a really big club whilst conveniently forgetting that they virtually never sold out Highfield Rd. They then go and build a much bigger,posher stadium and wonder why people don`t turn up!?

If nothing else it proves that lovely new facilities don`t make a jot of difference when it comes to growing your support, it`s all about the team on the pitch. Just look at Reading.

[Vern 0]

I wouldnt swap with them thats for sure. Got the financial sense of a goat. Stupid idiot.

[YellowIce 0]

That nice big fancy stadium has just meant administration and no doubt the sales of all of the playing assets, so he can take his opinion and shove it up his . . . . . .

[Mazy Run 0]

He contradicts himself - what is the Ricoh if not new and plastic? If he''d argued for keeping the tradition of Highfield Road I could have understood that - it did have a lot of character, and reminded me of my sixties childhood. I think Carrow Road is a fantastic stadium, not least because you can walk to it from the city centre and the train station, and there are plenty of decent pubs and bars near by - it''s not on some dodgy industrial estate or windswept suburb. We also have a superb pitch and, just lately, some decent football on it.  

OTBC

 

[albyella 0]

...but it was written by someone from the COVENRTY telegraph. I agree the Ricoh ground and facilities are excellent, but the atmosphere is absolutely deadpan - give me CR any ady, hotel or no hotel....

[MightyYellows50 0]

Quite frankly my dear I don''t give a damn.  It''s our football stadium and if fans from other clubs don''t like it they dont have to visit, who cares what others think to be fair.   [Y]

[BCanary 0]

Who''d want to play in a pop-up stadium that looks exactly like every other pop-up stadium in the country only with different coloured seats?Too cheap, too plastic, no soul, no atmosphere, no character - and I''m sure that guy will be in the minority and most Cov fans would probably take Highfield Road over the Ricoh any day of the week.

[First Wazzock 1,011]

Steve Taylor, reporter, in the Coventry Telegraph:

Surely Coventry City can be bigger club than Delia''s Norwich?

The ground? Not a patch on the Ricoh Arena and not that much better than Highfield Road when it closed.

 

I''m shocked by this. Highfield Road was a dump, and the surrounding area was a dump too.

Although our home is not new, most of it is relatively modern. Nice ground, good facilities both in and outside, easy access, what more could you want. Well in Coventry''s case, not to go into administration perhaps ?

[DDD In The Fine City 1]

Coventry city fc dont even own the Ricoh Arena and are about to go into administration and as for "well-kept and updated tradition" WTF happend to the rest of Coventry its a dirt hole. what a muppet

[Canary 1]

But Covertry are about to go into recievership so they may have to sell their ground to pay their creditors.

 

 

[shortfatb 0]

Indeed, Coventry had to sell their share of the Ricoh to even move there in the first place and it is now owned by a local charity and the local council. They are £32+m in debt and receive some of the ticket revenue and none of the additional income for food, drink etc.which is why they are are not viable as a going concern without somebody buying their debt and at least part of the stadium back to create a continuous revenue stream.

Blind ambition without prudence, and who wants to be owned by a Ray Ranson consortium, a man who has unsuccessfully tried to buy most failing teams in the country in recent times.  

And the ground looks empty even with 20,000+ in it.

 

[walt_castle 0]

(Umnfortunatly ???) Coventry do not own their ground - they rent it from the local council. They have debts of £38 million. Their only assets area bunch of mediocre players (+ Mifsud). Who would want to invest in that?

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="Canary"]

But Covertry are about to go into recievership so they may have to sell their ground to pay their creditors.

[/quote]

Coventry City FC., don''t own their ground, the local council does!

 

Highfield Rd. had charcter in its day but was showing its age towards the last few years of use. The Ricoh is one of the better group of modern stadiums (its got a good PA system) but it lacks soul. However Carrow Rd., with oldest stand the N&P being built in 1979/1980ish has managed to retain some charcater that is lacking from the spaceship bowls that have been built in recent years.

As for the club(Coventry), they lived for a while way beyond the level of resources thay could generate themselves and as a consequence they had a big debt before they left Highfield Rd. Being on the brink of Administration doesn''t surprise me.

 

 

 

 

[Desi Rascall 0]

wasn''t Coventry''s stadium planned and built when they were stalwarts of the Premiership? Much of their lending (like ours under chase) was based upon the erroneous view that they were too good to go down,they weren''t and that they would bounce back up, they didn''t.

Not sure how serious the threat of administration is,since they have virtually no tangible assets,and the deadline seems more about twisting the co-op''s arm,it will be a case of who blinks first, i am betting that there will be an eleventh hour break through.

one note of caution though,remember that not long ago Doncaster was mooting the sale of our share of the hotel to balance the books,if that would be the case then theoretically we could by piecemeal end up over time in the same situation as coventry.Not owning the assets that provide the most sustainable forms of off field revenue.

 

So Prudence can only take you so far,i hope that this season has led to the boards tacit awareness that for the last couple of seasons the playing squad has been too small to cope with injuries.

 

[Mason 47 1,924]

THe other night, I went to the game with a friend who isnt a supporter. He had never been to Carrow Road before, but had been to the big black portaloo in Ipswich. He said that ours was miles better than there.

We have a great stadium- I would rather have ours than that silly, empty pot they should reanme the Tesco Arena...

Problem solved

 

[we8wba 0]

right,

coventry going into adminstration (Which they not actually in has nout to do with standard of the ground

coventry atmposphere has nout to do with the stand

i think the statement was saying cov have better stadium, but that is expected as it is a newer stadium

so stop blabing on about cov n admin because that has nout to do with the post

[Foggo_on_the wing 0]

[quote user="we8wba"]

right,

coventry going into adminstration (Which they not actually in has nout to do with standard of the ground

coventry atmposphere has nout to do with the stand

i think the statement was saying cov have better stadium, but that is expected as it is a newer stadium

so stop blabing on about cov n admin because that has nout to do with the post

[/quote]

We''ll blab about what we like.

Can you repeat all that in English?

 

[Wandsworth Canary 0]

I work in construction and 6 years ago I saw Coventry''s original plans, which included a movable end stand that opened up (bit like Tracey Island) and the ability to take the pitch out into the car park behind. Imagine the debt they would be in if they had gone for that option?

 

[Desi Rascall 0]

[quote user="we8wba"]

right,

coventry going into adminstration (Which they not actually in has nout to do with standard of the ground

coventry atmposphere has nout to do with the stand

i think the statement was saying cov have better stadium, but that is expected as it is a newer stadium

so stop blabing on about cov n admin because that has nout to do with the post

[/quote]

 

>>>>> The Point

 

 

0 Your Head

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

[quote user="we8wba"]

right,

coventry going into adminstration (Which they not actually in has nout to do with standard of the ground

coventry atmposphere has nout to do with the stand

i think the statement was saying cov have better stadium, but that is expected as it is a newer stadium

so stop blabing on about cov n admin because that has nout to do with the post

[/quote]

illiterate Twaddle. and hif you Must affect other people''s vernacular, itch Spelt nowt - not nout.

Billy Wright and Stan Cullis must be crying in their graves at you lot.

OTBC

 

OTBC

[kdncfc 0]

The City stand lets Carrow Road down bigtime, it wasn''t until I sat near the Plymouth fans the other night that I realised why some visiting fans may have a low opinion of the ground, the city stand looks tiny from there and is nothing more than a cowshed,  until that stand has a top tier added our ground cannot be classed as one of the best stadiums in the country. That stand is a total embarrassment.

[we8wba 0]

obvisouly you guys dont like being proven right

the question/point wasnt is coventry stadium there own

or how much they got in doubt by making it

its simply is it a better stadium??

i believe facilities wise yes it is, they have concert there, conventions, competitions such as darts

its straight of the motorway

i think there is more leg room in the stadium than yours

capacity 32500 max

yours is? i dont know but prob less

so on that basis i would say ricoh is better than carrow road

 

if the question was what ground would your prefer out of the two, i would choose yours

as its more traditional

more atmosphere

more supporters packed in close to the pitch

 

but the whole question in original post was

Quite frankly, I prefer ''well-kept and updated tradition'' to ''new and plastic'' every time.

What about you?

not would you prefer have cov money, name of stadium, or what ever

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="Canadian Canary"]

I work in construction and 6 years ago I saw Coventry''s original plans, which included a movable end stand that opened up (bit like Tracey Island) and the ability to take the pitch out into the car park behind. Imagine the debt they would be in if they had gone for that option?

[/quote]

Given that the local council paid for the construction of the Ricoh, I would have thought that the debt of Coventry City FC. would not have been effected if the council had gone for the fancy option re the Ricoh.

 

[Foggo_on_the wing 0]

[quote user="we8wba"]

obvisouly you guys dont like being proven right

the question/point wasnt is coventry stadium there own

or how much they got in doubt by making it

its simply is it a better stadium??

i believe facilities wise yes it is, they have concert there, conventions, competitions such as darts

its straight of the motorway

i think there is more leg room in the stadium than yours

capacity 32500 max

yours is? i dont know but prob less

so on that basis i would say ricoh is better than carrow road

 

if the question was what ground would your prefer out of the two, i would choose yours

as its more traditional

more atmosphere

more supporters packed in close to the pitch

 

but the whole question in original post was

Quite frankly, I prefer ''well-kept and updated tradition'' to ''new and plastic'' every time.

What about you?

not would you prefer have cov money, name of stadium, or what ever

[/quote]

Moderators.

If we are going to let illiterate foreigners on here, can you please supply a translator?

 

[Foggo_on_the wing 0]

Some answers we8wba.

"i think there is more leg room in the stadium than yours

capacity 32500 max"

Of course there''s more leg room. Their capacity is around 7000 more than ours, so that''s room for 14000 more legs.

"its straight of the motorway"

We''d have a bloody hard job being straight off any motorway.

Seriously though I agree with your view of traditional. In the USA the old baseball stadiums are cherished now because most of them have been replaced with ''cookie-cutter'' stadiums that all look the same.

 

[BCanary 0]

[quote user="we8wba"]

obvisouly you guys dont like being proven right

the question/point wasnt is coventry stadium there own

or how much they got in doubt by making it

its simply is it a better stadium??

i believe facilities wise yes it is, they have concert there, conventions, competitions such as darts

its straight of the motorway

i think there is more leg room in the stadium than yours

capacity 32500 max

yours is? i dont know but prob less

so on that basis i would say ricoh is better than carrow road

 

if the question was what ground would your prefer out of the two, i would choose yours

as its more traditional

more atmosphere

more supporters packed in close to the pitch

 

but the whole question in original post was

Quite frankly, I prefer ''well-kept and updated tradition'' to ''new and plastic'' every time.

What about you?

not would you prefer have cov money, name of stadium, or what ever

[/quote]You''re contradicting yourself there. You''re saying that the Ricoh Arena is a better stadium, yet you prefer Carrow Road? By that logic - you think Carrow Road is a better stadium?I gues it all comes down to your opinion on what you think "better" is.If the board proposed that Norwich move to a new, bigger stadium, exactly like the Ricoh, 99% of supporters would be against it.