The Telegraph did an investigative report on the Coventry City new stadium based on assertions by CCFC Chair Tim Fisher.
Fisher claims that the club has identified a site on the boundary of the city as the location for the proposed project. At the height of the Rioch Arena crisis, Fisher claimed a new stadium would be “designed and delivered in three years,” but it seems it was all talk and no action going by the project report.
Plans have not been revealed on the state of the project since then. May this year, the chairman again mentioned to fans at a Supporters’ Consultative Group meeting that the plans to build a new stadium was still active. However, he mentioned that the preferred option was a redevelopment of Butts Park Arena which would be executed in partnership with Coventry Rugby Club.
In a sharp contrast, the same chair told fans this October that those plans could not move ahead as there was a “political embargo.” For a planning of that size, certain organizations would at least have been approached on the subject. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Telegraph investigated and about 19 organizations claimed that there were no contact whatsoever on the development of a new stadium. Such a project would likely hold at least 10,000 people and at least any of these 19 organizations would have the slightest information.
Coventry, Stratford, North Warwickshire, Hinckley and Bosworth, Daventry, Rugby, Solihull Metropolitan, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwick, and Warwickshire City Councils had no information. The different departments, police offices and other agencies had no information as well. The organizations can decide to withhold information but only in commercially confidential cases. A bit of information are still available on such grounds unlike the Coventry City new stadium case.