23k capacity Highfield Road was plenty big enough for Coventry in the early 2000s. By this time they were playing Championship football and hadn't had a 20k average home attendance since 2000-01, their last season in the Premier League (20,535).
Their average home attendances in Div1/Championship in the four seasons prior to moving to the new ground were:
15,436
14,813
14,816
16,046
But the die was cast and they were committed to leaving Highfield Road having sold it already when still in the PL to help finance the new ground. However they had debts of circa £60m and the council had to step in. This is when the arrangements changed and CCFC wouldn't own the new ground and would be tenants instead. As Clive has already mentioned in this thread they needed a 20k average just to break even. The lease deal also meant that they would only benefit from ticket and merchandise sales on match days and nothing else.
https://thefsa.org.uk/news/the-demise-of-coventry-city-football-club/ [Post edited 29 Jul 16:44]
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