This season our visit to Coventry City is on Wednesday night, with kick-off at 7.45. You’ll find the stadium is well to the north of the city centre. You can get live coverage on the Sky Sports app as long as Sky Sports + is part of your subscription.
Coventry first moved into their new home at the start of the 2005/6 season, the £113m CBS Arena, but they’ve had quite a few adventures in the years since. They had two spells of playing their home games elsewhere after disputes with their landlords, but all seems well for the time being both on and off the pitch.
Getting there by road is pretty easy, as you just have to make your way to junction 3 of the M6 and then head into Coventry on the A444, before reaching the stadium about a mile to the south of the motorway junction.
The problem is that you then have to find somewhere to park. As the stadium is in a residential area there is an exclusion zone of about 2 miles around the ground as far as street parking is concerned, which is rigorously enforced by an army of traffic wardens.
There are three large official car parks by the stadium, which cost £14 if booked in advance, and a whopping £16 on the day (if not already sold out). Apparently these take ages to clear after the match, like almost all car parks right next to a stadium. You can find more details here .
As part of the government's strict planning laws, they needed to draw up a Green Travel Plan, which aimed to ensure that 75 per cent of all people at major events get to the CBS Arena by means other than car. There are six bus routes running to the CBS, with further details here .
Coventry railway station is about three and half miles away from the stadium, on the opposite side of the city centre from the bus station, and for ideas of how to move on from there, see the link above. A few years ago a new ‘Coventry Arena’ station opened right next to the stadium on the line to Nuneaton, but it only has an hourly service. This is from the main Coventry station at four minutes to the hour, and back after the match at 21.50 and 22.50.
When I checked the train times on the National Rail website, it said "Due to a football match at CBS Arena today, trains to and from Coventry Arena before and after the game are likely to be busy with football fans.” But it didn’t mention any plans to alleviate said busyness by running a more frequent service.
The Longford Engine is now the official away supporters pub, and you’ll find it at 270 Bedworth Road in Longford (CV6 6BP). But Real Ale lovers might prefer Byatts Brewery, which is a 20 minute walk from the away end at Lythalls Lane Unit 10 (CV6 6FL).
Our allocation for this game is 3,000 places in the South Stand, out of a total capacity of 32,753. In the past Coventry gave us a couple of extra blocks of seats, amounting to 6,200 tickets in total, but it looks like they’re keen to save space for their own fans this time. The tickets cost £30 for adults and £20-£25 for concessions.
Inevitably, our allocation has long since sold out. A far as home ticket sales are concerned, the official Coventry website tells me "it is a Category A fixture, with another bumper crowd expected”. They don’t seem to have sold out yet, but closer inspection (in the interests of research) tells me that "This event is only available to members”.
The angle of the South Stand is quite steep and it's quite a long way back from the pitch, so it's quite difficult to see the action at the other end. The legroom is quite good, and the stadium has good acoustics, which makes for a good atmosphere. Behind the stands there are spacious concourses and a number of food and drink outlets serving exciting things like loaded fries and hot dogs with peppers on, as well as the usual football ground scran.
One downside at the CBS is that the stewards have been known to be rather heavy-handed in, and quite a few fans have been ejected for 'persistent standing'. Which should be fun when we are the visitors. Coventry are reported to be consulting with their fans about the possibility of providing a safe standing area, so perhaps in the future we will be able to stand up officially, instead of unofficially as we always do at away games anyway.
Many thanks to Coventry fan Kevin Monks for his help with this piece. Some of the other stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com .