Club to 'suck up costs' for season ticket freeze

Doug King speaks on changes to season tickets and the future of the Sky Blues



Season tickets at Coventry City FC are to be frozen for the 2024-5 season and the club will "suck up the cost pressures," its chairman said.

Doug King said prices were being frozen in the hope of encouraging more fans to go to games.

He became sole owner of the Championship club last year and said while he was still "absolutely" subsidising the Sky Blues, he wanted promotion to the Premier League next season.

Of the clubs' recent FA Cup penalty loss against Manchester United at Wembley, he said he "nearly fell over the balcony" amid the excitement and tension but enjoyed the day because it "showed what Coventry was about".

The Stratford-upon-Avon businessman bought 85% of club from Sisu Capital Limited and then the remaining 15% in January last year.

Although running a Championship club was "a significant loss making exercise”, he said he was dedicated to success for the club and getting more fans into the ground and increase revenues.

He added: "Effectively, what’s in our control is in our control and we are working to increase revenues and from the increased revenues, support a really strong a team as we can get with losses that are not going to cause me to have too many sleepless nights."

Next season will see changes to family zone season tickets, as the area of the ground has not reached its 3,000 capacity, and the introduction of a ticket exchange system, he said.

Fans must attend eight games and if they cannot, must use the ticket exchange system to say they are not going "so we can encourage young, maybe local families, for the midweek games to get to the game and fill the family zone", Mr King said.

Also new for next season, is the introduction of safe standing after 2,732 seats were converted following a trial period.

He said under his tenure team recruitment had increased and although the Cup run was draining, there was a focus on being competitive and trying to reduce injuries and build towards a promotion-winning next season.