Coventry City fans snap up tickets for club’s return to the Ricoh

COVENTRY City football fans have supported the team’s return to the Ricoh Arena by snapping up tickets for the historic game.

The club spent last season playing home games 35 miles away at Northampton Town’s ground after a dispute with arena owner ACL.

However, it announced last month that it had agreed a two-year deal with ACL – complete with an option for an extra two years that sees the team end its exile.

The first game will be the League One clash with Gillingham, which has been switched to Friday night so it can be televised.

The football club said the game had proved so popular with fans that it had sold out of the 15,000 tickets initially released for general sale. Fans reported being unable to get through online and many opted to abandon their computers and queue the old fashioned way at the club shop.

Since the news broke of the club’s return to its home city, a further 2,200 supporters have also purchased or transferred across their season tickets.

The club said there were still around 4,000 season ticket holders from the 2012/13 season who were yet to renew or buy Gillingham tickets. With demand for seats so high, the club said it would be releasing these seats for sale on the day of the Gillingham game unless the fans concerned renewed or transferred their season tickets.

Development director Steve Waggott said: “The interest and excitement around the club’s return to the city has been nothing short of phenomenal. To have sold all of the general tickets available so far already is testament to the supporters’ desire to come and back their team and also to the staff who have worked unbelievably under intense circumstances.

“We know there have been teething problems with the systems but that was only because we wanted to come back to the city as soon as possible and selling 18,000 tickets in just a few days is still a wonderful effort – especially with so much else going on.”

The club said it would update fans on the release of tickets through the club’s website.

One of the major elements of the dispute with ACL was a disagreement about rent. However, this was resolved when the club forked out £471,192 in unpaid rent to the company.

The two parties had been holding talks following the payment to hammer out an agreement, which has ultimately seen the club return to its home in the city.