Coventry City

My badge at the Eurobugs conference last week labelled me as being from Coventry, but if I walk out of my office, down the stairs and across the road to the buildings on the other side (as I shall do tomorrow) I am in Warwickshire.

When I first came to Coventry for my job interview in 1971, I was struck by the number of car plants that the train passed as I came into the city. Following the recent closure of the Peugeot plant at Ryton, there is no longer any volume car production in the city.

In the 1970s Coventry was reputed to be the most prosperous city in the country outside London in terms of per capita income. On the back of that prosperity and with the aid of Jimmy Hill, Coventry City was transformed from a third division to a top flight time.

They never won anything in the league, but they did win the FA Cup. I happened to be in the BBC Coventry studios earlier in the year to do something for BBC Jersey and there was the cup, the manager, some of the players and fans who could remember the victory. It was a proud day for the city which was then under the cosh economically.

Coventry has been trying to reinvent itself economically by placing a new emphasis on services and high technology. The football club has moved away from the tired Highfield Road ground to the Ricoh Arena.

Unfortunately, the club is only a tenant in the Ricoh and is some £28m in a debt. A takeover saga has been going on since February and there have been rumours of administration. There are now supposed to be two bidders in the frame, both of whom want to make Iain Dowie part of the future of the club. They obviously know quality when they see it.

You can see a short video I made earlier in the year on the Ricoh here, although you have to sit through some Leamington footage first:
Ricoh