These are dramatic days for the EFL Championship club Coventry City. The club that was a regular Premier League competitor in the 1990s is now on the verge of becoming homeless after the stadium they play they home matches has been bought by notorious businessman Mike Ashley.Coventry Building Society Arena has been Coventry City’s home since 2005, but the football club has never been the owner of the stadium. And looking at the club’s problems in the past 17 years, it’s clear that it’s a recipe for disaster. Simply put – if the wrong person bought your stadium, you could find yourself in a world of trouble.Mike Ashley’s group have told Coventry City they’re not welcome at their stadium anymore ⛔️ pic.twitter.com/VDUJJjbycB— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) December 5, 2022 Following a rent dispute between Coventry City and the company tasked with running the stadium, ACL, the football club left the arena in 2013 and played their home matches in Northampton for over a year before returning in September 2014. It was only the beginning. Local rugby club Wasps bought ACL and started bossing the stadium, which led to Coventry City leaving the stadium once again in 2019 for two years.Now, the Sky Blues will be forced to leave the stadium for the third time – after former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley purchased Frasers, the company owning the stadium complex. Frasers do not believe they are bound by the previous licence agreement with the stadium’s former owners, Wasps rugby club, who went into administration on 18 October.##NAJAVA_MECA_6870150##As a result, Coventry City have officially been “issued with an eviction notice” by the new owners of the Coventry Building Society Arena. Ashley took over the stadium two weeks ago after the previous owners filed for administration. During that time, Coventry were briefly looking at alternative stadiums but were then given assurances that they could continue playing at the CBS Arena. However, nothing will come of it, just like nothing ever came out of the club’s attempts to purchase the stadium and become the kings of their castle. Now there is no castle – and they certainly aren’t kings of anything.Every Newcastle fan after seeing what Mike Ashley is doing to Coventry City #NUFC pic.twitter.com/aFKNDC0nhC— Liam (@LiamK1998_) December 5, 2022 Club officials have been informed that they have to return their keys, their access cards. They’ve also been given what’s been called a reasonable amount of time to remove property owned by the Sky Blues.Coventry are away to Reading when their Championship campaign resumes on Saturday, and their next scheduled home fixture is against Swansea on 17 December.But the question now stares everyone in the face: where is Coventry City’s home if it’s not in the city of Coventry?
