Championship Rugby: Coventry for sale but club has Premiership future
Benefactor of Premiership hopefuls Coventry Rugby Jon Sharp sits down with CityAM to discuss why he’d sell up and walk away if the right party came along.
A brief poke under the bonnet of rugby union’s financials would be enough to frighten even Formula 1’s greatest mechanic away.
In so-called perfect France losses are mounting and in England clubs in the top tier have their backs to the wall; Wales have seen a region go under and the wider international game is on the hunt for sustainable, long-term investment.
But at Butts Park Arena, a stadium just four miles from the most recent resting place of former European champions Wasps, sits Coventry Rugby.
At its helm is Jon Sharp, the no-nonsense local boy-turned-multi-millionaire backer of the Championship team with around 95 per cent of the shares.
And his club is for sale.
I would walk away
“Provided the deal included the club [and not just a proposed area development],” he bluntly tells CityAM. “I would be willing to walk away.
“I don’t want to sound too bloody precious about it but I haven’t put £10m into this club to make any money out of it; I put that money in to develop it, and that has happened dramatically over the last few years.
“My mission is to see this club secured.”
Sharp wouldn’t, though, walk for any old wheelbarrow of cash, because Coventry are on the up and could be in the Premiership within a couple of years.
There’s a feeling in the sport that a 10-team Premiership up above might not be the long-term solution, with clubs in the top flight losing out on revenue with fewer matches at home.
But Sharp is focused on the here and now, and has set a two-season target to satisfy promotion needs as part of a wider transformation of Butts Park Arena and its surrounding area.
The club wants to increase the stadium’s capacity to 8,000 – with 10,000 then possible – while also building a new mixed-use scheme with affordable housing adjacent to the ground.
It’ll cost £50m-plus and increase the club’s value by 50 per cent, while a separate £1m refurbishment of facilities is taking place with donations welcome.
Coventry developing
“If people want to come along with £20,000-£50,000, and come as a benefactor knowing that you know they aren’t necessarily going to get the money back, you can do it through sponsorship or gift,” Sharp continues.
“If you wish to invest a bigger amount, we can provide shares.
“We have two companies, an operating company and then we have the property company, which owns a long lease to the stadium – currently about 99 years.
“We’ve already agreed with the council an extension of that to 250 years, and we’re also allowed additional uses, including concerts and that sort of thing [subject to planning permission, which isn’t far away].”
Championship two-tier league
Sharp doesn’t hold back on the state of the Championship, where Coventry sit third, either.
“The problem is that the Championship is a really mixed bag of clubs,” he says. “You’ve got the semi-pro clubs with no stand and temporary seats that meet the basic requirements for life in the league, and on the other end you have Ealing – the best funded club – who can’t develop the stadium because it’s in the middle of a housing estate.
“The Championship is probably a two-tier league.”
Coventry sit in the upper echelons of that league and at its heart is another benefactor who has pumped cash into a team with ambition.
But Sharp has what many others don’t, an escape plan. Though the tone of his voice suggests any form of majority sale would be done with a heavy heart. His approach is admirable, and seemingly the right one.