If we ignore success for a minute, one thing Hill did (or so I understand, being way too young to actually have been there) was embed the club in the community and make matches an event.
I don't mean one or two crap players turn up and give a half arsed training session to bored kids in Man Utd tops, but actually aim to put the club at the center of Coventry life. I read in the program a story about him going into a chip shop after a game and asking the kid behind the counter if he'd been to a game, after the kid asked "what game" he cam back next week with a ticket.
It's that expectation that everyone will be there and trying his hardest to make it a fun and social event for everyone involved. The Sky Blue Train, pop and crisps, etc. etc.
The halftime entertainment is crap, the build up is crap, the visibility of the club is crap. No, I don't have great answers, because I'm not a visionary, but we need someone who is.
Some suggestions:
- Transport to games: make it fun, join up with the guy who runs the barge, sort out busses from Kenilworth, Leamington, etc and paint them sky blue, have face painting inside and maybe a different ex player on the bus. Make it one big party each week going through the county to the Ricoh. Make kids BEG to be taken again next week, not for the football but the experience.
- At games: do something to get people there early. co-ordinate with the transport so the party continues from 2 till kick off.
- For the adults - co-ordinate with local pubs and the casino. Make a pub "the official Sky Blue Inn" and again put support in from ex players, drunken penalty shootout games, etc. Get people going well before they hit the Ricoh. After matches get people into the casino for analysis and drowing of sorrows/celebrations. Maybe even get Thorn to do a post-match fan conference, radical yes, but so was Hill.
- Bring back the Sky Blue Train (or an equivalent coach) for away days.
- Have people in the town center on the morning of home games actively trying to sell tickets.
- Promote the game at the rugby and the ice hockey, maybe joint tickets with discounts, and do the reverse for them. Let's support Coventry as a whole.
You shouldn't be able to go a week in this city without seeing sky blue and the club's name. Yes the miserable gits will go "oh that's so lame" because they think it's not cool to actually have fun, but the majority will have a blast and with that will bring people along for reasons other than the football.
Like I said, I'm not a professional, just a City fan with some ideas, maybe there are other, better ones out there, but the concept is sound and has been used to great effect in this city before.
