COVENTRY City have provided an ‘update and clarification’ on post-match road closures affecting supporters following the club’s home games at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
The A444 Jimmy Hill Way road closure is in place for all major events of significant scale at the CBS Arena – including Coventry’s home matches.
And Coventry have responded to supporters’ concerns regarding the road closures with a statement clarifying the reasons why the closures came into force.
The statement reads: “During this time, the football club and the Coventry Building Society Arena have been monitoring comments from our supporters via various channels, both positive and negative. It is important the club provides an update on the closure and clarifies the purpose of the closure.
“Following several regular audits from the Local Authority via the Safety Advisory Group last season, there were concerns raised about the safety of mass supporter exit from the stadium, especially with the growing crowds. This was further impacted by number of near misses, which highlighted the need for some form of action to reduce the risk of a major incident. As part of this review there was also feedback from West Midlands Police Counter Terrorism Unit regarding safety and the measures which needed to be put in place with mass crowds which can been seen at a number of other venues around the country.
“During the close season, the instruction from the Local Authority through the Safety Advisory Group was to implement a road closure on all large events at the Coventry Building Society Arena which involve a mass exit – the purpose being, to ensure safety of people leaving the stadium. The instruction provided was that the closure should come into force from the start of the 2024/25 season.
“With Coventry Building Society Arena event team holding the match day safety certificate and running all safety operations on a matchday, this would fall under their remit. The Club and Coventry Building Society Arena work closely to ensure safety is at the front of everything we do, including that everybody who attends our games gets home safely.
“We appreciate that the local roadworks in the area at this time are also contributing to delays for some supporters and will continue to work collaboratively to reduce any inconvenience that is being caused. As part of this, we are continuing to monitor congestion via a number of methods, including drones and road cameras to ensure that we continue to adapt.
“We encourage supporters to provide feedback to the Club or to the Coventry Building Society Arena so we can continue to monitor progress.
“We understand the frustration from some supporters, as we know fans want to get on their way promptly after a game, but we want to ensure everybody gets home safely.”
Supporters responded to the statement on the club’s X account with many left frustrated by the length of time the post-match road closure measures are in place for.
One X user posted: “There is no need to close the roads for as long as you do. The roads are empty of fans long before you reopen the roads. You don’t seem to care about fans being massively delayed. Not good enough.”
Another X user said: “You state a number of near misses, how many? Give the full facts that shaped this decision. I, along with many other supporters do not live in the local area. I now have a three-hour journey home rather than two hours. If it carries on, I fear many won’t bother coming at all.”
Another supporter posted: “At least review the time the traffic is held for, the initial rush of pedestrians crossing is dangerous, but as the crowd dies down and less people are crossing they will not blindly follow others across.”
Another X user said: “An appalling decision to close roads around the CBS. Not all Cov fans live in Cov. Had season tickets for over seven years and post-match chaos is making us reconsider renewing.”
