Coventry stadium timeline: Everything that has happened since Sky Blues last played in the Premier League

Coventry City are finally back in the big time after 25 years away, and it would be fair to say that everyone at the club is full of excitement for the Premier League season ahead, even if initial results have not gone their way.

Frank Lampard's Sky Blues earned promotion by claiming Championship glory in 2025-26, lifting the trophy after finishing on 95 points – 11 clear of second-placed Ipswich Town – and they will be desperate to re-establish themselves as Premier League regulars.

Coventry's old ground, Highfield Road, was a veritable fixture in the English top flight until the club's relegation, given they spent 34 straight years in the division between 1967 and 2001.

However, the Sky Blues are returning to the Premier League with the Coventry Building Society Arena as their home, having switched venues in 2005, though the story is far more complex than one simple change.

Here, Football Ground Guide goes over the Coventry stadium timeline, taking a look at everything that has happened since the Sky Blues last played in the Premier League.

2001: A stadium odyssey

Coventry had plans to build a new 45,000-seater stadium (as part of a £135m sports, retail and leisure complex) by the end of the 2000-01 season, but delays were compounded by the financial implications of being relegated in May that term, which led to a cascade of issues off the pitch.

The withdrawal of several contractors and financiers in 2002 – as well as the failure of England's bid to host the 2006 World Cup – saw the club's ambitious designs downsized to a more simple 32,500-capacity bowl stadium.

In September 2002, Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) was formed in conjunction with Coventry City Council in order to manage the scaled back-development, and decontamination of the new ground's site continued.

By July 2004, construction had been underway for around a year, and the pitch and stands of the stadium were clearly visible.

Coventry won their final game at Highfield Road 6-2 against Midlands rivals Derby County in front of a sold out crowd in April 2005, with Elton John holding a concert at the stadium before the Sky Blues waved goodbye to the ground that had been their home for 106 years.

The Ricoh Arena opens (2005-12):

On August 20, 2005, Coventry triumphed 3-0 against Queens Park Rangers to win their inaugural home game at the newly-opened Ricoh Arena. Bryan Adams became the first concert performer at the arena in September that year.

In July 2011, a bronze statue of club-legend Jimmy Hill was unveiled at the entrance to the stadium, with £150,000 reportedly raised by supporters and local businesses towards the cost. Unfortunately, the Sky Blues were relegated from the Championship to League One in 2012, falling out of the top two tiers for the first time in 48 years.

The summer of 2012 saw Ricoh Arena host 12 Olympic football matches, with the ground being temporarily renamed the ‘City of Coventry Stadium' due to sponsorship rules.

Rent dispute and Northampton exile (2012–2014)

In December 2012, Coventry City owners SISU Capital engaged in a high-profile spat with Arena Coventry Limited over rent and matchday revenues, and ACL set a deadline of the 27th for outstanding rent to be paid.

Coventry City were taken to court over rent arrears of £1.3m, and subsequently put themselves into administration in March 2013, shifting all staff and club shop stock away from the ground.

That summer, the club announced that Northampton Town's Sixfields would be their home venue for the 2013-14 campaign, though fans were furious and launched a boycott in response to the team being moved around 35 miles from Coventry – the highest home attendance of the season was just 4,905.

In August 2014, ACL and SISU struck a two-year agreement that would see the Sky Blues return to Ricoh Arena, with the club paying out £470,000 to ACL, complying with a ruling by the Football League.

Wasps arrive, a fragile home (2014–2019)

In October 2014, Wasps rugby club announced that they would be playing their home matches at Ricoh Arena from December onwards, before confirming they had purchased the final 50% of the stadium's shares from the Alan Edward Higgs Charity. As a result, Coventry City became the tenants of the rugby club.

A year later, the Sky Blues extended their agreement to stay until 2018, and once again until 2019.

However, disappointment would follow on the pitch, as Coventry were relegated to League Two in 2016-17, leaving fans with the EFL Trophy to serve as consolation.

June 2019 brought further turmoil off the pitch, after Coventry failed to agree terms on another extension to stay at Ricoh Arena, and announced their groundshare with Birmingham City at St Andrew's for the upcoming season.

Second exile: Birmingham groundshare (2019–2021)

Coventry announced a second spell in seven years away from their home, staying at St Andrew's for 2019-20 and 2020-21.

In the summer of 2020, the Sky Blues and the University of Warwick announced their intention to build a new stadium on campus, and while more detailed plans for a 118-acre eco park were published in 2021, no formal planning application was submitted.

Return to Coventry (2021–2022)

Coventry City agreed a 10-year deal with Wasps that allowed them to return to the arena from 2021-22, with a clause to enable a move to any potential new stadium at the University of Warwick. In May 2021, the ground was renamed the Coventry Building Society (CBS) Arena.

The club lose their opening game back on home turf 2-1 against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the North Stand is reopened for fans for the first time since 2014.

In October 2022, Wasps Holdings entered administration, before the stadium's operator Arena Coventry Limited followed suit in November. On the 17th of the month, the arena fell under the ownership of Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, and all Wasps signage is removed from the venue within a couple of weeks.

December 2022 saw Frasers Group hand Coventry a notice of eviction, but they were able to agree a short-term deal to stay at the ground until May 2023.

Coventry City buy the stadium (2023-2025)

With mere weeks remaining on their deal, Coventry and Frasers Group put pen to paper on a five-year license for the club to play at CBS Arena.

Notably, the agreement included a clause that meant no other sports team were allowed to play home games at the stadium, a feature reportedly designed in response to the pitch damage caused by Wasps in the past.

The Sky Blues missed out on promotion to the Premier League in 2022-23, losing the Championship playoff final 6-5 on penalties against Luton Town.

In July 2025, owner Doug King wrote to Coventry City Council regarding the possibility of building a new 40,000-seater stadium on the Butts Park Arena site, but the plans did not progress, with the chairman of Coventry Rugby Club describing the proposal is ‘unfeasible'.

A month later, Coventry announced their acquisition of CBS Arena from Frasers Group, making them landlords of their own ground exactly 20 years on from their first competitive match there.

Promotion and CBS Arena investment (2025-2026)

Lampard's Coventry clinched promotion back to the Premier League after 25 years away by winning the Championship in 2025-26, and quickly set about preparing the CBS Arena for the step up.

In July 2026, a 15,000-square-foot retail and fan entertainment space opened inside the CBS Arena, featuring a revamped club shop, upgraded hospitality areas, a DJ booth, a Sky Blue Archive exhibition called “The Story,” and racing simulators in partnership with the TGR Haas F1 Team.

The club also announced a joint investment of more than £15m with venue management company Legends Global, intended to position the stadium as one of the country's premier year-round destinations for sport, live music, exhibitions and conferences.

Approximately £2.5m of that figure was designated to deliver immediate, visible improvements for the 2026-27 campaign, with the remainder to be implemented over the next three years, focused on providing redesigned kiosks, new premium hospitality experiences and improvements to technology and infrastructure.

All-in-all, it would be fair to say that Coventry and their stadium have endured a turbulent 25 years since being relegated from the Premier League, but with the CBS Arena under the Sky Blues' ownership and the club back in the top flight, the future is looking bright.