{"id":528375,"date":"2026-04-13T11:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528375\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:18:11","slug":"doug-king-explains-his-next-big-ambition-after-seeing-coventry-city-return-to-the-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528375\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug King explains his next big ambition after seeing Coventry City return to the Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doug King this week realised his ambition to see Coventry City return to the Premier League<\/a> \u2013 the club\u2019s automatic promotion pretty much assured due to an impressively high goal difference.<\/p>\n

The club owner\u2019s next task, of course, is trying to keep the Sky Blues<\/a> in the top division in a sustainable way, preferably without yo-yoing between the Championship every other season.<\/p>\n

A club like Brentford provides a decent model of how to achieve that goal, the Bees having been a relatively stable fixture among English football\u2019s elite for the last five years.<\/p>\n

Owning a football club is a financial commitment with plenty of risks, but King took the plunge in 2023 and has already ploughed in what must be getting on for around the \u00a3100m mark when considering the stadium cost \u00a350m while player and infrastructure costs have got to be around the \u00a340m mark, not to mention the purchase of the club in the first place.<\/p>\n

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Asked if those figures are about right, the 59-year-old businessman told CoventryLive: \u201cI don\u2019t really talk about that but look, you can do your maths, alright.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe report our results and you can see the loss that we made (\u00a320m for the financial year ending in 2025). In the first year we did some player trading (selling Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer to the tune of about \u00a335m), we invested everything on top of that, spent a lot of money on transfers, did the infrastructure (training ground and pitch improvements) and we\u2019ve got operating losses every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you can calculate it out. Obviously the stadium (price) is in the public domain so look, there\u2019s an investment. Now I put it more as \u2013 apart from the operating losses that obviously are gone \u2013 we\u2019ve invested in the longer term, in the sustainability of the football club and we\u2019ve invested in players that we have grown in stature around their value.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me, we\u2019ve translated money and some of it has been lost, gone and forgotten and that\u2019s what you have to do. And obviously I had to buy the club in the first place. The next phase is, how do you make it far more sustainable and be competitive?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I want to do. I\u2019m not in this game to fudge in FFI (Future Financial Information), muck around and try and spend all my billions that I haven\u2019t got into it. What I\u2019m much more interested in doing is making this a high quality Premier League football team, ultimately, that can stay there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut really making a great, sustainable football club that isn\u2019t reliant forever on just billionaire-type of funding because I don\u2019t think that is necessarily always the right approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think we\u2019ve seen that with Matt Benham (owner) at Brentford. I mean, they\u2019ve still put plenty of money in but they\u2019ve converted money into player value and then they trade, and then they get a bit more sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at some point they may sell some equity. I think he sold some equity and they work it all out. But they do it in a proper business way rather than, \u2018I\u2019ve got a load of money\u2019 way and let\u2019s go and do what we want to do because I want to have a team that\u2019s top six in the Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n

The London club’s high profile sales in recent years include: Bryan Mbeumo (\u00a365m, 2025\/26 – Man Utd), Yoane Wissa (\u00a350m, 2025\/26 – Newcastle), Ivan Toney (\u00a340m, 2024\/25 – Al-Ahli), David Raya (\u00a327m with clauses, 2023\/24 – Arsenal), Ollie Watkins (\u00a330m, 2020\/21 – Aston Villa) and Said Benrahma (\u00a330m, 2020\/21 – West Ham).<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/p>\n

Bryan Mbeumo was sold by Brentford to Manchester United for around \u00a365m last summer(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

So is Brentford \u2013 currently seventh in the Premier League table \u2013 a model that he admires and aspires to follow?<\/p>\n

\u201cBrentford\u2019s a different club to Coventry<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, Coventry is in a fantastic position in the country. There\u2019s a lot of history, a much larger fanbase, much more pedigree in its historical achievements. So I think it has different sort of, I would say, ceilings than a Brentford.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo disrespect to Brentford but it\u2019s where it is and has achieved great things coming from a low-ish standpoint in its history. Great things for them to be achieving what they\u2019re achieving, and that tells us what can be done in football. It\u2019s 11 against 11, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the issue is that I think this city and this gateway to the Midlands is a bit untapped. We\u2019ve never been together as a combined unit and therefore our ability to aspire should be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bournemouth are another example of a club doing impressive things despite a limited fanbase and stadium that holds just over 11,000. The Cherries first gained promotion to the Premier League in 2015, managing to stay for five years. Two season back in the Championship was followed by promotion in 2022 and the club have stayed up ever since, and are currently 10th in the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadium is small and getting up out of the Championship with a small stadium where a lot of your revenue is match day is incredibly difficult,\u201d said King.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I take my hat off. It would be much better if there wasn\u2019t a distortion of parachute payments where, even this year, we\u2019ll see who gets promoted. It could easily be two out of three, again, who go up from parachute payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coventry have bucked that trend but Ipswich now look favourites to take the second automatic promotion spot while in-form Southampton are building up a head of steam for a determined play-off campaign \u2013 the latter two looking for a swift return.<\/p>\n

It makes City\u2019s achievement all the more incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think it is,\u201d agreed King, who has long been campaigning for a fairer distribution of broadcasting money to bring an end to the trend of parachute clubs having a major advantage over their Championship rivals every year.<\/p>\n

Asked if he fears that he, or Coventry City<\/a>, could become the victims of the change he\u2019s trying to bring about if the club get relegated, he insisted: \u201cI\u2019m okay with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, the speed of that things move, I\u2019m sure that having been here for three and a half years where there were discussions prior to the regulator coming in of new terms that haven\u2019t come to fruition. The regulator is in and we\u2019ve had some meetings with the regulator. Am I optimistic that we\u2019re going go at high speed? Probably not, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s that difficult but the Football League and the Premier League have run their institutions how they\u2019ve run them for quite a number of years, a lot of years. They couldn\u2019t agree, for a lot of reasons, how to redeploy some of the broadcasting revenues and to handle the parachute together. They couldn\u2019t do it, it seems.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo therefore, there had to be somebody to come in and do it because it has to be done. And so obviously that\u2019s where the regulator comes in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to focus on that, on how the distribution of funds and the distortion of the parachute payments, particularly, is the critical thing. That is the critical thing. I don\u2019t really want to be duplicating a test of whether you\u2019re fit to do this or do that, or who\u2019s your director.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, one or two slip through, as they do in everything where it hasn\u2019t quite gone how they\u2019d have hoped and everybody gets a bit distressed. But these people, even the Sheffield Wednesday owner has left a lot of money on the table. He\u2019s not done it deliberately.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s disappointing for those fans to see that that\u2019s come to that but the issue is, businesses do fail and this is not a good business. And it isn\u2019t a good business because of the distribution, and the distortion is making it an incredibly challenging business, especially in the Championship.”<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing in League One today is the owners moving to try and make it a far more sustainable from League One down because they\u2019ve also had enough of playing catch-up and huge losses, EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization, and Restructuring or Rent costs).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you keep having loss making businesses you will attract not the right sort of people to run those businesses or to own those businesses. In my view, you\u2019ll attract fast money and people who want to have something for whatever reason because the proper business people who want to develop the brand, develop the things, are looking at it and going, it doesn\u2019t look good on my EBITDAR metrics, or I\u2019m going to have to rely on huge trading.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they need to get a handle on that, and that\u2019s where they need to be focussed to get a better deal, better redistribution because the spread has gone too crazy. I mean, we get a solidarity payment from the Premier League of five and a half million quid. We get broadcasting rights in the EFL of five and a half million quid, so that\u2019s \u00a311million quid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promotion to the Premier League is said to be worth around \u00a3200m, so you can see the size of the disparity and task ahead for King and his club, Coventry City, to keep it competitive while on a financial even keel.<\/p>\n

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