Now, with Premier League football back in the city and the CBS Arena finally under club ownership, Richard Chamberlain believes the atmosphere is changing beyond recognition.
Until recently, Chamberlain estimates that “99% of Coventry fans” would have taken the chance to return to Highfield Road, the club's old home which was abandoned in 2005.
That tells its own story.
The Ricoh, now the CBS Arena, was bigger and newer, but it never immediately felt like home. Coventry were tenants, ownership changed hands, the club were forced out and there were periods when thousands of empty seats made the stadium feel even more detached.
“Being there when there's a few thousand, you know, a 32,000-seat stadium like we've got with 8,000 people in it, it rattles around a little bit,” Chamberlain tells Football Presse.
That was Coventry in League Two, playing in a stadium designed for much bigger occasions.
Chamberlain remembers the contrast with Highfield Road, where the closeness of the ground helped generate an atmosphere that the new stadium initially struggled to replicate.
“When it's more enclosed, it's obviously better atmosphere.”
The difference now is striking.
Coventry have returned to the Premier League after 25 years away, and the club's first season back has coincided with something supporters had spent two decades waiting for: ownership of their own stadium.
Doug King finally completed the purchase of the CBS Arena from Frasers Group in August 2025, bringing the football club and its home under the same ownership.
For Chamberlain, that has changed the relationship between supporters and the ground.
“The difference now is unbelievable.”
The evidence is visible in the demand for tickets.
“So, to have been there for those at that time and to be there now with a waiting list for season tickets is incredible.”
The transformation is particularly striking because of what came before it.
Coventry left Highfield Road in 2005 and spent years dealing with uncertainty over the ownership and future of the replacement stadium. They played home matches in Northampton during one of the darkest periods in the club's history and later moved to Birmingham before returning to Coventry.
Now the club have a stadium of their own and Premier League football to put inside it.
That changes what a Coventry matchday looks and feels like.
The Premier League schedule is already bringing some very different nights to the CBS Arena. Newcastle United visit on October 12, with Ipswich Town due in December and Liverpool arriving for a February evening fixture.
Chamberlain believes supporters are about to discover another major difference between the Championship and the top flight.
“The Premier League is a totally different animal to the Championship.”
Part of that difference happens away from the stadium.
As a former player, Chamberlain explains that Premier League clubs have considerably more time to prepare for individual opponents than teams dealing with the relentless Saturday-Tuesday rhythm of the EFL.
“You get more time to prepare, more time to analyse the team, more time to try things with players in the week.”
That preparation makes the top flight harder to navigate, particularly for newly promoted sides.
“The Premier League, that's why the big teams — Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City — they get a lot of time to prepare for the lower clubs like Burnley, like Nottingham Forest.
“And that's why you always don't get much slip-up because they're so detailed in their work.”
There is, however, one window when Chamberlain believes the established order can become vulnerable.
“The only time when it comes where you've got chance to beat the bigger teams is when they play in Europe in Champions League. Yeah, that's the time when the lower teams see an opportunity of beating the bigger teams.”
For Coventry supporters, the significance goes beyond results.
The club have spent years waiting simply to feel settled again. Highfield Road remains part of the emotional history, but Chamberlain believes the CBS Arena is finally beginning to create memories of its own.
Previously, there were too many empty seats, too much uncertainty and too many reasons for supporters to feel that the stadium belonged to somebody else.
Now Coventry own it.
And with Premier League opponents arriving under the floodlights, the very stadium that once felt soulless is becoming the setting for a new generation of memories.
The Highfield Road years will never disappear.
But Chamberlain's point is that Coventry no longer need to live in them.
“For the first time, you feel like there's actually memories being made in the CBS.”
Richard Chamberlain is author of "Back at Last: How Coventry City Finally Returned to the Premier League" from Pitch Publishing - which is available here.
