Coventry City are celebrating winning two awards for its
matchday hospitality at the Ricoh Arena in a prestigious national
competition.
The Sky Blues scooped the Championship's Matchday Hospitality
Experience Award 2011 at the seventh Football Hospitality Awards,
organised by Stadium Experience, which were held at the home of
Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
Head chef Tom Harris along with Lee Conlin, Jim Penistone, Sarah
Butler and Duncan Mitchell also received a Merit for the Chef Team
of the Year category.
Paul Clouting, chief executive at Coventry City, said the awards
were due to the outstanding efforts of everyone involved in
matchday hospitality from the stewards to the chefs.
"This is the first time we have won the Matchday Hospitality
Experience Award and we are all thrilled," he said.
"Judges came along to our match against Watford on April 2 and
looked at every aspect from the moment guests arrive in the atrium
and the standard of food served to the view from their seats in the
stadium to post-match activities.
"We put a great deal of thought into our hospitality packages
and we pride ourselves on providing a Premier League standard of
service.
"The hospitality experience is underpinned by the food and
choice served by our catering team in all the hospitality
lounges.
"We have beaten competition from our Midlands rivals including
Leicester City and Derby County and it is fantastic for the Ricoh
Arena to be recognised in this manner.
"It is another great achievement for both the club and the Ricoh
Arena and the best possible way for the behind-the-scenes staff to
finish the 2010/11 campaign."
Stadium Experience chairman Lisette Maas said: "Each club taking
part in the Matchday Hospitality Experience Award was independently
visited by a professional catering judge from Salon Culinaire over
a period of six months.
"They were all marked on criteria including service efficiency,
food quality, venue standards and even presentation of matchday
marketing sales literature.
"The recognition given to those nominated and winning awards at
the awards evening is vital to the morale and continued dedication
of the catering and events departments at our football clubs.
"They work tirelessly behind the scenes on matchdays and
non-matchdays to ensure that in some instances up to 90,000
visitors are catered for."