How Daniel Gidney put Ricoh Arena on the map
Aug 21 2009 by Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post
As the Ricoh Arena celebrates its fourth anniversary, Tom Fleming caught up with the man putting the venue on the map.
The recent gathering of 60 people at the Ricoh Arena escaped most people’s attention.
The party at the £113 million development was to wish a happy 40th birthday to its chief executive Daniel Gidney, but that was a minor milestone for the Ricoh in the last 12 months.
Birmingham-born Gidney has helped transform the Ricoh into a sports, leisure and business complex of international standing which has attracted about five million people through its doors in four years.
Just days after his 40th birthday came news that the Ricoh would host at least three Rugby World Cup matches in 2015 to add to its recent star-studded guest list.
And last week the Ricoh threw its hat into the ring to attract Olympic football to the region’s second city as part of the 2012 London Games. Its track record suggests that it stands a good chance of succeeding.
Gidney might not have been the man that built the Ricoh but he – along with the Arena Coventry Ltd board – has been the man who has had to make it work. But the fact that Gidney is in the job, let alone succeeding, is as much down to his breakfast habits as it is his abilities.
He was merrily heading for a place on the main UK board of Sodexo, the world’s largest food and management services company, when he was running its hospitals division.
But then one Sunday he picked up the appointments section of his broadsheet newspaper and it changed the path of his career.
“There was a job advert for the Ricoh Arena chief executive,” Mr Gidney said. “I was certainly not looking to move but it did catch my attention because I had heard of the place and knew it was local.
“But then I read down the requirements for the job and everything I had done in my career to that date seemed to fit perfectly and that only intrigued me further.
“I don’t think it will ever happen to me again because it was such a perfect fit.
“You hear about people maybe tailoring their CVs to fit the job they are going for, but I genuinely didn’t do that. I had worked in sports marketing, leisure retail, health and concert promotion and ticketing which were all vital elements of the job here.”
Mr Gidney went for the job but his appointment did raise some eyebrows.
He said: “I think people were surprised that I had stepped out of a big corporate but there were several reasons why I did. I had always been in leisure management in previous jobs and it was what I had enjoyed the most.
“I had got, through Sodexo’s PFI operation, into contracting in the NHS so that probably tells you why I decided to move! Also, there was a lifestyle issue – I could be anywhere in the UK on any particular day and really was not at home as often as I wanted to be.
