Coventry City are scheduled to play at the Arena from 2005

More than 50 councillors attended a full council meeting on Thursday where they spent more than three hours debating whether to provide the funds needed to build a new stadium for Coventry City Football Club.

Twenty-nine councillors voted in favour of providing the bridging loan to complete the funding needed to build the 32,000-seat Coventry Arena, with only Conservative councillors voting against the scheme.

The scheme has been plagued with difficulties from the start, with the latest setback being the withdrawal of a major financial backer last month.

Social benefits

The directors of management company CV One urged city councillors to help finance the multi-purpose complex in Foleshill.

CV One said if the authority did not come up with the �21m, "major damage" would be inflicted on Coventry's economy and image and all that would be left of the scheme would be a Tesco superstore.

The Arena project is planned as a multi-purpose complex, with dining and conference facilities, a music venue, a hotel and a casino, as well as being the new home of Coventry City Football Club.

CV One chairman Martin Ritchley, who is also chief executive of Coventry Building Society, said the Arena project offered enormous economic and social benefits to the city.

Coventry City are scheduled to move into the stadium on the site of the former Foleshill gasworks in the summer of 2005.