Rugby sevens matches were held at the venue from last Friday (July 29) until Sunday (July 31), following on from several concerts.

Coventry were due to play their first home match of the season in the Championship, English football's second tier, against Rotherham United today.

However, concerns over the state of the pitch led to the match being postponed until a later date.

The club expressed its frustration at the match being unable to take place.

"We are very frustrated that the pitch at the Arena is not up to standard, and share the huge disappointment that fans, players and staff will feel that our opening home game has been postponed under these circumstances," a statement read.

"Promised investment by the Arena into a new pitch has unfortunately not materialised over the Summer, which has been compounded by concerts on the pitch and then a huge amount of use at the Commonwealth Games last weekend.

"We appreciate the efforts in difficult circumstances that have been made by the Grounds Staff who work for the Arena."

Club chief executive Dave Boddy added that the club was "extremely disappointed", and agreed with the inspecting official.

"Last season the condition of the pitch was highlighted as a concern and we expected that this would be addressed by Wasps and the Arena, who are responsible for the pitch, over the Summer - sadly this has not been the case, and this is the result of that, plus the large amount of use at the Commonwealth Games last week," Boddy said.

Coventry City are also due to play a League Cup match against Bristol City at the Coventry Stadium, known as the Coventry Building Society Arena for sponsorship reasons, on Wednesday (August 10), with updates on the status of the fixture promised in due course from the club.

A Birmingham 2022 spokesperson said that the Organising Committee were tenants of the Arena for the duration of the Games, but that it had been flexible on its schedule to enable football matches to be held.

"Birmingham 2022 signed an official tenancy agreement for the use of the Coventry Stadium and Coventry Arena from 8 July until August 14," the spokesperson said.

"After a contract was signed for Coventry City Football Club to return to the Coventry Stadium, Birmingham 2022 was asked whether it could accommodate CCFC matches within our tenancy.

"To assist the football club, we rearranged our derigging schedule to make the stadium available on 7, 10 and 14 August.

"It has been a busy summer at the Coventry Stadium, and as has been planned for several years, we were pleased to stage rugby sevens matches at the venue on 29, 30 and 31 July."

A spokesperson for the Arena described the postponement as "unfortunate", as reported by the BBC.

"Coventry City were understandably keen to play at home despite the extremely short turnaround following the Commonwealth Games, and Birmingham 2022 agreed to accommodate the request, despite having an exclusive tenancy agreement until 14 August," the spokesperson was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"We are implementing an action plan to ensure the pitch is repaired and available as soon as possible."

Coventry City played their home matches at Birmingham City's St Andrews for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, having failed to agree a deal with rugby union club and landlords Wasps.

They returned to Coventry at the start of the 2021-2022 campaign.

The club had previously held its home matches at Northampton Town in 2013 and 2014.

The venue opened its doors in 2005, and held football matches at the London 2012 Olympics.

The adjacent Coventry Arena held judo and wrestling events at Birmingham 2022.

Birmingham was awarded the Commonwealth Games in 2017, after Durban in South Africa was stripped of hosting rights.

Birmingham City brought their Championship fixture against Huddersfield Town forward by 24 hours, playing it on Friday (August 5) rather than yesterday as originally schedule.

According to their opponents, this was because the home club was "unable to obtain stewards and medical cover for the date due to the Commonwealth Games".

Major multi-sport events regularly impact domestic sport schedules while they are ongoing.

Scottish football club Celtic played two home UEFA Champions League qualifying matches at national rugby union stadium Murrayfield in Edinburgh at the start of 2014-2015 season, to avoid a clash with the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony held at Celtic Park.

Major fixtures including rugby union's Top 14 final in 2024 have also been moved from Paris to avoid a clash with the Olympics and Paralympics.