The first AGM of Ipswich Town PLC post-takeover passed quietly in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite in the Greene King Stand on Wednesday evening. Around 300 of the 3,875 shareholders in the PLC, which holds a 12.5% stake in the club, were in attendance.

Chairman David Sheepshanks, flanked by fellow PLC board members Martin Pitcher, Derek Bowden, Roger Finbow, Philip Hope-Cobbold, John Kerr and Richard Moore plus manager Jim Magilton, opened the meeting with an address shorter than in previous years.

Sheepshanks started by explaining why the carrying value of the PLC had been written down by £3,745,000 to £500,000, the directors having determined that its value had been impaired, with the new figure representing an estimate of the present value of the 12.5% stake, taking into account current factors and conditions.

He added that this value would increase if and when the club was back in the Premier League and that the reduction was not related to any plan to sell the PLC's stake to Marcus Evans, as had been suggested by some shareholders.

Sheepshanks thanked resigning PLC board members Kevin Beeston and Holly Bellingham, neither of whom were present at the AGM, for their work over the years.

In his speech, the Town chairman said that new owner Marcus Evans respects and supports the club's values and had been as good as his word with respect to his investment over the last year.

After Sheepshanks's address, questions were taken from the floor with the first subject to come under the spotlight season ticket payment plans. A shareholder asked whether the club plans to introduce a scheme used at other clubs whereby supporters can purchase their tickets over the course of the season, rather than just four months as is currently the case at Town.

Chief executive Derek Bowden said that details of next season's season tickets will go out in the next two or three weeks and that the club would be "foolish not to recognise and focus on the reality of the current climate.”

TWTD understands that Town will freeze prices at their current levels and will introduce a direct debit payment method running through much of the season, although the club is yet to confirm that this will be the case.

The next question centred around the future of the academy with Sheepshanks stating that it was still vital to the club and Bowden also impressing its importance.

Jim Magilton said it was very much the focal point of the club and that we'd see the next player off the production line making his debut this season, presumably striker Connor Wickham.

Talk moved on to John Gorman's introduction as assistant manager with Magilton saying he has wanted someone experienced alongside him since he became boss in 2006, Bryan Klug having fulfilled the first team coach's position until recently taking on a role as development coach.

Klug's ability to bring young players through was praised, while Magilton said exiting academy manager Tony Humes had done "an outstanding job” in his time in charge of the youth set-up.

Moving on to financial matters, a question was raised regarding an item on the summary of the overall club accounts provided to shareholders along with their PLC report and accounts.

The item referred to "interest receivable and similar income” at £352,000, presumably relating to the £32 million debt bought by Marcus Evans.

The question was answered by Martin Pitcher, Marcus Evans's representative on the PLC board, who said: "No interest has been paid, nothing has been paid to the Marcus Evans Group whatsoever.”

Pitcher said that the debt had been acquired for tax reasons relating to a future Town period in the Premier League. With profits high in the Premier League, the debts would help reduce the amount of tax the club would pay.

He added that with the deal to sign Luciano Civelli now complete, the initial £12 million injected by Marcus Evans had been spent, but that further money would be pumped into the Blues.

A questioner asked if Marcus Evans could communicate more with fans. Derek Bowden responded, saying that Evans was very private and enjoyed his anonymity but is not unwilling to communicate via the media or the club programme. However, Bowden said Evans will not be as visible as David Sheepshanks has been in the past but is likely to communicate more in future than he has up to now.

Martin Pitcher added that Evans sees his role as a provider of finance and someone who will set the strategy and build a management team, but doesn't want to do the jobs of Derek Bowden, communications director Terry Baxter or club secretary Sally Webb.

The issue of radio rights proved the most controversial of the evening with a shareholder asking why the club opted to switch to Heart (formerly SGR) at the start of this season.

Bowden said that the contract was put out to tender and they opted for the Heart bid. One fan said he was unhappy with the number of adverts and quality of the coverage to applause from the floor.

The chief executive said the decision wasn't financial and that the comments of shareholders will be noted and that radio coverage, along with everything else, is something which the club constantly reviews. Heart's contract has another two seasons to run after this one.

A shareholder asked whether anyone knew of a surviving Town player older than 98-year-old Robert Wilby. Finidi George's name was quietly whispered around the room.

The poor quality of the reserve league was mentioned as it is every year with David Sheepshanks explaining that the issue developed from the Premier League expelling Football League sides from its reserve leagues in 2006.

While Town were keen on setting up a Championship reserve competition, Midlands sides were less interested, preferring instead to play informal friendlies amongst themselves. That left the formation of a quality reserve league impossible.

Sheepshanks said he had made efforts to try to instigate a Championship reserve league again last summer but was voted down. However, he said the Combination Cup had come about as a result of this summer's discussions, which meant the Blues would play more Championship reserve sides this season.

A shareholder complained that rather than having a home match one week and an away game the next, this season's games had been all over the place. Sheepshanks said that the situation would be worse if we were in the Premier League and that it was the fault of FIFA and UEFA.

The summer World Cup and European Championships cause the season to be compressed. He added that everyone would like to see the season start and end later, but that that wouldn't happen.

Another shareholder asked why tickets for the Chelsea FA Cup tie were sold via Planet Blue rather than through the Ticket Office, which would have allowed three more staff to deal with queuing supporters.

Sales and marketing director Andrew Goulborn said that in order to utilise the additional windows in the Ticket Office, three staff would have had to have been taken off the busier telephone operation. Goulborn revealed that the club received 15,000 calls in the first hour that Chelsea tickets went on sale to season ticket holders.

One fan asked why the clock on the Portman Road scoreboard didn't continue to count down the minutes of injury time. David Sheepshanks said this was the case for all clubs and that it is considered to be "invading the discretion of the referee” to do so.

Jim Magilton, perhaps surprisingly, jumped to the defence of referees, saying that the club had carried out an experiment with a stopwatch to check the length of time added on at the end of the game and found the official to be spot on with his additional minutes.

Where the list of teams is printed in the programme produced a lengthy debate with Town currently showing them on the inside cover rather than the back. Communications director Terry Baxter said that there were obvious financial concerns relating to adverts on the back cover, but a straw poll suggested shareholders preferred teams to be on the back page rather than the inside back cover or in the middle pages.

Baxter said the club was looking at different ideas for next season and shareholders' opinions would be kept in mind.

Jim Magilton was asked about new signing Luciano Civelli. He said the Argentinian midfielder had been on a mid-season break while the deal was going through and so therefore was not fully match fit. There was a possibility that he would be in the squad for Saturday but that he would have to be "got up to speed”. Magilton praised his new signing's quality on the ball.

A less than serious question on the club's recent use of a hypnotist was given somewhat short shrift, prior to a shareholder stating how much he felt fans wanted out-of-contract defender Alex Bruce to remain at the club and how highly he was regarded.

Jim Magilton said there was no one with a higher regard for Bruce than him, the former Birmingham man having played more games for him than anyone else. The Town boss said the Irish international had been offered a good deal.

The final question related to the ‘Jim out' banner which appeared at a number of games around Christmas. A shareholder said he'd walk around the ground parading a banner proclaiming a similar message aimed those with the other banner. Magilton said that that sort of thing came with the territory and that he was more determined than ever to get the Blues back in the Premier League.

From there the meeting moved on to the formal business with Derek Bowden, Roger Finbow and Philip Hope-Cobbold all unanimously re-elected to the PLC board.

KPMG were re-elected as auditors and a resolution relating to the PLC issuing further shares, something which is unlikely to actually occur, was also passed with no dissenters.

Photo: Action Images

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