Season Ticket Prices Rise
Tuesday, 22nd Mar 2011 07:00

Town have increased their season ticket prices by 6% for the 2011/12 season, their first rise for five years. The Blues have blamed an increase in overheads, including a remarkable 743% hike in the rent they pay to Ipswich Borough Council for the land on which their Portman Road stadium is sited.

The Blues’ price rise means that an adult seat in the lower tier of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand or South Stand purchased prior to the early bird deadline on April 15th will cost £390 compared with £368 this season.

Chief executive Simon Clegg says that despite another underachieving season, the club was left with little choice other than to raise prices: “To the best of my knowledge we’re the only club in the Championship that’s been able to hold their season ticket prices for the last five years and during that time we have had to absorb increasing costs.

“Over those five years our electricity costs have increased by 25%, our water by 26%, our rates by 44%, our police bill has doubled and the expected increase in the police rate for the new season is a further 100%.

“On top of that, last year we were hit with a 743% increase in our rent from the council, increasing it from £15,000-a-year to £111,000.

“Over and above that, we’re all acutely aware that the taxman has hit us with further 2.5% on VAT, increasing it from 17.5% to 20%.

“Therefore, reluctantly, we have decided that we’ll have to increase ticket prices next season. In the main they rise by around 6%, that includes the 2.5% increase for the VAT man and the remainder is effectively an inflationary increase.”

Clegg argues that the increase when looked at per game is not huge and some age groups will be exempt: “What that means in real terms is that we’re looking at about an additional pound or £1.50 for most adult season ticket holders per game and 50p for under-16s.

“The under-11 season ticket price will be frozen at £10 because we continue to believe that we need to encourage more young people to come through our gates.”

Town will again be offering their payment scheme and Premier League incentive: “We will continue to run the 0% interest-free scheme over eight months so that people can have the opportunity of spreading their payments and the early bird deadline effectively means people are getting a quarter of all the games free of charge when compared with buying on a matchday ticket basis.

“Our Premier League pledge continues, whereby 50% of the forthcoming season ticket price will be rebated and offset against a future season ticket price should we be promoted at the end of next season.”

Clegg says that despite another disappointing season, he hopes fans will have seen an improvement since Paul Jewell took over as boss: “We changed the manager at the beginning of the year and I think people generally have seen a significant step up in terms of the performance of the players and the team on the pitch.

“The owner, the manager and I spent five hours in Dublin last week talking about the plans for next season. We are very focused in terms of where we want to take this football club.

“There has been absolutely no waning of the enthusiasm of the owner or the determination of the owner, myself and now Paul to take this club back into the Premiership at the earliest possible opportunity. I think bringing in people like Kieron Dyer and Jimmy Bullard just reinforces that vision.”

The chief executive is aware that like the club fans have been hit by the financial strife of the last few years but, with £5-£6 million of Marcus Evans’s cash underwriting Town annually, says the increase was necessary: “I recognise that we are all operating in a difficult financial environment but I have a responsibility to ensure the financial robustness of this football club, particularly bearing in mind the history of what it went through only a decade ago.

“It is important for us that we do run this football club on sound financial grounds and we cannot continue absorbing those increases which are being placed on us by third parties, particularly an additional £100,000 by the council.”

Clegg says that huge hike came as a shock: “743% is a significant increase, although I’m sure the council would argue that we’ve benefited from having our rent pegged for a number of years.

“When we undertook a rent review, it won’t surprise you that the council’s expectation was much greater than ours was and we got to the situation where we were effectively arbitrated upon and that’s where the arbitrator came down.

“We were hit with this in the middle of last year and we have already absorbed those additional costs from the back end of last year.

“I recognise that the council has its own challenges, but obviously the quantum of the increase was a major concern to us, and a surprise.

“We took into account those increases which we would have to bear that are applied to us by external sources and as a result of that reluctantly we came to the view that we needed to increase ticket prices.”

Clegg says that season ticket holders remain the club’s main concern and says this year has seen them receive more additional benefits than ever before: “I continue to prioritise our support for our season ticket holders.

“This season for the first time ever we’ve introduced a third season ticket promotion, the Crystal Palace game coming up in a couple of weeks’ time, and for the first time ever we have offered discounted tickets for the Carling Cup for season ticket holders.

“My intention is to wherever possible try and provide added benefit for our season ticket holders.”

Nevertheless, Clegg is realistic that a reduction from the current figure of 14,300 season ticket holders is likely for the season ahead: “We need to recognise that fan numbers are dropping around the country.

“I know the one thing that we can do to bring fans back to this football club is winning football matches on a regular basis, and that’s certainly the plan for next season.

“We’ve still got some way to go this season, let’s not totally write off this season. There are a number of important games to be played here, particularly the derby against Norwich.”

Clegg also announced that from next season under-12s will not be allowed in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand lower tier, where there have in any case been no concessions for children for some years, for safety reasons. This year there were four under-12 season ticket holders in what was formerly the North Stand.

The chief executive says Town, who will continue to run the Gold and Silver Clubs, will be strict on the early bird date having been more relaxed in previous years: “The early bird deadline is at 12 o’clock on April 15th and I mean 12 o’clock dead.

“You won’t believe the number of excuses which arrive on the desk the following day from people who have not had the chance for whatever reason to make that deadline.”

Town’s often criticised matchday ticket prices are yet to be decided and are being assessed, but the chief executive played down the likelihood of a drop: “I’ll look to see what we can do. I don’t want to create any expectations that those will reduce. I’ve made it very clear since I’ve been here that the priority is to our loyal season ticket holders.”

Clegg says that like most Championship teams the Blues run at a loss and rely on Marcus Evans’s backing, whose determination to get Town back into the top flight remains undiminished: “This football club, like most clubs in the Championship, doesn’t run on a balanced book basis.

“We’re totally dependent on the ongoing support of the owner and the most important message that I want to give the fans is that there has been no waning of the enthusiasm of the owner or his determination to get us back to the promised land.”

Full pricing details are on the club site here.

Photo: Action Images

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strikalite added 11:37 - Mar 22

With the expected rise in interest rates the question is how many can actually afford to cough up again, for me going to PR these days is a treat every few weeks, I hate the sight of so many empty seats - especially when you see Carrow Rd full every week! Wake up Clegg, £25 behind the goal(both ends) on match days for starters and just see if the stay away fans return and hopefully give PR some atmosphere again...

mark1969 added 11:49 - Mar 22

i agree £20-£25 lower tier North and South stands lets build some atmosphere and noise and get the place rocking again on and off the pitch , its not Rocket Science Mr. Clegg 10000 at £25 or 5000 at £33 plus 10000 or 5000 pies /pints/programmes/visitors to the shop , more fun , more atmosphere , better player feel good factor , we enjoy it and all return week after week .

TimmyH added 11:53 - Mar 22

Give PR some atmosphere again?! - only when we were in the Premiership and at the end of the 90's did PR have any atmosphere. Blame the big clubs at the top of the Premiership for the player wage debacle, it has a knock-on effect through the Premiership and then down to lower leagues as each player likes to think they are worth so much in relation to better players and this then goes onto clubs ending up in financial trouble. Money is the root of all evil and there certainly are more money grabbers in the game than at any other time and the fans which are the root of the club are slowly the one's being victimized be it through ticket prices or other merchandising relating to the club, but no surprise that the tickets are going up - every bleedin thing else is!!!!

Marshalls_Mullet added 12:10 - Mar 22 Ignore the ground rent, rates increase, VAT etc. Its all down to one thing; PLAYER WAGES ARE KILLING THE GAME. 95% of professional clubs make a loss chasing the dream. There's no easy fix, but the wages are bankrupting clubs and RUINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FANS AND THE PLAYERS.
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Mark added 12:44 - Mar 22

> PLAYER WAGES ARE KILLING THE GAME.

That is absolutely right. Hit the nail on the head. The money is in the Premier League (fuelled by Sky TV to whom many people pay more money each year to watch Man U and Chelsea than they do to their own club), and Championship clubs over-stretch themselves trying to go up.

Ipswich got the wage bill down to around £5M a few years back, but now I think it has trebled without any improvement on the pitch. Perhaps the fans are now paying the financial price for Roy Keane's salary, the money he wasted on fees and the fact he nearly always signed Premier League players on big wages. If we bought from League One and the lower leagues, we would not have such financial pressures.

Oh well, that put my ticket up to £22-a-match. On the day tickets are currently £32 to £35 so I would say to Clegg PLEASE DO NOT PUT UP MATCH DAY TICKETS! If we charge more than that, we will put off casual fans and season ticket holders of the future. I do not want to see Ipswich's gate fall and fall, while Clegg blames it on national trends but when we see Norwich selling out their stadium.

Mark added 12:49 - Mar 22 Just to clarify, I meant prices in my block of Britannia stand are around £32 to £35 for an adult ticket.
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Marshalls_Mullet added 13:00 - Mar 22 ...and to think Niall Quinn has the nerve to have a go at fans for watching the matches down the pubs. Fans have been forced into it. WE CANT KEEP ON PAYING FOR FOOTBALLERS LAVISH LIFE STYLES.
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Tractorboy_2003 added 13:03 - Mar 22

Will there be a booking fee on top of that as well? If they want to encourage people to buy individual match tickets then why don't they drop this ridiculous charge! Last time I bought a ticket i got it from the club shop (well in advance of the game!) and still had to pay £1 booking fee - even though no post, or admin work involved!! If I had bought anything else in the shop there would not be a booking fee - so why for a piece of paper?!

Premiertown added 13:17 - Mar 22 Bradford City cut their prices and get loads of fans watching much worse football than we do. We have to manage the finances and that means more paying customers and less money to the large playing squad. i used to compare the cost of going to the cinema and going to football, similar then and now 5 times more! Even Sky costs me £700+ a year!
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dobbie73 added 13:28 - Mar 22 @Stiffshorts "Look what the scum have done; free carrots on the gate and a nosebag if they win. They even employ a drunk to chant at the crowd during the interval!" Lol, genius! I nearly choked on my tea when I read that.
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big_gaz67 added 13:28 - Mar 22

Is it me or has the 'premier rebate' changed? I am sure when it first came in it guaranteed the season ticket holder a premier season ticket at 50% of its face value. For the last two seasons we are offered a 50% rebate on the championship ticket against the premier ticket - therefore if the premier ticket is double that of the championship no refund at all! Am I the only person to notice this?

Jim added 13:29 - Mar 22

Must admit am most frustrated that the renewal packs have been sent out later this year and we still only have until the 15th april 2011 to renew for the early bird discount. If prices are going to rise it would be nice to have more warning!!
With regard to the increase, can understand that increased costs have to be absorbed including the VAT increase, but we are also paying for the awful transfer policy under the previous manager to sign up premiership players at inflated prices and wages. For example I resent having to find more of my money to purchase a season ticket when we have a goalkeeper earning a reported 17.5k per week who has just been dropped because he can't catch crosses into the box!!

BlueVelvet added 13:37 - Mar 22

Well Mr Clegg, your business plan should have taken account of all these things. The council tax payers of Ipswich have been subsidising your multi £m business for years. £11k ground rent - and you thought it would continue, you get paid more than that in a month. Try a bit of benchmarking Mr Clegg - you'll see what poor value for money ITFC is for it customers. Improve the product and then ask your customers to pay more, not the other way round. This is not the olympics gravey train you've been used to!

Dorsetblue added 13:40 - Mar 22

The club like government and local councils need to take a good hard look at themeselves and have a good clean out. It is clear from a fans point of view that we are the cash cow, we get very little for alot of money. Better ideas could be: -
1, Increase match day ticket prices, reduce the season ticket price.
2, Replace the scoreboards with TV screens and try and add atmosphere before the game and at half time.
3, Look at the catering, Arsenal had a much brighter and more lively set up. Quick and high quality. Not like buying your food/drink from a machine gun bunker.
4, offer real deals to fans, buy a season ticket and get to meet the players, observe training...etc..
5, better communication and better feedback... we do pay your wages! don't treat us like a bunch of cows.
6, Request the cost breakdown from the police / council for services provided.
7, Actually say sorry for the c**p football we have had to put up with by the people they installed.
8, Learn from Norwich..... hate to say it but they get good numbers in and offer deals. Think outside the box....

Lastly onto the government comments. We can blame everyone the banks the government / the poor of the USA who didn't pay the bills. They are all as bad as each other. Not enough helicoptors, selling the aircraft carriers and retiring the harriers a few weeks before they are need! classic...

So come on Ipswich make a bloody effort and remind me why I should pay a large amount of money to you taking into account the fact that I havent had a pay increase for three years!

strikalite added 13:44 - Mar 22

All this 'chasing the Premiership dream' gets me, if this dream means price increases when they're 20% too high now and bringing in Prem players on 40k a week then for me forget it...I'm not obsessed with being in the Prem, I'd far sooner us bring in young hungry lower league/foreign players for a fraction of the cost who try to entertain and have something to prove...cut the wage bill, lower the prices and chase the dream that way...Bullard has been fantastic yes, but the cost of such players is huge and don't always work out..

stiffshorts added 13:51 - Mar 22

big_gaz67;

“Our Premier League pledge continues, whereby 50% of the forthcoming season ticket price will be rebated and offset against a future season ticket price should we be promoted at the end of next season.”

I noticed that last year too.
I'm sure that the original "deal" was 1/2 price on a premiership season ticket should we be promoted?
If so we need to tackle them on this, yet again getting ripped off!

big_gaz67 added 13:59 - Mar 22 Thanks Stiffshorts I thought it was me going mad when I posted this before and no one commented on it.
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OldClactonBlue added 14:03 - Mar 22 Perfect reward for the fantastic entertainment that we have endured over the past two seasons!
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nearly50yearsblue added 14:13 - Mar 22

Nobody has twisted my arm to go to watch my beloved Blues for the last 49 seasons,purely my choice,however I do think that if the people running the club are truly as passionate as us fans we should do OK.
I want to see 2 up front at home and an out and out goal poacher signed ,silly mistakes cut out right across the team,always safety first.
I believe Paul Jewell will get it right providing he is backed by those above,not sure of the intentions of those above though.

NSL added 14:36 - Mar 22

I do not work for the Council but may I offer an informed view on the likely reason for the increase in rent (laymans terms as much as possible):

Football grounds are often held on long ground leases, say between 50 and 99 years. It is likely that the £15,000 per year was set many years ago (perhaps 25-50 years ago). On the flip side the rent of £111,000 will be fixed for say another 25-50 years. On the next review this will not seem like a huge amount after the effects of inflation etc etc.

Secondly, the Council are obliged to acheive 'Best Value' for the taxpayer. They are not allowed to be biased and offering ITFC a soft deal would be unfair on their other tenants.

In conclusion I am discusted that Mr Clegg would use this as an excuse for the season ticket hike. What is 100K anyway - 4 weeks of Priskins Wages? This is the real reason.

CLEGG OUT

Wickets added 17:22 - Mar 22 Not Too Bad next season will be well worth the bit extra!!!!
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Blue041273 added 17:42 - Mar 22 Well done Wickets. Irony still lives!
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jas0999 added 17:58 - Mar 22

Bluelady - although I accept your point of view, personally I can only judge PJ on what I have seen so far - and that's playing an extremely negative one up front. If ever there was an opportunity to show the fans what he intends to play - then Saturday was it. Whether people like it or not, my PERSONAL belief is it will cost ITFC season ticket sales. Thousands will disagree with me and that's fine. So far I have seen zero evidence that PJ will play two up. I really do hope that he will in coming weeks and suggest he does so prior to the season ticket deadline.

In addition, I also believe ITFC have dropped the ball with pricing. Don't get me wrong, I can understand the price rise (although I'm not happy or agree with it) - but as far as I can see ITFC are trying to sell a very average product ... at a high price. Now if they decided to REDUCE the prices, I believe more people will attend - meaning more people will spend more in the ground. By upping prices LESS people will attend. Spending LESS in the ground. You may be right - perhaps 'only' 1,000 less sales this year - but that's still less. Surely it would be better to get more people in the ground? They make no money from empty seats!

That said, ultimately, I will have to review my own finances and as I said, the decision will maily be on other costs associated with match-day. I personally believe more than 1000 others will decide not to go based on this also.

StochesStotasBlewe added 21:59 - Mar 22

I am now agreeing with jas0999 twice in one evening, mainly regarding season ticket prices. Surely more bums on seats creates more revenue???. I,m no economist but by giving MORE incentives, surely the trend will be for higher ticket sales, increased turnover in the club shop, more folk eating ( food pepared by vengefull Norwich fans) i hasten to add. The cost for me & my soon to be 11 year old son is going to be over £600 based on his season ticket increase for his age plus the 6% hike. I now either have to find extra clients, work weekends all summer etc in a very depressed economy merely to afford to continue supporting our club which i will do, but i know of several who wont be. Wise up a little ITFC. Its value for money most people want.