Jewell Wants to See Portman Road Packed Out Again
Friday, 10th Feb 2012 19:32

Town boss Paul Jewell wants to see Portman Road packed out again, just as it was when he visited with his previous clubs. Saturday’s attendance is expected to break the 20,000 mark with ticket prices having been reduced by 25%.

Jewell said: “I’ve played at Portman Road and brought teams here in the past and it’s always been a really great atmosphere when it’s packed out and we’d love to bring those days back.

“But I understand in this economic climate people have to be careful of which games they can watch at times, but I have no complaints about our supporters, they’ve been brilliant.”

He says he hopes his side can build on their back-to-back victories against West Ham and Coventry, both in the short and long-term: “One of the reasons I came here was the potential. Everyone in football knows that Ipswich is potentially a big, big club.

“You can see from the crowds we’re getting when not pulling up any trees that the potential is there to be a club that can pull in 25,000 if we’re at the top end of the league.

“But we don’t want to get too carried away because every time we seem to get a big crowd coming or can win three in a row, we let ourselves down. So it’s important that we don’t allow the balloon to be pricked on Saturday.”

Jewell believes fans don’t always appreciate the impact they can have on a game and concedes that entertainment has been limited for Portman Road’s regulars since he took charge just over a year ago: “Supporters underestimate the importance of how much their support helps the team.

“Our supporters have been terrific. To be honest, they’ve had to watch a lot of poor football at times and had bad results, but they’ve kept coming and travelling home and away.

“It would be lovely this time next year and have sell-out crowds because we’re doing well. That has to be our aim.”

Photo: Action Images

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BlueArmy12 added 19:40 - Feb 10 COYB
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broomfield123 added 19:42 - Feb 10 players deliver . We deliver. Fair deal
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HARRY10 added 20:22 - Feb 10

Hopefully this will be the start of a more enlightened ticketing policy. The idea that you can jack up the casual ticket prices to try and cajole fans into buying season tickets is very short sighted.

Some fans cannot commit themselves sometomes and are then put off by ticket prices that do not reflect hat is being offered. Other clubs are routinely offering different deals trying to encourage fans back whilst to working out which is the most effective way of getting fans in.

Sure some ideas might fail, backfire or just give a certain percentage another reason to moan. But I would far rather see those attempts than what has been the club's usual 'take it leave it (and be grateful, at that) attitude'.

With 12,000 or more empty seats at most home games this season surely the club could come up with some ideas for not only filling those seats but bringing in some much needed revenue.

Mark added 20:34 - Feb 10

I think it would help bring fans back if the club introduced the following three changes:

- Charge 1/3 more for match tickets than season ticket holders pay (rather than over 1/2 more as at the moment);
- Scrap the silly banding system for matches and have flat prices so people know what they will pay;
- Scrap the on-the-day surcharge so not to put off spontaneous fans.

So, where a season ticket holder pays £22 say, a match ticket would cost £29 rather than £35 odd.

theblueginger added 20:38 - Feb 10

As long as we do well, there will be a positive effect. To be honest the stadium has been quite lively in recent games with not much improved attendances (granted we were not actually losing) but it would be good to have a good atmosphere every week.
Usually we lose when we have a promotion (palace, pompey last season) so at least put in an exciting, positive performance , please lads.

mugsykets added 20:39 - Feb 10

It's not difficult ~ drop the prices of the season tickets and you'll sell more....then...those people will spend more in the shops and kioks.....and....they might bring people along who might get into it....and....there will be more bums on seats creating a much better atmosphere. I'm sure the players don't want to see rows of empty seats! Of course, if they REALLY wanted to fill the ground ~ a successful spell on the pitch would help! (maybe it's coming........?)

jas0999 added 20:52 - Feb 10 With a decent manager in charge then maybe. People are NOT fooled with just two wins - we have LOST over HALF our games this year. I really believe with a decent manager season ticket sales/attendances and results will be very good. We stick with PJ then no.
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rgp1 added 21:07 - Feb 10 agreed jas 0999, people tend to forget about the dross that has been served up for the majority of this season.
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Garv added 21:07 - Feb 10 Who do you want then Jas? What's your definition of a decent manager who would realistically come here?
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itfchorry added 21:42 - Feb 10 Only full if you sack Clegg
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h32 added 22:10 - Feb 10 ....... my guess is that unless the crowd tops 25,000 Clegg will say the reduction hasn't worked. Let's see what kind of comment is forthcoming ........... shall we.
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strikalite added 22:41 - Feb 10

Clubs roughly know what their core support is, ours is about 13k, so pressing the gamble button and lowering ST prices to turn that into 18k sounds great doesn't it, but then they'd have to lower them by 30% to achieve that, but can we then guarantee that 18k would purchase? If the answer is no then you can understand why the Club is so reluctant to take the risk..

Agree with what Mark said...match day prices are the problem, especially behind the goals, £25 is what they should be, that's still a lot dearer than what ST holders will be paying!!

Mark added 23:03 - Feb 10

To be fair to Jewell, after their slow starts at Ipswich all four of the players he paid transfer fees for look like they are coming good: Drury, Cresswell, Emmanuel-Thomas and Chopra. The freebies and loans have been less successful, but Jewell has hardly been the disaster that Keane was. He is at least an attacking manager and that's what fans want to see and what goes towards increasing attendances.

itfchorry added 23:16 - Feb 10 Clegg Out
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Edinburgh_Blue added 01:51 - Feb 11 @jas0999. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but you might want to get some new material. Get behind the manager!
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clarkey85 added 01:54 - Feb 11 Jas im beginnin to think the rumours r true r u a budgie??
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MyBlueHeaven added 02:02 - Feb 11

i find it staggering that clubs will happily spend millions to gamble on players to bring success, when a full ground game-in-game-out will bring as many points as those players would.

surely the 'cost' of reducing ticket prices - with associated increases for stewards, policing etc - has to be lower than paying out all this money on failing players?

if we had crowds of 25,000+ for every home game the atmosphere would (generally) be better... the players would respond... the fans respond to the effort... the club enjoys the improved sense of 'belonging' (from both fans and playes)... and so the bubble grows.

if i was a club chairman/chief exec with an ounce of initiative - Clegg clearly is not - i would be busting a gut to fill the ground for every single game. even if that means free tickets.

note to ITFC: FILL THE F**KING GROUND.

tractorboy1961 added 08:35 - Feb 11

Surely it's a simple case of mathematics. Bigger crowds do mean more stewarding costs etc but surely the club recoups some of that in the shop,programmes and refreshments. The cost of football is outrageous really. Due to ridiculous wages paid to players and I feel the whole football world is out of touch with reality. The clubs need to have a serious look before they price themselves out of the market. I would rather have 30,000 people paying £10 than 10,000 people paying £30 inside PR.

But sadly most clubs are run by business men and not football men so this will never happen.