Town MD Ian Milne says the Blues have no plans to drop their away prices while in the Championship, despite visitors to Portman Road having to pay more than the Premier League’s recent self-imposed cap of £30.

Rotherham fans paid £32.50 for their seats in advance of Saturday’s game and £35 on the day with the Blues freezing their matchday prices for next season and having scrapped the grading of matches.

Milne says that in the Championship clubs rely on their ticket income far more than Premier League sides do these days.

“Premier League ticket revenue is a drop in bucket to what they get [overall] because of the TV money that they get,” he told Saturday’s Life’s a Pitch on BBC Radio Suffolk.

“Forty per cent of our revenue comes from ticket sales, so it’s an important part. Next season we’re going to continue the one grade system and we’re not raising prices.

“Whilst it would be lovely to reduce prices, it is an important part of our revenue. But by holding the prices we think that’s good and having one grade makes life easier for fans.”

Town announced their season ticket prices for 2016/17 earlier in the month and Milne says sales are in line with last season at the same stage: “Our early season ticket sales are as they were last year.”

The early bird deadline for buying season tickets at the lowest price is midday on April 11th.

Photo: ITFC.

Photo: Action Images

SW17Blue added 16:54 - Mar 21 Also, I don't want to hear those fools trumpeting once more that prices are frozen or FREE*** Premier League Season Ticket. Stop trying to shine a turd, that's already the most expensive one out there.
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carsey added 17:10 - Mar 21 Milne you and the club are so out of touch it's not true. There's no way away supporters should be charged £30 + we should be looking to encourage more away supporters to visit Portman Road. Personally I believe all Championship clubs should get together and agree a maximum ticket price for all visiting fans of £20 max to get better atmosphere back into the matches. Money grabbing Evans again.

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NSL added 17:20 - Mar 21 Yes you utter fool, fans are an important revenue stream for the club, but soon you won't have any.
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blueboy1981 added 17:27 - Mar 21 Just cannot believe what's happened to our once proud, caring Club - what the Cobbold Family would think of this shambles now is unthinkable. Totally convinced that Owner, MD, and Manager, couldn't care less about the Supporters, or future of the Club Whoever thought it would come to what it now is ?
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Bob7881 added 17:34 - Mar 21 Ive said it before and i'l keep saying it THANKS SHEEPSHANKS YOUR TENURE AS CHAIRMAN HAS RUINNED EVERYTHING THE COBBOLDS BUILT.
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Bob7881 added 17:34 - Mar 21 Ive said it before and i'l keep saying it THANKS SHEEPSHANKS YOUR TENURE AS CHAIRMAN HAS RUINNED EVERYTHING THE COBBOLDS BUILT.
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tractorgrl added 17:54 - Mar 21 I assumed that the reason day/away fans ticket prices were so high was to make the extortionate (imo) season ticket prices look reasonable.
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happybeingblue added 18:00 - Mar 21 so why have the ridiculous grade for home games its an insult to grade one match a and another b etc we are all in the same league are we not so ..its an insult to clubs i feel to mark them down as a c or an a etc ...who made them the judge of jury of categorising football clubs...in a world where we are all striving to be treated equally...detatched from reality as per usual....

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blrmy added 18:10 - Mar 21 I think game categories are being removed from next season? Could be wrong.
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Seasider added 18:24 - Mar 21 Forty % of our revenue comes from ticket sales then according to Milne.I would have thought it would have been more.Presume he is including the season ticket sales. Would be interested to know how the other 60% is derived from? With a considerable drop next year I expect in ticket sales,will this mean that Mr Hoofs budget will be even less,oh dear. If it wasn't for the good company in Legends before matches,dont think it will be worth going,as I have for over 50 years

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MattinLondon added 18:38 - Mar 21 “Forty per cent of our revenue comes from ticket sales, so it's an important part. Next season we're going to continue the one grade system and we're not raising prices. If it's really forty per cent then we'll be well and truly screwed next season as I know plenty of people who are refusing to pay almost £30 for the football currently on offer. Whether or not they will stay away is up in the air. Football kinda makes you believe that good times are always around the corner.

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airliner added 18:57 - Mar 21 Ian Milne has to be really stupid, to expect championship fans to pay more than premiership fans, just hope you and Marcus Evans sell up to someone who knows how to run a club, unlike you and the owner
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runaround added 19:15 - Mar 21 Really miopic decision by the club, really seem to be out of touch with the fans. Hopefully if other championship clubs lower their prices pressure can be brought to bear on ITFC to do the same. It just another thing to feel disappointed about with the current situation at our club
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Woodbridgian added 19:40 - Mar 21 Maybe he thinks the turgid boring hoofball served up at PR is so entertaining the away fans will pay premium prices to see it!
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bluefeast added 19:43 - Mar 21 Totally out of touch with reality. If 40% of the revenue comes from the gate receipts then why not have a stronger focus on entertainment. Then offer the last 3 games for free if you've bought at least 12 tickets over the season. That way we may just get 25k plus for half our home games at least. Its a creative idea that rewards loyalty , if it were aligned with the manager going for entertainment as well as a winning mentality we could actually change the opinion of the majority.

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carsey added 21:37 - Mar 21 I have just been reading an article on the BBC from 2013 in which Milne says "the club are focused on increasing attendances by attracting younger fans" and quotes attendances falling year on year from2004-05: 25,651 to 2013-14: 17,752. Currently various sources are quoting an average of around 19,000 for this season but frankly I find that hard to believe when looking round the stadium and I suspect many season ticket holders are being counted even though they aren't there. I know of two who have given up and won't be renewing next year. My point is that the vast majority of the supporters present are home fans and in my opinion it would make for a better atmosphere if more away fans were encouraged to come along at reduced prices without the club taking a financial hit. Sadly this won't happen because Evans & Co don't see us as supporters merely a commodity to be squeezed for every penny they can make. £2 for a luke warm coffee just about sums up what ITFC is about at the moment. Sad but true

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norfstanda added 22:03 - Mar 21 We charge what we want We charge what we waannt We're ipswich town We charge want we want
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PSGBlue added 22:21 - Mar 21 Its not just the away folowing who suffer, its also home fans who decide to come on the day. I saw that it was £35 for an adult, for an on the day ticket to gain entry into the Co-op stand against Blackburn the other night. That is only for a ticket right at the end of the stand. At least when the ticket office was open before the game, you could get a ticket for any part of the ground. Compare this with the theatre on a resturant. How would you feel if you turned up and the only seats on offer were next to the door or the toilets, but yet there were empty seats in more favourable areas you were not allowed to buy unless pre-booked. The whole club is a joke, from a faceless owner who refuses to lead to a clueless manager who serves up tripe on the pitch, week in week out! Glad I am not a season ticket holder - you lot deserve a medal

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Notts_tractor added 22:56 - Mar 21 I'm absolutely disgusted by the way the club treats away supporters, but the greedy bastards running our once highly respected club fail to realise the damage it's doing to our image. But they don't care about the club's reputation - it's just £££ to them. The other thing the idiots don't get is that other clubs will retaliate with high prices for awayTown fans. I really despair of the way things are going under our faceless owner and dinosaur manager. We'll be looking at crowds of 12,000 soon - but no doubt Evans and Milne will just hoik the prices up for the deluded fans that remain. EVANS OUT.

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PSGBlue added 05:28 - Mar 22 If ITFC are worth more than £30 to watch, why then is it that SKY have not bothered with us since December?
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Steelmonkey added 07:30 - Mar 22 If you want to put bums on seats try playing some attractive football we've had enough hoof ball to last a life time, and apologising to fans might help.
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GAZ1234 added 10:05 - Mar 22 The ave attendance figure is boosted by the number of season tickets sold, following the tide of optimism carried over from last season. (even though MM blew it following the turn of the year - when promotion was there for the taking) Things have gone from bad to worse & I suspect the club will be shocked by the number of people who have had enough! I have been since the early sixties.. but enough is enough .. I will not be renewing my season ticket .. I can think of my better things to waste my time & money on! The club is in real trouble if it is loosing it's core supporters & little chance of attracting the next generation.

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Razor added 10:37 - Mar 22 The problem is that although he is a nice guy he has been parachuted in by his mate and sadly could not run a bath let alone a football club. Us away fans get it in the neck for our prices when we visit other clubs and basically a lot of people do not visit us now because of our prices---FACT. This is so so sad and sums up the whole club at the moment. All away tickets should be £20 and £25, end of.

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Currie10 added 11:49 - Mar 22 Green - what is the point in you buying a silver membership? We don't even sell out at home to Norwich! Maximum 24,000 at home - away tickets are pretty easy bar the odd game so I don't see the point in silver.
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Currie10 added 11:54 - Mar 22 " Ian Milne has to be really stupid, to expect championship fans to pay more than premiership fans " This is where you're wrong my friend. Many on here are the stupid ones who are willling to pay it. Trust me, if people stick together and get a pair the club will have no choice in 15 months time but for prices to go down considerably. However, if we lose 900 season ticket holders and 200 casual fans the club won't care as the price has gone up! Really is over to us to make a stand - are we going to? Doubt it. Dortmund sent half their away allocation back to Schalke the other year after they hiked the price a measly 3 euros. Norwich could charge us £85 and we'd sell the away end no problem. We're a very good nation at moaning whinging but a very poor nation at being pro-active.

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