CEO Mark Ashton says Town will be working on a masterplan for the long-term development of the area around Portman Road with the council and other stakeholders, while the new turnstiles behind the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand are set to open at the Wycombe match on Good Friday and the former Staples and Better Gym building will be demolished in the next few weeks.

Building work on the new turnstiles has been ongoing for the last couple of months and is now close to completion.

“I think the Wycombe game is the planned D-Day for it. I think they’re more or less into snagging works now,” Ashton told TWTD as part of a lengthy interview we've been running in a number of parts since the end of last week.

“I spoke to [chief financial officer] Tom [Ball] and the ops team on Wednesday. It’s all coming on. The challenge with Portman Road, as I’ve said before, is that nothing’s ever straightforward because everything’s been built on top [of other things], you peel back the layers of the onion and you keep finding things.

“I think that will make a difference. I’ve not got the date in my head, but in the next four to five weeks, the Staples [later Office Outlet] building will come down.

“We’ll put a hoarding around that for now and then we’re working through with the local authority on the master planning for the development of Portman Road, what they’re looking to do, what we’re looking to do, whether that’s car parking etc.

“We’ve got a number of options on that, we’re working through that with our American property partners and [Ipswich Borough] Council, but it should be down I would think in the next four or five weeks.”

The American property partners Ashton refers to are the club’s US owners: “The board, basically. We’ve got different expertise on the board. If you look at Ed Schwartz and ORG, they do a lot of property work, they’ve got contacts everywhere, which is great because we get to tap into them and use that expertise that I wouldn’t normally get around me.

“Whether that’s property, whether that’s stadium work, whether that’s other bits and pieces, it’s great because you can just tap into their knowledge base.”

Ashton says there are as yet no specific plans for the Staples land, which the club purchased in October 2021, with the club set to meet with IBC and other stakeholders regarding wider plans for the area around the stadium.

“At the moment, it’s undecided,” he said. “The reason for that is we want to look at the whole area that surrounds Portman Road, including stuff that doesn’t belong to the club.

“That’s why we’re talking to the council about what their plans are. We talked about Rhode Island, I think it’s fair to say that some of the areas in and around the stadium need regeneration.

“Can the football club, the council and the local authority work in partnership to regenerate this area around the football club so it works so we open the football club, we open up the pathway into the train station better?

“So we look at transport to the stadium, we look at parking around the stadium, we look at what the council want to do on the Portman Road site because we’ve got to make sure we’ve got access and egress.

“We’ve got to make sure that the club is protected in that there will come a point in time when we’re going to want to potentially replace the Cobbold Stand.

“Having done this at previous clubs, what we’ve got to make sure is that we understand the footprint for that stand, so that something doesn’t get built right directly behind it which prevents us at any point in time building back across, cantilevering etc. It brings all of those pieces of land into play.

“I wouldn’t say we’re right at the start, we’re fairly near the start but we’ve had some really productive conversations with the authority about how we can work in partnership.”

Last year, IBC announced plans to build a new aquatics centre on the Portman Road car park.

The Cobbold Stand is now 52 years old and has long been pencilled in for replacement. Ashton has previously suggested this wouldn’t be something which happens with in the next couple of years. Is that still the case?

“It would depend on what we would put in it,” he said. “If you’re replacing the Cobbold Stand with bums on seats, there’s no economic return really unless you’re in the Premier League.

“However, if you’re rebuilding the Cobbold Stand and you’re putting non-matchday facilities in there that drive revenue 365 days a year, then the dynamic starts to change.

“We’re thinking about all of that at the moment. If we could close our eyes and we were 10 years on, what would the stadium look like? What would the East Stand look like, the West Stand, the North, what would we do?

“I’d like to have an overall completed plan that you could pick and mix and you could build on the way through, but knowing what your end goal is.

“I think if you don’t have an end goal, it’s dangerous, because that’s when you get to a point where you go, ‘Where do the away fans go? Where do the disabled fans go? We can’t get concerts in the stadium’.

“And that’s why I think the football club has to work in partnership with the stakeholders, we have to work in partnership with the council, but I think we also have to work in partnership with the local business community, hence why we’re building a really good relationship with the Chamber of Commerce. We’ve built a really good relationship with Ipswich Central, all from the business community.

“There’s an old Deloitte & Touche report flying around that talks about the economic impact of the football club in the Premier League to the local community and I think that’s absolutely true.

“The town will have more revenue, more tourism, more transport, more things going on, if they’ve got a Premier League football club.

“It’s happening here now. If you talk to the bar holders on the Waterfront about matchday and ask them to look at their revenue now through this football club under this ownership’s tenure, I’m telling you it’s substantially increased from what it was before.

“Go and walk that Waterfront on a matchday. Walk the town on a matchday, 28,000, 29,000 people and at most games that’s primarily home fans - 27,000 here for Shrewsbury! That’s not being disrespectful to Shrewsbury but you’re talking about hundreds of Shrewsbury fans, not thousands.

“So it’s the Suffolk community coming out and when they’re spending money, whether they’re spending that in the shops, whether they’re spending that in the pubs, whether they’re spending it on transport, whether they’re spending it in the coffee shops, whether they’re spending it in the football club, it’s driving the local economy.

“That’s why I think the relationship between the club and its stakeholders is key. I don’t want to build something that doesn’t work because the council are going to build the opposite next to it or it’s not going to work because the business community was planning something else.

“We’re a town centre club, 200 yards from its local train station, an hour into London, we’re at the hub of the business community here and I think we have a role to plan in regenerating the area.”

Unlike the previous regime, Ashton says Gamechanger 20 has no plans to try to buy the land on which the stadium stands.

The Blues signed a lease on the eight-and-a-half acre site which is owned by IBC in August 2001, the term lasting for 125 years from June 1969, the date of the start of an earlier agreement.

“Not Portman Road, definitely not Portman Road,” Ashton said. “I don’t see the benefit in that because we’re not going to move it. If we wanted to move the stadium, that’s what you would do.

“The whole land all around the stadium is a different type of discussion at the moment because that sits with certain members of the board who are helping on what we may or may not want to put with the local authority around the stadium that supports the stadium, that supports the business.”

So that means the club could look to buy the practice pitch? “It could do. But we’re talking [more widely] here, all the way round, we want to look at the whole flow around the stadium. I don’t see the need to acquire the freehold of the stadium. I don’t see the benefit.”

The Mark Ashton Interview

• Ashton Open to Debate on UEFA Article 48
• Championship a Natural Fit For the Tractor Girls
• New Pitch is On Track
• Work to Continue on Playford Road Pitches and Building
• We're Working on Development Master Plan With Local Authority
• We'll Forge an Informal Link With Rhode Island
• Kit Sales a Sign of How Big This Club Could Become
• McKenna's Contract Will Take Care of Itself at the Right Time
• Contract Conversations in the Summer
• First Summer Recruitment Meeting With McKenna Took Place This Week
• We Knew Our Top Targets and Got Them Across the Line
• Away Fans to Remain in Cobbold Stand Next Season But Discussions Ongoing
• I Wanted to Be Respectful to Fans on Season Ticket Prices
• No Explanation From Jamaica on Leigh
• We Will Be Relentless in Taking This Club Forward

Photo: Matchday Images

Ipswichbusiness added 11:58 - Mar 28 I'm not sure that I understand his answers about not buying the freehold. It seems that we only have 71 years left on the lease. If we wanted to raise money secured on the property then I would expect banks to want a longer term. It would be interesting to know how much IBC would want for it. I can't understand why they own it at all; if they want to stop inappropriate development then they have the planning system.

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Runner added 12:14 - Mar 28 As I understand it, it goes something like this:- The land is owned/in trust by the Port Man of Ipswich under the stewardship of IBC. Port Man of Ipswich are a group of people who over the last few hundred years have been given the freedom of Ipswich, or are their first offspring. To sell that land would be very long winded, involve lots of people & maybe would need voting on by more than just IBC/Port Man of Ipswich.

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Bazza8564 added 12:17 - Mar 28 Im guessing the club would only buy the freehold if IBC made it dirt cheap, and I'm hazarding a guess that that's what MA is angling for and playing it down?? I cant see us replacing the Cobbold stand without increasing the footprint and all that would be solved it we buy it with the long term permissions in place. I can only guess IBC want too much
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Bert added 12:19 - Mar 28 Good to read what the future could hold. It is in the interests of IBC and the town to keep the stadium where it is even if there are some disadvantages of having a stadium built incrementally. Taking the stadium to edge of town would decimate the local economy so better to work with what we have. Personally I would rather the Council retain the freehold rather than a future private investor who may see a redevelopment site rather than a football club. If a master plan ties the bond between the Council and the club and produces more regeneration then I am all for that.

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RegencyBlue added 12:23 - Mar 28 Just as well IBC did own the free hold under the last regime frankly. Who knows what that idiot Evans would have done if he had got his grubby little hands on it!
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BleuBlue added 12:26 - Mar 28 There's no point in buying the freehold of the ground if there's no plan to move. What's the point? I think it's great that there's no plan to move the ground. It's location is, to paraphrase Alan Partridge, part of its genius.
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blues1 added 12:37 - Mar 28 Ipswichbusiness. The ground is leased on a rolling 99 year deal. So will automatically renew at the end of that term.
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Runner added 12:56 - Mar 28 I guess that should have said:- Port Men of Ipswich (Freemen) I think there is about 7400 of them. No money in it, nothing to be gained, but looking after something/somewhere for the wider benefit of the general population. What better benefit than somewhere 28000 people to lots of times a year.
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IpswichT62OldBoy added 13:57 - Mar 28 Current population of Suffolk 760,000 nears as damn it. Divide that by 30,000 and that is one person in 25 of the county every home game we are full. I have rounded the numbers but perhaps we end up with 35,000 seater so could be more.
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YobRotcart added 15:15 - Mar 28 If MA is keen to involve the stakeholders, and the link to and from the station is important, one of those stakeholders is Greater Anglia (Booo!) It should be a priority to get GA to look at their timetables on Tuesday evenings. I sit with a group of season ticket holders who attend every match from London. On Tuesday evenings, they have to leave 10 minutes before time because waiting for the 10:23 means a slow train and being very late home.

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churchmans added 15:43 - Mar 28 Exciting times for the future! And new stadium or modern improvements! The whole area! We are going places I tell you
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NorthLondonBlue2 added 15:49 - Mar 28 If we were a PL team, we would sell out every home game much as we more or less so now. If you think we had 37k crowds in the 70s, it's not hard to imagine crowds of 40k+. So we should build big and go for it!
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blues1 added 15:54 - Mar 28 YobRotcart. Have to admire ur optimism that MA could persuade greater anglia to revise their timetable for a few tuesday evenings a year for ipswich town matches. Simply no chance they'd agree to that is there.
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AlanG296 added 16:17 - Mar 28 Yobrtcart, if there wasn't a train for you to catch after a night match you might have a point, but your choice whether to leave early to get a quicker train or not. Everyone gets home late after a night match, you should driving, the A12 Southbound for example, it's often shut. At least the trains are usually still running.
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Bazza8564 added 16:39 - Mar 28 NothLondonBlue, a great and fair point but adding that many would require rebuilding both sides, probably 40k+ a step further than they would want?? Cobbold, with another tier, would probably increase us to around 37500 max maybe we could fill the corners but that would be complex, although I'd love to see an "Arena" type version of PR. I'd love to see us in the 40+ league though, wouldn't it put Norwich in their place!!!!

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sidewaysbackwards added 16:58 - Mar 28 Plenty from Essex (maybe even some from naaaarfolk) watch town as well old boy 62. Add that into your equation and it bumps it up even more.
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pegasus added 17:11 - Mar 28 WELL DONE in getting this interview, Phil. Mark's revealed a huge amount and shown how, at last. Ipswich has a management system that is right and proper for English football in the 21st century.
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BotesdaleBlue added 17:45 - Mar 28 Totally agree pegasus. These series of updates from the big interview have been fantastically informative and so interesting. Ashton is just so engaging with fans and seems to explain circumstances, strategies and plans so clearly, with just the right amount of detail. I often remind myself and have to smile as I remember reading comments from budgie fans after Ashton was appointed on 1st June 2021, that he was nothing more than a "poor man's Webber". I wonder if they still think that!!! Who would you rather have heading up our wonderful club?

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ChestnutSe added 18:02 - Mar 28 Good point about getting GA to look at their timetables for match days. I know it's a hassle trying to sort timetables just for match days but perhaps some small amendments might help. We have to leave the game early to get the train to Felixstowe. If it could be delayed by 15 minutes (say) that would be greatly appreciated and save me having to drive and park
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IpswichT62OldBoy added 18:54 - Mar 28 Good point sideways. If we say 1,000,000 potential then divide that by 25 and you get 40,000. Build to that ambition and we what we have is a very impressive stadium in the centre of the Town, literally rooted in its community. We are a County side, its a delight to board a train in Cambridge and experience it filling as we haul through Newmarket, Kennet, Bury, Stowmarket, and Needham.

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Saxonblue74 added 19:07 - Mar 28 It's great to hear talk of the Premier league and actually feel this is a realistic proposition once more. As someone who lives considerably closer to Carrot Rd than PR I witness the very real economic benefits of a club in the Prem. This resonates all the way down to our small village social club (predominantly Budgies). Sky TV games when they were in the prem would draw a crowd, I'd go along to watch them lose!

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EatonBlue added 19:11 - Mar 28 'Cobbold Stand 52 is years old'. Wow, I stood there before it was built, in what was then referred to as the chicken run in front of the old East Stand.
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pennblue added 19:12 - Mar 28 Don't forget a Kop!!! We need acoustics to be designed front and centre into any stadium plans in the future, with silencers where the away fans go.
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ArnieM added 19:36 - Mar 28 The Borough Council and Chamber of Commerce would be barking mad NOT to support ITFC development plans because as Ashton states we already bring 28/29k people into this town . Currently there's NOTHING in the town centre generating anywhere close to the income that this football club does snd can further do. If you develop the stadium to include other social activities that operate out of the stadia 24/7 365 days a year it brings people into the town on those days snd not just for a football match . Think outside the box ( pun not intended) because Gamechanger are and have already done similar projects in USA and other countries . We at Ipswich are so lucky to have these owners snd this is only the begin snd is most definitely not s short term approach , and it's bigger than just football .

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BurleysGloryDays added 22:33 - Mar 28 Brilliant Ashton
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