Bowden on Pay Freeze, Accounts and Concerts - Ipswich Town News

Chief executive Derek Bowden has confirmed that off-field staff at Portman Road will be subject to a pay freeze this year. The freeze applies to all non-footballing employees, including management, and is something which affects the whole Marcus Evans Group.

Bowden told TWTD: "It's a group-wide policy that there is a pay freeze, unless someone's promoted or takes on further responsibilities in which case they would be reviewed individually. But the policy across the group is no salary increases this year.

"The freeze applies to all staff including me and the rest of the off-field management, but not to footballers who are contracted and their wages are fixed across the period of their contracts.

"Many businesses across the country have probably got pay freezes in place. We are in a recession and seeing the effects of the credit crunch and it's a fact of life that many clubs are freezing pay.”

Meanwhile, Town are likely to announce the date of the first PLC AGM post-takeover in the next few weeks. Shareholders in the PLC, which owns 12.5% of the club, will be given an insight into Town's overall financial situation, although Bowden says the details are yet to be confirmed: "We had a PLC board meeting before the Charlton game and we're working on exactly what will be in the disclosure document as we speak.

"I think it's fair to say that there will be enough information in the circular for shareholders to have a pretty good feel for the position of the club.

"We're not going to go for an absolutely minimalist approach because we've no need to do that, but it won't be the kind of glossy brochure which has been provided in previous years. It'll be a bit more basic than that, but it will have enough information so shareholders are fully appraised of the position of the club.”

Bowden recently revealed his support for Bolton chairman Phil Gartside's proposal for a 38-team two-division Premier League with no promotion and relegation into Leagues One and Two, but concedes that the plan would be bad news for some sides: "It clearly would be very difficult for any club in League One or League Two which has Championship or Premier League aspirations because once the trapdoor's shut, it's shut.

"I'm fully appreciative of the impact it would have on all League One clubs, not just the ones which would feel they should have a place in the division above.

"But I just think that economically it's worth investigating whether having a Premier League Two attached to a Premier League One isn't a better option. Not just for the clubs in those divisions, but for the English game as well.

"If you look at the Premier League, the ability to bring players in from abroad is huge and English players must suffer from the influx of players coming in from Europe in particular, and if we want to have a stronger national side in England then the breeding ground for a lot of those players is going to be the Championship, and Championship sides would be stronger if they were part of a bigger two-division Premier League.”

Bowden admits that this arrangement would end ‘the dream' which has seen the likes of Hull City, Wimbledon, Wigan and Gartside's Bolton climb from what is now League Two into the Premier League: "It would be the end of ‘the dream' and would be a serious issue for those clubs which would be left outside if there were a two-division Premier League set-up.

"But a lot of clubs are suffering now because they came down from the Premier League and can't get back up. I would think that some of the teams which are languishing at the bottom of this division who only a couple of years ago were in the Premier League are living hand-to-mouth.”

Bowden says the club are interested in the Section 6 initiative which is aimed at improving the atmosphere at Portman Road: "We are broadly supportive of it and we just need to understand a bit more about what it is and the best location for it in the stadium. But in principle we're not opposed to it and we're actively thinking about how it might be made to work.”

The chief executive also confirmed that Portman Road could host concerts again next summer: "We're talking to one or two people. We want to do them every year or so. We've had five in four years and if we can get the right act at the right price we'd like to do another one next year.”

There were no concerts this year, while Rod Stewart played last year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006, Neil Diamond and REM a year earlier and Elton John in 2004.

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