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.