Chief executive Simon Clegg says the Blues are abiding by Football League regulations by offering a 50% discount on matchday tickets to the restaging of today’s abandoned Town-Middlesbrough fixture, but no refund. Referee Dean Whitestone called a 37th-minute halt to the match with the score 0-0 due to areas of the Portman Road pitch having become unplayable.
Clegg told TWTD: "We are guided by Football League regulations on these matters and the terms and conditions to cover this eventuality are printed on the back of a ticket.”
The Blues chief executive has sympathy for both supporters and the club staff who worked on the pitch: "It’s disappointing but at the end of the day the decision was taken by the referee and it was a decision which was outside our control.
"I feel sorry for all the people there, especially the fans who have travelled some distance to get to Portman Road today, and I feel sorry for the groundstaff, who worked through the night last night and have been working on that pitch since Wednesday when the bubble went up.
"We need to recognise that it was an extreme situation last night for the temperature to have dropped so low.
"I was walking around the pitch yesterday and it was soft. We experienced some extreme temperatures and that was recognised by those that worked on the pitch through the night and appropriate measures were taken.”
Both managers agreed that the surface was playable when the bubble was removed an hour or so before kick-off but once open to sub-zero temperatures, areas of the pitch began to harden up.
Clegg added: "The sun was on part of the pitch but not on the whole pitch, that's the way Portman Road is constructed, and out of the sun it was cold.
"Every area of the pitch is different, holds moisture in a different way and is affected by many things - how much direct heat they get and how much sun.
"I went down to the pitch and had a look at it after the referee had taken the players off and it was hard down the Britannia touchline.”
He says particular areas are more problematic than others: "We have a challenge in the south-east corner, the corner between the Cobbold and the South Stand, and the south-west corner, the corner between the Britannia and the South Stand, because they are the areas of the ground which get very little natural light and are the worst affected.”
Town held a ticketing trial at the Boro game with prices reduced by 25% and Clegg isn’t ruling out further similar initiatives later in the season: "I’m not going to rush into any knee-jerk reactions. Certainly the numbers today were under 20,000, but were close to it.
"I need to look at it against everything that has to be taken into account, not least the wins against West Ham and Coventry, and the impact they would have had on the gate, and the fact that there may have been some people who decided they weren’t going to come because of the weather conditions.
"I need to look at all the factors before coming to any view as to what may or may not be read into the outcome of the ticket promotion. We’ll see where we get to on that next week. It needs to be considered properly and appropriately in the fullness of time taking into account all the facts.”
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