Town boss Paul Jewell hopes there’ll be a 20,000-plus crowd at Portman Road on Saturday as the Blues get their Championship campaign under way with a game against newly-relegated Blackburn Rovers. The club have set prices at the reduced Grade C level with adult Sir Bobby Robson Stand and Sir Alf Ramsey Stand lower tier tickets at £20.
Eventually, Jewell wants to see Portman Road sold out week in, week out, but for the moment he’d be happy with two-thirds of that figure: "The dream is to get 30,000 every home game, that’s the ultimate dream.
"I know it’s going to be a hot summer’s day on Saturday and if we could get a 20,000-plus crowd at Portman Road that would be fantastic. And hopefully they’ll see a good game of football in which we come out on top.
"But it’s a long season and our fans have been long-suffering. We want to give them hope for the future and the younger players will give us hope with one or two more experienced players added to that along the way. But players who are going to come here and be here for, hopefully, three or four years.”
The Town manager is in no doubt about where he wants to take the club: "We all want to be in the Premier League, the Holy Grail eventually is to get in the Premier League.
"I think someone said to me that we’re the longest serving team in the Championship now. It’s a great club, it’s a big club but we’ve been in the Championship for 10 years.
"Looking at the club, maybe it’s stuck still a little bit. We’ve got to progress. We’ve got to get the team as almost a part of the community.
"I know you can’t just have kids in the team but you can have a fair smattering of them in the right age group, added to one or two key experienced players and I think supporters will look at that and think ’These lads need our help here and we’re right behind them’. As long as the players are giving their best, I’m sure the supporters will stay with them.”
More details on ticket pricing for Saturday’s game can be found here. Prices increase by £1 for under-16s and £2.50 for other price bands when purchased on the day of the game.