Boss at Academy Association Fundraiser - Ipswich Town News

Academy sponsorship manager Simon Milton hosted an Academy Association fundraiser in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite last night with manager Mick McCarthy, his assistant Terry Connor, academy director Bryan Klug, joint-MD Jonathan Symonds and graduates Tommy Smith and Luke Hyam amongst those attending. The event saw the premier of a new promotional academy film as the Blues’ youth set-up progresses towards attaining category one status.

Milton is tasked with raising £500,000 a year towards the increased academy budget on top of the £1.2 million which will be invested annually by owner Marcus Evans and a £750,000 a year Premier League grant. The club plans to make the step up for the 2014/15 season and expects to undergo an audit in February.

So far Milton has raised more than £140,000 since the Academy Association's launch in July and told TWTD what the thinking was behind last night’s meeting.

"The majority of the people here have been involved with the football club before, they may be shareholders, loan note holders,” he said.

"What we tried to do was get a group of people who have been involved before and invite them to become involved now.

"Some of them were invited directly by me, but others have been invited by academy sponsors who believe in the academy enough to introduce people to us to get involved themselves.

"It’s not a hard sell, it’s a very warm sell because you’ve got people who are very interested in the football club.

"Having the manager stand up in front of a group of people helps, he comes along and speaks from the heart every time. You can see what he thinks of the academy and how much he is behind us.”

McCarthy spoke at the start of the meeting and said: "I wonder sometimes about academies, especially with managers because you don’t know how long managers are going to be there, whether they’re going to see the kids come through, which is kind of pertinent at the moment. As you see, I’ve had great difficulty getting back from Dublin today,” he joked.

He believes players who have come through academies and have progressed to first team level are very important: "I always think the manager who gets those players is extremely lucky because they come through the club and they’ve got a real love for the club, having been brought up at the club probably from eight, nine or 10 years old, coming all the way through.

"And when they get in the first team that certainly adds something to it. People ask me, ‘Do you think an owner of a club can have the same feeling as a supporter?’. No chance, unless he’s from the area.

"’Do you think that I can have the same feeling for a club as a kid who has come through?’. No chance because we’re a bit like mercenaries, we’re professionals, we come and play, we get paid, we come and manage, we get paid, we coach, we get paid, we go to different clubs.

"What I like to think is that when we’re here or anywhere else we do the best we can. But we can’t have the same feeling, the same devotion for the club as somebody that’s been here since they were eight, their dad’s supported them, their granddad’s supported them and they’ve come all the way through.

"When those players come into the team, they add something to the team that nobody else can.”

He added: "Hopefully, I will be here and I will be the recipient of the players that Bryan and his staff are trying to bring through.”

Milton has successfully gained sponsors for all the academy teams but as there was still interest from companies looking to inject similar amounts of money, he has added a new type of sponsorship: "We had more companies coming on board wanting to put around £5,000 in and at the moment we have 10 teams and sponsorship of eight of those teams is £5,000, but they’re all sold.

"So, we said we’d introduce partners who would get very much the same benefits as a team sponsor but without the name on the front of the shirts, they’ll get more branding elsewhere and a link-up with their companies.

"We can have as many partners as we want At the moment we’ve got a recruitment partner and a kit partner, we‘re looking for transport partners, nutritional partners, medical partners, every little area that costs us money we’re looking for a partner.

"We’re looking for tour partners, a company or someone comes on board at that level, £2,500, and they gets benefits such as directors’ box tickets and hospitality at Portman Road, but will also actually come with us on tour to somewhere like the Galway Cup in Ireland or I’d really like to do the Barcelona trip again.”

He says those signing up to the Ramsey or Robson packages aimed at businesses get an otherwise unavailable connection to the club: "Travelling to away games, you’re part of the official Town party, which is nice. You get introduced to other directors. For local businesses, that’s good for them.

Manager Mick McCarthy, assistant Terry Connor, academy director Bryan Klug, academy graduates Tommy Smith and Luke Hyam, joint-MD Jonathan Symonds and club secretary Sally Webb

"They’re things you can’t get elsewhere. I have a number of corporate seats at most away games and offer people the opportunity to choose which games they want to go to. Sometimes that’s overnight, sometimes we go on the day, sometimes we’re 4-1 up at Derby thinking we’re living the dream, sitting the boardroom enjoying dinner!

"Before the game Steve McClaren was in there with all his coaching staff, having dinner because he wasn’t even taking the team at the start.”

Pat Lewis, managing director of Source One Consulting, a local company which provides office interiors, office furniture and commercial interiors, sponsors the U15s side.

A lifelong fan born in Chantry, who was a ballboy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lewis has enjoyed that sort of involvement on a matchday: "Last season Milts asked if I wanted to go to Derby with him.

"Then, on the Friday, he said that there was no one from the club going and to get my suit on, we were in the directors’ box and we were eating with the directors!

"You can get that involved. I went to Reading this year and the Derby game this year as well. Milts looks after you and sorts things out for you.

"I used to be involved at Royston Town, I was on the board there and used to put a bit of money in. But by putting the same amount of money into this you feel so much more part of it, probably because it’s my club.

"You feel you’re part of it and you also feel welcome and that the club is appreciative and that you’ve got a relationship with them.

"I recently texted Milts to say I was in Ipswich and he said to come up the training ground, come up for a coffee. You can come in, Mick’s there, he says hello, and you’re made to feel a part of everything. You can’t get that any other way.”

He says he doesn’t view his sponsorship as simply a donation: "It costs money, but I don’t see it as a cost because at the end of the day, on a purely business front, we’ve got our name on the shirts and in the programme and here, there and everywhere.

"Not everybody who sees the visibility will ever use us, but it only takes one person, on a purely clinical business front, to see our advertising, see us involved in Ipswich Town and think they’ll give us a ring and it could be that our sponsorship is paid.

"It was a no-brainer, to be honest with you, as soon as I knew there was a team sponsorship available, I was there.

"Also, you never know who you might meet at events such as this one, it’s good for networking. But the best thing is that I’m involved in my football club.”

Milton is also continuing work on adding to the total of Academy Friends: "I’m going to loads and loads of Supporters Clubs events and explaining to people how their £10 a month makes a massive difference, and it does.

"We’re over 100 at the moment, but realistically we need to be at 1,000 by the end of the year, so we’ve got to find a way of keep getting in front of people and keep getting them on board and believing in what we’re doing. We’re also contacting the people who signed the Supporters Trust’s petition.”

TWTD readers who sign up to become Academy Friends can now enter a competition to win two seats in the Portman Road Directors’ Box for a Town home game and watch the match as the guests of Simon Milton.

TWTD is an academy sponsor, read more about the Academy Association here.

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