The Portman Road practice pitch could stage a summer music festival, managing director Ian Milne has revealed. The Blues are also keen to hold further larger scale concerts on the main pitch.
Barry Manilow played a gig at Portman Road in May, while Elton John, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rod Stewart are amongst the acts to have appeared in the past.
"I think with the main stadium there’s only a very small window they can find and it’s got to be an artist who really wants to come here,” Milne told TWTD.
"We’re in touch with seven or eight promoters and there’s nothing concrete on that at the moment.
"But what we’re working on is doing some summer concerts on the Fieldturf at a smaller level, seven or eight thousand out there, which we think will work well.
"We’re talking to Ipswich Borough Council on that because we will be licensed for that, so that may happen.
"A music festival for the summer. That’s an idea, nothing concrete at the moment.”
He says the club need to make more of Portman Road on non-matchdays: "We’ve got to sweat the asset with fairs, things like that. We’ve got to do more with it.”
Town have been keen on stadium sponsorship for more than a decade but so far without any takers and Milne says the club is still interested in finding sponsors for Portman Road as well as various other areas.
"We’re certainly out there trying to get sponsorships. It’s tough, it’s tough on all the Championship clubs. We’re always looking at opportunities, front of shirt, back of shirt, stand sponsorship.
"We do quite well with the minor sponsorships, matchday sales have gone up generally. That’s going in the right direction.
"But nobody has stepped in and has said they want a stand for the next three years at however many million. We’d love that to happen. It would have to be a long-term commitment for a stand or the ground and the right sort of sponsorship to fit our profile.”
The Blues MD was delighted to see 22,000 fans at Saturday’s home game against Watford when the club ran a ticket promotion. He believes a corner has been turned and that stay-away fans are starting to return to Portman Road.
"We haven’t talked about figures yet,” he said. "We had the promotion going on which certainly added some more fans, but our walk-ups and online sales went up by another 1,500 too.
"Outside the promotion we’re adding fans, we’re getting them back and seeing some great football.”
He added: "It’s taken some time, and understandably so, but we’re working hard off the field so that once we get them here we make things better for them and they enjoy the experience.”