Town say the move of any fans from the East of England Co-op Stand would be “carried out as fairly as possible” with season ticket holders in a section of the stand having recently received letters regarding the club’s long-term plans for that part of the ground.
That area of the stand was designated a ‘family area’ last year with the club staging pre-match events on the FieldTurf behind it. However, space for new families is now increasingly limited, although the club is not yet turning away new sales.
While many season ticket holders in the section concerned are families, some have sat - and in some cases in pre-all-seater stadium days stood - in that area for many years prior to the section having been used for families.
With the long-term availability of seating for families in mind, the club recently wrote to fans with season tickets in that section about what they describe as "a situation that may affect [them] in the coming months or seasons”, leading to complaints on the TWTD Forum, on social media and letters to the club from fans potentially affected by the issue, while some fans have started a petition.
The club's letter reads: "We believe there to be a number of adults without accompanying children in our family areas and this could be due purely to the fact that the seat was sold prior to it becoming a family area or that family members have grown up and naturally either drifted away from the club or decided to sit elsewhere.
"It does however leave us with this difficult situation to deal with in terms of moving adults attending without children to alternative areas, which will be inevitable if we were to be promoted to the Premier League.
"We will also need to investigate reducing the ‘orphaned’ single seats within these areas by offering seat moves, ensuring these seats can be utilised for additional seasonal/match ticket sales.
"If you currently come as a family group consisting of juniors then please just use this letter for information purposes only, although please note that we are going to be looking at data that will tell us if junior season tickets have been purchased but are not being used.
"If you are an adult season ticket holder that does not sit with junior family members and you wish to consider moving to a non-family area prior to us getting to the stage when we have no option but to move you, it may be worth contacting the Ticket Office to seek advice on the best seats available sooner in order to select from the most suitable seats.”
A club spokesman clarified their plans: "The letter was sent out to reiterate the club’s intention to accommodate families with children in the family enclosure.
"We do have limited space available now in the family stand, for a number of reasons and that is a situation that may have to be addressed at some stage.
"If changes have to be made, they will be carried out as fairly as possible with each individual case judged on its merits.”