Town have written to season ticket holders in sections of the Cobbold Stand informing them that they could be required to move seats in order to facilitate an extension of the away section at some games during the campaign ahead.
Last season a number of games, including the Aston Villa and Newcastle matches, were designated all-ticket fixtures in order to prevent away fans from purchasing seats in home sections, their allocation of 2,150 having quickly sold out.
This meant the club were not only turning away visiting supporters - and their gate money - but were also preventing home fans from attending on the spur of the moment.
In order to prevent this from happening in 2017/18 Town plan to give opposition clubs the section next to the regular visitors seats if required.
It’s anticipated that this is only likely to happen on a few occasions, such as the Birmingham game on the opening day and the derby with Norwich City in September, although whether the Canaries are given more seats is likely to depend on home sales.
For safety reasons the Cobbold Stand is the only area in which additional away fans can be accommodated.
The Blues have offered the season ticket holders affected the chance to move their seats ahead of the campaign - we understand that if they opt to change to a more expensive area of the ground they won’t face any additional charge - or switch to other locations for those games where the away allocation is increased.
The letter reads: "We are writing to you ahead of the new season to say that there are a handful of games where it may be required to change the seating arrangements in the Cobbold Stand.
""There were several occasions last season when we didn’t have the capacity to cater for the travelling support and to prevent away fans purchasing tickets in the home end, we had to introduce an all-ticket stance.
"The decision to go all-ticket was done on safety advice but it meant that on some occasions we were turning away local people who ‘just wanted to go to a game’ on matchday even though the stadium was far from full.
""To try and avoid that situation happening in 2017/18 and again on safety advice, we will look at increasing the away seating for certain games next season, reducing the need to make matches all-ticket for all.
""At the moment we have identified Birmingham and Norwich over the first half of the season as games where it’s possible that seating arrangements will need to change.
""We will write to you nearer the time if that is the case. We realise this might prove to be inconvenient to you so we are asking you whether you would like to consider moving your seat to another part of the Cobbold Stand or indeed anywhere else within the stadium ahead of the new season.”
Last week Town announced that they had written fellow Championship clubs to try to arrange a reciprocal price cap of £25 on away match tickets.