Mark Steed, the chief investment officer of Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), was delighted to finally make his first visit to Suffolk over the last few days for the first time since last year’s takeover.
PSPRS have a 90 per cent stake in Blues owners Gamechanger 20, which was completed in April last year.
However, due to the Covid situation and one or two other issues, Steed hadn’t made it over to Ipswich until the end of last week having previously been on a family holiday in Ireland.
He spoke with staff and players at Portman Road and Playford Road on Thursday and Friday before watching the 7—0 friendly victory at Needham Market on Saturday when he met the fans.
"I think I’ve probably tried five times to come and it feels good to finally be here,” Steed told iFollow Ipswich.
"It was exactly what we wanted, I think it was fun for the fans, a great atmosphere, good weather, no injuries, lots of goals. Football’s back, it feels nice after the break.
"I was shaking every hand, I didn’t know whether I was shaking the hand of someone who was not an Ipswich fan, but I didn’t meet anyone who was not an Ipswich fan. I think we have a lot in Needham Market and they put on a really good show. They gave a good account of themselves, a great ground, great people, really fun.”
Regarding his meetings with off-field staff, he said: "I’ve been really impressed with the level of sophistication from the department heads, those that have been here for some time, new ones that have come over from various clubs, even that club up to the north.
"It’s great to see their level of competency, all the progress that they’ve made, which is really nice as even though I haven’t been here I’ve obviously been involved and initiatives that we were talking about back in September last year, we’ve made progress on, we’re not talking about the same things over and over again. You can definitely see progress, lots to go, but that was a real highlight.”
He added: "You definitely get a better sense of the scope of the project. The relief is that the negative surprises have been smaller in magnitude than the positive surprises.
"That’s always something you worry about when you make an investment, especially during Covid and you can’t see it. You worry about what you’re going to discover.
"There are always surprises but you always hope that the positive surprises can outweigh the negative surprises, and that’s what we got.”
Steed was also pleased to have met the players: "Ultimately, that’s more important to me. There’s always a risk as an owner because I feel like people view owners of football clubs as ‘other worldly’, these mythical creatures and there’s a risk when you reach out to the fans that sometimes it makes you appear ordinary and less sophisticated in a way.
"But I don’t own the club, it’s my firm that owns the club and it’s more important for me to deliver the message and the expectations that we’re aligned.
"We wanted to purchase a club that was aligned with our values philosophically and I’m happy to say that what we got.
"I was able to talk to the team about those expectations and certainly I think it was felt and some of the players were really kind in their comments, I definitely think they believe it and understand it.”
Having had his first experience of watching the Blues and having seen plenty of goals, Steed is already planning his second visit.
"We have to now,” he continued. "We were joking earlier, Ed Schwartz [a Gamechanger 20 director, the CEO of ORG, the US investment firm which manages funds on behalf of PSPRS] I don’t think has seen a live goal at Ipswich. I’ve seen seven today, so that was great and I want to keep that margin and in order to do that I’m going to have to show up.
"But I’m also mindful that when we come over it’s a bit of a distraction for [manager] Kieran [McKenna], it’s a distraction for players, for some of the department heads and for [CEO] Mark Ashton, who wants to make sure that we get information, they have to think about us.
"We want to maintain accountability and we want to be aware but there’s a point where it can be a burden and he’s got a job, everyone has a job and we want them busy creating value and an experience for the fans, not entertaining us.”