Bracknell Town chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse says his club have struck gold by drawing the Blues in the first round of the FA Cup with the current unconfirmed expectation that the match will be screened live by ITV4 on the evening of Monday 7th November.
Town’s trip to Berkshire was one of the highlights of Monday’s draw not least for the home club’s chairman, who outlined the recent history of the Southern League Premier Division South side.
"We struck gold getting Ipswich, a superb tie for us, especially at home,” Steinborn-Busse told talkSPORT.
"As a football club, I took them over in 2015. We were a step six football club and our ground [Larges Lane] had only ever operated at step five. But we’ve had a bit of a success and we got promoted last year to step three but our old ground was not compliant.
"We own two clubs, Bracknell and Sandhurst, so we groundshare. We built a new stadium in down in a place called Bottom Meadow, it’s in the borough of Bracknell but it’s just on the outskirts in a town called Sandhurst.
"It’s a grass pitch, not artificial. Roughly holds between two and three thousand, we’ll confirm that this week. We’re having a safety audit this week in light of the home draw and they’ll set what the official capacity will be for that game. We’ll know in the coming few days what we’ll be allowed to hold.”
The FA banned clubs from switching FA Cup ties to bigger opposition stadia in 2003 but Steinborn-Busse says he wouldn’t have been interested even if that had been a possibility.
"Financially it would make perfect sense to play it at their ground because we’d generate more income,” he admitted.
"However, I’m involved in the sport of football to win football matches, what drives me is winning.
"So if you look at this game and you think from a football perspective, what is your best chance, it’s simply being at home because they won’t like coming here.
"We’ve got a really nice ground, we’ve spent a lot of money over the last couple of years, good few million pounds redeveloping. For non-league we’ve invested heavily in our ground.
"It’s a nice ground but the dressing rooms will be smaller than they’re used to, the fans will be right on top of them. They’re not going to like that.
"If we are to stand any chance, I think taking them on at our place increases our chances, although they’re slim, no one is expecting us to beat a League One side.
"But in the FA Cup anything is going to be possible. If we are to stand a chance, playing them at our place is the best chance we have.”
Steinborn-Busse says his club is working through the ticketing process but expects to have sold 1,000 by the weekend to his club’s season ticket holders and regulars at £25 each.
"I think we’ve got to send 15 per cent of the overall ticket allocation to Ipswich,” he added. "So they’re going to have a few hundred, but ultimately when our tickets go on public same online they are going to fly and they’re going to probably go to Ipswich fans.”
The game is also set to be on live TV with discussions currently ongoing: "I believe it’s going to be ITV4 and I think, it’s not 100 per cent confirmed, it’s going to be on the Monday night, I believe. On Monday 7th, that’s the conversation at the moment.
"That’s a great thing, I’m not sure we’ve ever been on TV and for a club like us we will generate off the back of this game probably equal to a year’s turnover.”