Town CEO Mark Ashton says away fans will remain in their current position in the Cobbold Stand during 2023/24 but with discussions about moving them elsewhere ongoing.
Ashton has previously said he’s not happy with their current position in the top corner of the Cobbold Stand towards the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand end with their section stretching across towards the middle of the stand and some of the ground’s best seats.
Away supporters have been in that position since Portman Road went all-seater in 1992.
"The reality is that primarily they’re going to stay where they are,” Ashton told TWTD. "We’ve had some discussions with SAG (Safety Advisory Group) and it’s not an easy move and it’s going to need to run longer from a planning perspective.
"We’re going to make a decision to stand still, which is a little bit frustrating, to be honest, because I don’t like standing still, but we’ll stand still more or less for this season, but we will work with SAG and the relative authorities through the season to probably come up with two alternative options next season that we can deliver in reality.
"The challenge is that the stadium is a not a natural design for away fans. We’ve worked in the South-East corner, we’ve worked on the turnstiles in that area to try and improve access and egress to the stadium.
"We’ve had substantially increased police bills this season, I mean substantially increased police bills, that’s no shock or surprise from the police.
"We sat down at the start of the season and there were points where both the police and us were concerned that the levels of disorder were just starting to bubble a little bit.
"There were a couple of away games early on in the season where we had some issues, so we worked through a plan with the police, and the police were outstanding, because we wanted to nip that in the bud because while we want a great atmosphere in Portman Road, we also want it to be a safe place for families to come.
"So we’re going to sit on our hands for this season more or less on location and then work through next season on where we can or might move them to.”
Where might visiting fans move to? "I’d better not at the moment because I’ll get myself in trouble with SAG because we’ve started those conversations, and if I put the cart before the horse, they’ll tell me off and I’ll cause them problems.”