The Ipswich Town Independent Supporters Trust will meet with the Town directors on Tuesday morning to urge them to include a share-save scheme in the upcoming new issue of shares. The board meeting will give formal approval to the new share issue which will be officially announced later in the week.
New shares will be made available to all existing shareholders, season ticket holders and Silver Club members. The Trust supports any initiative that allows fans to have a greater say in their football club, but would like to see the club go further and create a share-save scheme in association with Ipswich Town Ist.
The Glasgow Rangers Supporters Trust recently announced a new share-save scheme designed to raise money for their club and to allow fans to have a greater say as their shareholding increases with the full backing of Rangers FC.
Rangers fans will be allowed to invest from as little as £10 a month into a savings scheme with no limit. The cash will then be used to buy previously unissued shares in the club. In return, supporters who are members of the Rangers Supporters Trust will receive an entitlement to ordinary shares in the club - and more of a say in how the club is run.
Supporters who save £10 a month for a period of five years can expect to acquire around £600 of Rangers shares. Because investors must first become members of the Trust, it is not considered to be a public offering of shares and therefore escapes red tape and associated administrative costs.
Ipswich Town Ist ran a share-save scheme when the club made its public offer of shares three years ago which enabled more than 100 supporters to become shareholders in the club. With that scheme the Trust were forced to purchase the shares up front and then sell them on to supporters once they had saved £100.
The Town board turned down the Trust's requests for the club to initiate a share-save scheme as part of that issue of shares, indicating that it was not legally possible. The launch of the Glasgow Rangers scheme appears to indicate differently.
Ipswich Town Ist believes a share-save scheme of the type proposed at Rangers would be advantageous for both the club and fans. For example, if 1,000 supporters committed to investing an average of £20 per month - not much more than the cost of a round of drinks - for a year, some £250,000 would be raised.
Commenting, Ipswich Town Ist chairman Carl Day said: "The Rangers Supporters Trust initiative is something we wholeheartedly support and we would like to see a similar scheme in operation at Portman Road.
"This is a great way of allowing supporters to save over time and buy shares in their football club, allowing them to have a greater say and raise much-needed funds for their club at the same time."
For more information on the Trust visit their website.