Some of you may be curious as to what is going on with Section 6. Some of the season ticket holders around Section 6 will know by now.

Section 6 is not an organisation as such, it is a loose collective, we do have principles and we have had some good successes in the past. But currently we have a difficult situation, a situation which emphasises one of the key campaigns that we have been working on from inception.

Suppose you are aged 16, you support Town, and away from home enjoy singing at football, because in away sections the singers coexist with the non-singers and families. But you are 16 to 21, you can drive probably drink and undoubtedly have outgrown the sanitised atmosphere of the family areas or even the Sir Bobby Robson Upper Tier.

So, what are your options? You currently have a season ticket that costs somehere between £159 to £250 a season, or you may buy tickets by the game at a cost of £18 per game. But you want a ticket in the Lower Tier of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand, the cost of a new season ticket is £200 more than you pay currently and you cannot afford that. Match tickets are £28 per game, again an extra £10 per game or £230 per season.

Now very few young students aged 16 to 21 can afford an extra £200 a season, those in sixth form or FE college get no grants and either beg money off parents or work part time. Neither scenario is likely to give them the extra £200 per season. University students are also just as badly off, even if they can afford the £200 they will pay it off for the rest of their working lives.

So how do other clubs deal with this? Well, from looking at just 10 of our fellow Championship clubs they seem to all offer either a student concession price or a youth (aged 16 to 21) price match tickets and season tickets in their main supporting stands, only Forest seem to differentiate between sections of stands and not offering such a ticket in some areas.

So what about our Ipswich supporter, he has to sit amongst the kids or the non-singers in the Upper Tier, because he is priced out of where he really wants to be which is the Lower SBRS.

This is the dilemma facing the next generation of supporters, not you if you are aged over 21, you probably have a season ticket or can afford as often as possible a home ticket. But the next generation are supposedly forced to sit in silence in the other areas of the ground, not stand and sing as they would like to.

I would imagine if they did this until that age they would stop following Ipswich, stop buying tickets and as the SBRS Lower gets older there will be no new generation to replace them. In 15 years time the sound of Thermos flasks opening will be louder than the singing. Most SBRS Lower fans will be greyer than me.

But fortunately some of these fans had found another way, they buy their Upper Tier ticket or season ticket and sneak in the Lower Tier.

Which takes me back to Section 6. Bunch of kids I hear some of the most miserable readers snigger, or are they actually the future of the Ipswich Town support, the future passionate supporters who sing all game. Most supporters of whatever age were once a teenager, then of course price was not an issue, ticket prices were always reasonable and this situation never arose.

But enter Mr Killjoy in the shape of the stewards, we can see it is an orchestrated plan, check every ticket in Section 6 to ensure that these teenagers are excluded by price from where they want to be to support their club. It is now so extreme that an adult season ticket holder in his 30s was grilled and his season ticket studied closely yesterday.

So the stewards have had their way and Section 6 is merely those of us who can afford to pay full price adult tickets (or at my age have no choice). That is not to say we don't sing anymore, yesterday I was told by a fan I didn't know from Section 5, unprompted, that almost all the songs that the SBRS Lower sang with such passion yesterday originated in Section 6 and there were only a dozen of us as well, thanks to all those in Section 6 that sang so well yesterday.

But we need a way forward, the only logical reason that the club has rejected calls for a youth/student ticket option (even number limited if needs be as an experiment) is down to the accountants, the club want to squeeze as much dosh out of us fans as possible.

But we will not give up. We have raised a second petition here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/studentticketnorthstandlower

If what I say strikes a chord then please sign it.

If on the other hand snigger and you laugh at it, then consider this, if you sing at football what you do in the situation of our hypothetical fan who cannot afford £200, what did you do in your youth remembering of course that tickets cost far more of a pay packet these days than then. Stop laughing and think about it, will you stop going when there is no next generation to take up the mantle and sing, "Hark now Hear..."

alfromcol added 09:44 - Oct 5 Why don't all you would-be chanters who want more atmosphere, move to section 6 or section 3 in the South Stand. You will get plenty of atmosphere there. You can see the whites of the away supporters eyes from there. I see plenty of banter between home supporters in section 3 of the South Stand and away supporters.
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InterBlue added 15:04 - Oct 5 Yeah you're right. I shouldn't expect a 17 year old to be able to find an extra £200 over a year. Outrageous concept and cloud cuckoo land territory. Class has got nothing to do with it, gumption has everything though clearly.
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CaughtInTheBrambles added 19:07 - Oct 5 Interblue an argument made twice is no more powerful than it was before, isn't gumption an old drain cleaner. And to reiterate the South Stand option is no go - official, They apparantly don't want any fans who might start banter with away fans. Heaven forbid it might provoke an atmosphere better than the Leeds game, so the away fans cannot hear the North Stand unless EVERYONE sings which happens about as rarely as a well timed Alex Bruce tackle.

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Marshalls_Mullet added 09:32 - Oct 6 Dare I say its not just a problem of thr Section 6 lads, football is over priced generally... ticking timebomb!! Also, there will be plenty of over 21's struggling in the current climate who wish to take kids etc along.
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trueblue added 09:52 - Oct 6 When did standing in football grounds become legal ? as far as i know if you stand you can be banned,also lower sir bobby stand is adult only because of the language and atmosphere in there, so move to churchmans and learn some new songs.
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Marshalls_Mullet added 10:01 - Oct 6 Whether standing is legal or not is irrelevant. Ipswich Town FC is privately owned and Portman Road is private property, therefore if the owner decides that standing is prohibited...... then standing is prohibited!!
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huddersfielditfc added 11:40 - Oct 6 I fail to see any behaviour in the Lower North that shouldn't down to personal choice whether to experience it, rather than enforced.
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trueblue added 13:35 - Oct 6 Mr Mullett my house is private but i still can't take drugs! i own a car but still have to stick to the speed limit. the law is the law, private property or not. Portman raod is actually owned by the council and rented to the club, so they would have a say on weather the law is upheld or not. as for the lower being adult only its the clubs words/choice not mine
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Marshalls_Mullet added 17:03 - Oct 6 Trueblue - Your point is null and void. My point was that even if the law doesnt prevent standing, the owner of the club still can. He can state that if you refuse to be seated then you may be removed. You will also find that the council as the freeholder will not have much of a say in these matters as the club will hold the power thanks to their long leasehold interest. Your point would ONLY be valid if I was suggested the club enforced something that was UNLAWFUL. I did not suggest this. Thankyou.

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05Jchamb added 22:44 - Oct 6 Also trueblue, the clubs arguement that it is an adult evironment is pure dross: Any person of any age (and I mean ANY age) is allowed in the NSL as long as they can afford an adult ticket. Aside from this, there is nothing in the NSL that wouldnt get allowed to be shown in a 15 rated movie.
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Radlett_blue added 07:09 - Oct 7 Please can these guys either (a) find some songs about our own players - don't think we even have one now or (b) at least sing some songs in support of Town rather than the tedious anti-Norwich song?
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Vexorg added 12:21 - Oct 7 Personally bored with signing the same songs as we have for years. How about some bright student spark with time on his/her hands coming up with some original and new songs as a way forward. Even the goal music has changed a few times
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VILJOEN67 added 14:23 - Oct 7 Cant see a problem with allowing student concessions in the lower north,anything to encourage support. If other clubs can do it why not us.
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Back_The_Boss added 13:38 - Oct 8 Tickets at ITFC are so expensive. Something has to be done about it and it's no wonder that fans are not turning up in the numbers they used to.
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bluethroughnthrough added 11:45 - Oct 9 brilliant article. completely agree. the way i see it there are the 'oldschool' ipswich fans, who come to games to eat prawn sandwiches, moan at how badly the team is doing, not bother get behind the team, and want ipswich football club run as if it was still the 1980's. here comes along young ipswich supporters, who actually want to create some form of atmosphere at portman road, and want to sit in the stand most well known for "atmosphere", but we can't afford it. Get a job I hear you say? Because it is obviously that easy. the oldschool and the ipswich board don't want an atmosphere at portman road. c'est la vie.

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debenturedave added 23:09 - Oct 11 Just buy the cheapest ticket you can,, whether it is upper or lower North Stand/Sir Bobby R. Stand and then sit wherever you want , Upper or Lower, whatever suits you or is available. The club built the stand with only one entrance, so apart from the Norwich game there are always spare seats in both tiers, so its your choice to sit where you want. Due to the clubs over priced ticket structure there are nearly 10,000 spare seats every game, so until this policy changes or we get promoted , sit in the best seat you can find at the cheapest price. Northampton cup game is £17-50 for any seat anywhere for season ticket holders, but it should have been £15 and kids for a quid for half term and we might then have got 20,000 ( if they sell all 4,000 away tickets). How come they get all the top tier of the Cobbold for a cup game, but the Leeds fans are allowed to infiltrate and sit all over the ground, instead of being put in the empty corner of the Cobbold stand out of everyones way ?!?!

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kesgraveultra added 09:57 - Oct 12 The key point is football is simply too expensive and thanks to the current regime's business plan based solely on reaching the Premiership so they can fill the 10,000 empty seats with people coming to see Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd etc we remain one of the most expensive clubs in the league and more expensive than many in the Premier League. Even if these lads could find the extra £200 a season in the middle of a period of criminally high youth unemployment why should they? Where would their £200 go? Would it go to the development of the club? I doubt it. The whole sport is currently a ticking timebomb. Attendances are falling up and down the country as traditional supporters are priced out, look at Colchester who are down 20% on attendance despite their most promising start to a season ever. Look at the fisaco at Liverpool, a European giant reduced to a farce as Americans and Asians with no connection to the club or the city argue over its future.

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SammyT added 16:53 - Oct 12 Think section 6 have created a division between people singing and this is the reason behind 2 difference songs being sung/accoustical problems. Would welcome them in section 5 though and feel they would have a postitive impact but from where they are can barely hear them tbh. Price them in and lets get the ground roaring again!!
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warwickblue added 23:04 - Oct 13 I think you'll generally find that if the team are playing out of their skins, there's been a few blood and thunder incidents and we've fought back from 2-0 down to be romping home to a 5-2 victory, there will be 20,000 of us who are quite happy to sing - and won't really care how much we've paid for the experience. Section 6 have their hearts in the right place I suppose but the sadness is that, with them not having been around at PR in the 1970's and early 80's they will just never know what 'atmosphere' in the North Stand is. Several thousand Town fans, all standing. Two metres away - several hundred Arsenal fans- all standing. Down the middle - a thin blue line of good humoured constables and stewards. Crushed so tight you could hardly draw breath to sing and when we scored your feet lifted off the floor as you were transported down about fifty steps until stopped by a crash barrier. Constant banter, breathtaking noise, pure adrenaline. Oh, I'll shut-up and go and look for my zimmer...

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