'The Five Point Protest' Open Forum Review:
On Thursday 12th March, we held our first open forum to discuss the overall protest and to start developing a plan of action going forward. Supported by Ashley Symonds of Ipswich Fanzone, around 20 people of varying age groups and affiliations attended. This included members of Blue Action, the 'Talk of The Town' podcast as well as members from well traveled supporters groups (Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds and Clacton).
The initial first stage of the protest was pitched to the group which would have included a united fan march and 12 minute boycott (referencing the amount of years under Evans' ownership) of the opening 12 minutes of the home game against Rochdale on Saturday 18th April . The aim of which was to show both the unity of the fanbase in showing their frustrations towards the current ownership as well as highlighting the potential future of attendances. The FPP Twitter page polled a small proportion of both season ticket and non-season ticket holders both yielding results attributing to drops in both season ticket renewals and ticket sales next year. Around 600 season ticket holders answered the poll, with 45% selecting not to renew at this current stage, of that 45% who choose not to renew 55% selected the club's ownership as to their reason for not renewing. The other options available where current manager and value for money. The non season ticket holder poll of approximately 300 users yielded a result of 80% not attending as many games as they had this season for the 20/21 campaign. With 47% stating that ownership was their biggest factor. This may have been a small sample size but in the infancy of this protest movement it's a indication as to where our fanbase is currently sitting rolling into the final month or more of the season.
This idea was met with a mixed response by those in attendance, some feeling that the stance may come off as a very aggressive approach to begin with and may not be fully engage a large amount of supporters in the early stages of this protest. The boycott was also met with a mixed response, with the view that it may have a determental impact of the team's performance during the game. Although I respect the opinions of those in attendance, as the organiser of this protest I feel that an early demonstration is something that is needed in order to bring attention to the frustrations and feelings of our fanbase. So long as the protest march is respectful to the authorities and staff at Portman Road, with the use of social media and local press to grow it, this can be seen as a very positive and progressive first step of our movement. Ultimately, the likelihood of this happening now is very low and uncertain due to the current Coronavirus pandemic leaving the remaining schedule in question. However, once we have more clarity going forward I would like to gauge the general interest of a protest march and I would like to open discussions with the authorities and relevant parties about the feasibility of this. In the meantime, I would appreciate as much feedback regarding interest in a protest march.
With no football in the immediate future we will be turning our attention to other matters that we can affect. A crucial part of the discussion, was nailing down key points, questions and indisputable evidence supporting key frustrations and relating to the 'Five Points'. There is a clear sense of frustration within our fanbase and as we all know talk is cheap. We see this from our playing and coaching staff as well as those at the top of our club, usually leaving the fans dissapointed later down the line. The crucial part of this action will be credibility, it is very easy to react to whispers and rumours but without key facts and information it is very difficult to put those to our ownership without it being waved away or avoided. A key piece of information that came to light was the absence of our Director of Football who is currently on gardening leave. With performances and results on the pitch significantly nosediving, it is hard to fathom why someone hired to aid our coaching staff and manage performance isn't being utilised. This is the kind of information that we can use and question our owner on should we achieve the end goal of our protest, clarity and transparency from our owner.
I urge anyone who may have contacts or who could provide important, relevant information relating to ongoing issues, on or off-field, or relating to the 'Five Point Protest' to make themselves know and provide as much information. We will be working with the contacts and information that we have been provided as a group by those attendees and our mailing list then pursuing avenues of enquiry. Once again, I won't divulge details until we have something significant to provide going forward.
I have also been contacted by a fellow Town fan who has expressed interest with support from external sources in our current protest movement from a business viewpoint. I am hoping to arrange a meeting with this individual to fully flesh out his proposition. This wasn't raised in the open forum as it is unfair for me to comment at this stage without a full and clear understanding of the proposal. Once again, I do not wish to build expectation from this but it's an avenue I personally will be pursuing.
To summarise, I felt as the organiser that this was very productive and constructive first, of hopefully many, meetings regarding 'The Five Point Protest'. Currently, as a football club and a country we are in an uncertain time due to factors nobody perhaps anticipated happening at the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak. It's frustrating that we face this stumbling block but I ask for patience at this time and wish you and your families good health. Football isn't the most important concern right now and I hope that we remain merely disrupted by the current situation. Rest assured we will be working in areas that we can to benefit the movement going forward. The response and support we have had in the early stages of this protest has exceeded our expectations which is a really positive step. The key to this protest movement growing and yielding action is your support. This will be a gradual build and progress will be slower now but I ask for all supporters of this protest movement to remain patience and keep spreading the word. This is our club and I hope that we continue to make good progress going forward.
If you are interested in joining our mailing list please email IpswichFanzone@gmail.com
Thank you for reading
Kind Regards
Mark Beck
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