| Attendances 12:10 - Oct 29 with 7016 views | jasondozzell |
Firstly, it's great to see the ground full every week and I think everyone can agree that seeing a whole new generation interested and enjoying the football is excellent after the Evans years. Can only be a good thing.
Had a conversation yesterday about the pub we go to before the game and how much busier it has got and when. I went back and looked at attendances. It's easy to think that everything immediately shot up when Gamechanger came in but having checked I'd forgotten that we were actually only averaging about 18 ,or 19,000 for most of 20-21. Obv McKenna and pack out PR stuff had a huge impact but even last season we were mid twenties I'd say and only selling out towards the end.
Obviously the success is a huge part of it but do we think the extra five thousand or so are here to stay or does it depend on success? If we had 2 or 3 years back at champ level (I mean hopefully we're going straight up but if not!) where would we be with attendances?
I think people are right when they say we could sustain 40000 if in PL and if we rebuild the Cobbold and I tend to agree.
Either way, makes a nice change from the tail end of Mick when sometimes half the season ticket holders weren't there. Crowds of 12,000 which looked more like 9,000! |  | | |  |
| Attendances on 17:42 - Oct 29 with 1981 views | Churchman |
| Attendances on 17:17 - Oct 29 by floridablue |
Wasn't there something like 8-10 thousand Leeds fans for that 38,000 attendance? I was there and wouldn't be surprised if there was more than 40k inside Portman Road that day! |
No, there wasn’t as many as that. 5k maybe packed in half of north stand and a few odds and ends elsewhere. The average attendance that season was about 26k. Big crowds were reserved for the likes of Liverpool, Leeds and Man U.
Where I will agree is that I suspect the attendance was 40k plus. It was truly rammed. Those wer3 the days where season ticket numbers and seasons in the stand were small. Standing was lower East and West Stands in addition to North and Churchmans. A different era where health and safety at football didn’t exist. |  | | |
| Attendances on 17:54 - Oct 29 with 1944 views | DJR |
| Attendances on 17:42 - Oct 29 by Churchman |
No, there wasn’t as many as that. 5k maybe packed in half of north stand and a few odds and ends elsewhere. The average attendance that season was about 26k. Big crowds were reserved for the likes of Liverpool, Leeds and Man U.
Where I will agree is that I suspect the attendance was 40k plus. It was truly rammed. Those wer3 the days where season ticket numbers and seasons in the stand were small. Standing was lower East and West Stands in addition to North and Churchmans. A different era where health and safety at football didn’t exist. |
Yes, I certainly remember a steel barrier near me in the North Stand breaking with the weight, and for my own part I moved to Churchmans for the second half (which was allowed) where there was no crush. [Post edited 29 Oct 2023 17:55]
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| Attendances on 17:59 - Oct 29 with 1936 views | DJR |
One factor no one seems to have mentioned is that the population of Suffolk at around 750,000 is now 200,000 higher than it was in 1971. And I doubt people in those days travelled the distances some do now to get to games. There is also much more hype around football these days, and particularly the Premiership.
Given all this, I think there is scope for much higher crowds than in the 1970s, were we to reach the Premier League, even if we weren't as successful as under Bobby Robson. | | | |
| Attendances on 18:47 - Oct 29 with 1891 views | MK1 |
| Attendances on 17:59 - Oct 29 by DJR |
One factor no one seems to have mentioned is that the population of Suffolk at around 750,000 is now 200,000 higher than it was in 1971. And I doubt people in those days travelled the distances some do now to get to games. There is also much more hype around football these days, and particularly the Premiership.
Given all this, I think there is scope for much higher crowds than in the 1970s, were we to reach the Premier League, even if we weren't as successful as under Bobby Robson. |
Our away support is testament to that. The Youth have far more than we did back then. 5-7,000 more Ipswich fans for Premier league football isn't as ridiculous as some are suggesting. |  |
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| Attendances on 19:13 - Oct 29 with 1852 views | Vic |
| Attendances on 12:35 - Oct 29 by Illinoisblue |
Talk of sustaining 40k crowds if we were in the prem is incredibly and wildly optimistic. Foolish, even. |
Agree! We’d need to be pushing for Europe to sustain those figures. Likelihood is that we’d be a middling Prem team for a few years before struggling and fighting relegation. Once we tip over our peak and start to struggle attendance will drop - it always has at every club (bar that lot up the road would sell out even if they dropped to the Ipswich and district league!) .
I don’t think we need 40k - 35 is our realistic ceiling. |  |
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| Attendances on 19:33 - Oct 29 with 1812 views | MK1 |
| Attendances on 19:13 - Oct 29 by Vic |
Agree! We’d need to be pushing for Europe to sustain those figures. Likelihood is that we’d be a middling Prem team for a few years before struggling and fighting relegation. Once we tip over our peak and start to struggle attendance will drop - it always has at every club (bar that lot up the road would sell out even if they dropped to the Ipswich and district league!) .
I don’t think we need 40k - 35 is our realistic ceiling. |
I agree. The Op was asking what we could realistically expect and I don't think 35-40,000 is unrealistic. I love the Championship and would be happy with staying put, but our owners have bigger things planned for us I think. The faces are getting much younger home and away, so hopefully our fan base is growing and sustainable. | |
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| Attendances on 19:35 - Oct 29 with 1807 views | longtimefan |
| Attendances on 19:13 - Oct 29 by Vic |
Agree! We’d need to be pushing for Europe to sustain those figures. Likelihood is that we’d be a middling Prem team for a few years before struggling and fighting relegation. Once we tip over our peak and start to struggle attendance will drop - it always has at every club (bar that lot up the road would sell out even if they dropped to the Ipswich and district league!) .
I don’t think we need 40k - 35 is our realistic ceiling. |
Much as I’d like to see a larger capacity at Portman Road I’d be somewhat concerned about the possible parallels with the end of Sir Bobby’s reign when the Britannia was first built. History could be repeated with KMac moving on to greater things. We don’t have a great history following ground expansions and once you’re in the PL the extra money from larger attendances is dwarfed by the TV money. |  | | |
| Attendances on 19:35 - Oct 29 with 1807 views | azuremerlangus |
| Attendances on 19:13 - Oct 29 by Vic |
Agree! We’d need to be pushing for Europe to sustain those figures. Likelihood is that we’d be a middling Prem team for a few years before struggling and fighting relegation. Once we tip over our peak and start to struggle attendance will drop - it always has at every club (bar that lot up the road would sell out even if they dropped to the Ipswich and district league!) .
I don’t think we need 40k - 35 is our realistic ceiling. |
35k makes more sense - incremental increases are less risky. But I’m not sure what the options are for the redeveloping of the Cobbold stand as it isn’t just a case of bolting on an extra tier like the other 3. Starting from scratch is going to cost big money whether it goes to 35k or 40k.
40k is a proper uplift - can’t see us filling that outside of the prem. Maybe there is a 35k design which comes with a 40k option bolt-on later on? |  |
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| Attendances on 20:26 - Oct 29 with 1737 views | ford6600 |
| Attendances on 17:17 - Oct 29 by floridablue |
Wasn't there something like 8-10 thousand Leeds fans for that 38,000 attendance? I was there and wouldn't be surprised if there was more than 40k inside Portman Road that day! |
38,010 to be exact....i was there, North Stand was overcrowded... | | | |
| Attendances on 22:55 - Oct 29 with 1646 views | Perublue |
It's a really tricky one for me this,I have wrestled with capacity increase over the decades and it's need and also it's upside and downsides.
I am of the generation scarred by the Pioneer stand and it's building and possible (never totally sure ,if true) dismantling of a great team to pay for it,making it a white elephant.
..but as pointed out earlier in the thread the population has changed a lot also at the same time of the building of the Pioneer..football itself was a pariah entertaiment and nobody would admit to even going to football let alone following the sport in polite society.
Things have changed a lot and I think now a 35,000 capacity even 40,000 would be a possibilty that could work.
The average attendance at Portman road when in the 2nd division (Championship) 2003-2010 was over 20,000 every season.
Even in the prime Bantz period of 2011-2020 it was very high teens.....all this time also in the 2nd division with horrible football to watch and no good results or positions to placate the awfulness of it all.
Football is even more popular now and premier league is on another level globally.
I think the 35,000 let's say would be pretty much filled every time and even if a spell in the prem means going back down it would still fill. |  |
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| Attendances on 08:54 - Oct 30 with 1539 views | Churchman |
| Attendances on 17:54 - Oct 29 by DJR |
Yes, I certainly remember a steel barrier near me in the North Stand breaking with the weight, and for my own part I moved to Churchmans for the second half (which was allowed) where there was no crush. [Post edited 29 Oct 2023 17:55]
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We were standing in the lower Portman (East) stand near the little groundsmans hut that used to be there. We’d got in quite early so had a good spot. Problem was that I was in my teens and wasn’t tall for my age. It’s fair to say I saw absolutely s0d all of the game. There wasn’t any moving. We were totally wedged in with nowhere to go! Quite an experience.
Yes, you could move round the ground in those days. In fact, you could do that if you had somewhere to go long after it became all seater in 1992. | | | |
| Attendances on 09:39 - Oct 30 with 1499 views | geg1992 |
| Attendances on 12:38 - Oct 29 by Herbivore |
Yeah, I tend to agree. We're on the crest of a wave currently and selling out or close to it most weeks but even yesterday there was a handful of tickets left on the Friday. Adding around 35% more fans every week seems overly optimistic. Struggling to think of many clubs of a similar stature that manage 40k attendances regularly. |
There were only a handful of tickets left because more had been added that day due to the away fans not taking their allocation. The game had sold out a week or even 2 weeks ago. There is plenty of demand for more IMO, not sure how many more though. Getting promoted will also mean bigger away followings. Maybe 40K is too much but for the bigger games, it would certainly sell out in the prem. Still all hypothetical and a long way to go though! |  |
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| Attendances on 09:52 - Oct 30 with 1481 views | bournemouthblue |
| Attendances on 12:38 - Oct 29 by Herbivore |
Yeah, I tend to agree. We're on the crest of a wave currently and selling out or close to it most weeks but even yesterday there was a handful of tickets left on the Friday. Adding around 35% more fans every week seems overly optimistic. Struggling to think of many clubs of a similar stature that manage 40k attendances regularly. |
It's an interesting one, in our second season of the Prem, having finished 5th, we had 27k applications for season tickets so the potential is there
Away followings are also potentially larger in the Prem, most clubs are likely to average around 3k for away followings I would expect but bigger clubs will bring more or less whatever they want |  |
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| If you get in Premier League and stabilise then 40k is perfect on 10:04 - Oct 30 with 1468 views | unstableblue |
We’re selling out 28.5k against Plymouth in the Championship
We’re close to selling out against a non-big name Fulham in a cup that most clubs don’t fancy.
We could easily sell what 35k home tickets for the Norwich derby?
You bring an Arsenal, Man U, Man City, Spurs to Portman road, you sell 3k away tickets guaranteed. You sell 35k Ipswich fan tickets. Any leftover you could sell double to neutrals.
I’m short there’s 5-7k of away neutral to be sold let the alone the ever growing home fan base.
So 40k a target. But we’re not in the premier league, and we’re certainly not stabilised in the premier league. Plus how do you manage the impact of lost revenue and atmosphere when constructing and you can’t get 10k more seats out of the Cobbold.
So it’s all fun speculation but we’re miles away from a PR capacity expansion.
For me by the way the route to expanding fan base is Colchester and surrounding areas. It’s grown massively in the last decade, Tendring peninsular as well. Colchester population is around 200k now. |  |
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