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I’ve waited over 20 years to see my team walk out in the Premier League, a moment I’ve dreamed of for so long. But that moment was taken away from me. You’ve created your own special section to set yourselves apart from the rest of the club, and then put together a display that blocked the view of thousands of other fans, robbing them of seeing their team’s return to the Premier League.
This isn’t what being an Ipswich fan is about. It feels like you’re more focused on making a statement than being part of the club’s journey. It’s disappointing and disrespectful to the rest of us who just wanted to share in this special moment.
Stop being so self centred and selfish and think of other fans. I’ve spoken to many many people this afternoon and you are the only sour part of an otherwise great day.
Mark Ashton has literally said to us that he shows pictures of our displays to prospective signings. Phillips perhaps not the best example, but this isn't us being self-important or self-aggrandizing...
If that's the case, you (BA) could really do with him or the club making their support much more transparent.
Right now feels like you're the only ones having to defend it. As I've said already, it didn't bother me too much but I think it was a bit too much for a lot of Town fans (especially without proper communication about what it would entail).
That being said, questioning others 'sacrifice' and saying things like turning up is the absolute minimum is not going to help convince anyone who thinks you have a superfan complex.
Winner of the "most obvious troll ever seen on here" award, sponsored by _Clive_Baker
Yeah you're probably right, and we're normally pretty good at keeping our counsel (certainly won't have this carry on over X or facebook. TWTD just so much better for reasoned debate). But is this going to keep happening? Can we now assume that any display that obscures supporters' views - for however short a period of time and during however inconsequential a passage of play? You say I shouldn't use emotive language like 'sacrifices', but should we bother sweating in a sports hall to make a banner only to have it yanked about and ripped?
"But is this going to keep happening? Can we now assume that any display that obscures supporters' views - for however short a period of time "
So first off, I think it looked great and in an ideal world those who had their view obscured would accept that as being part of an awesome fan display towards the team and to help build an atmosphere.
But in reality some fans don't sign up to that, as evidenced by the OP and by some fans yesterday holding back the banner to not impede their view, so yep, the problem won't go away.
Three possible solutions.
1. Get the club to announce pre display that some fans will be behind the banner and to thank them for their patience etc. 2. Make the banner smaller so it doesn't block any views. 3. Could those in the upper tier hold it up this helping a tad?
You could just ignore the naysayers too and put it down to grumpy old men being well,.grumpy old men.
Either way, it would be sad if you didn't continue to do what you do. You enhance the atmosphere at Portman Rd and long may that continue.
I thought it was the wind, but people are literally admitting in this thread to having pulled the banner back to get a view of the players entering the pitch. We had some good pics of just the banner, but none of it with the blue and white polysheets up as well, as by that hence why the display didn't 'work'...
3 minutes is all we asked for. 3 minutes where nothing was even happening. Yes it was the first game back in the Prem after 22 years, but someone moans EVERY time we do a display that obscures people's views for a brief period. We've had it with Remembrance banners and even banners to the memory of recently passed fans. Can you not see how frustrating this is..?
If this happens every time, perhaps show a bit of empathy and try to understand why? It’s incredibly divisive to start insinuating that there is only one way to support the team, or that your way is somehow superior.
From my view of it, it’s simply that people wanted to see, so the first row just pushed the banner up a row so they weren’t under it. Then the next row did, and so on.
There was no malicious act, sabotage or conspiracy. To suggest so rather dramatises it, and alienates a lot of people who would otherwise be very supportive.
If something obstructs your view, it’s just human nature to try to look round it. That’s literally it.
We spent around 25 hours designing and making that banner, including 7 hours in the sweltering heat yesterday putting around 7,000 plastic sheets on seats. We're not paid for this. We all have jobs and many of us have young families. Spare time is at a premium - and yet this is what we choose to do with it. How dare you call us selfish and self-centred? Tell me - what sacrifices have YOU made for this football club..?
Have you considered the impact coming out to that display would have had on the players? Have you considered the tens of thousands of fans, both in the ground and without, that would have derived pleasure from it? Have you considered how much the display could've showcased our club to a global audience of potentially millions? Mark Ashton has said he uses pictures of our displays as extra enticement to potential signings. Have you considered that, maybe, having a hard-earned reputation for having creative, committed and hard-working fans provided that extra nudge to get, say, Kalvin Phillips over the line? No, you've considered none of those things. None of that means anything as long as you had 3 minutes (we dropped the banner at 12:25 and raised it at 12:28) of some football players running onto a pitch, lining up, and then shaking each others' hands. The fact we had people deliberately sabotaging our efforts for this is, frankly, disgraceful.
The irony is of course the all of our lads got back into A Block way after kick off meaning we missed around 5 minutes of actual football.
Trying to establish an active fan group - an 'ultra' group if you will - at ITFC has been a long, drawn out slog. We're met with a footballing establishment that actively tries to suppress active fan culture and a club that is, by and large, pretty indifferent. We relocated to A Block to create a space where it was explicit that fans would be expected to sing non-stop for the team as this just wasn't happening in the North Lower. We should've been based centrally behind a goal, like where every team's hardcore support is housed, but would you and your mates have made way? Of course not. So A Block it was, but displays would always look more imposing in the North Stand. Funnily enough, our first display last season was just in A Block - and we got pelters for focusing it just there.
Anyway, i've already spent too much time on this. Don't worry too much about missing the players coming out onto the pitch, they'll do it again against Fulham in a couple of weeks...
What happens to all the plastic sheets?
Winner of the "most obvious troll ever seen on here" award, sponsored by _Clive_Baker
We spent around 25 hours designing and making that banner, including 7 hours in the sweltering heat yesterday putting around 7,000 plastic sheets on seats. We're not paid for this. We all have jobs and many of us have young families. Spare time is at a premium - and yet this is what we choose to do with it. How dare you call us selfish and self-centred? Tell me - what sacrifices have YOU made for this football club..?
Have you considered the impact coming out to that display would have had on the players? Have you considered the tens of thousands of fans, both in the ground and without, that would have derived pleasure from it? Have you considered how much the display could've showcased our club to a global audience of potentially millions? Mark Ashton has said he uses pictures of our displays as extra enticement to potential signings. Have you considered that, maybe, having a hard-earned reputation for having creative, committed and hard-working fans provided that extra nudge to get, say, Kalvin Phillips over the line? No, you've considered none of those things. None of that means anything as long as you had 3 minutes (we dropped the banner at 12:25 and raised it at 12:28) of some football players running onto a pitch, lining up, and then shaking each others' hands. The fact we had people deliberately sabotaging our efforts for this is, frankly, disgraceful.
The irony is of course the all of our lads got back into A Block way after kick off meaning we missed around 5 minutes of actual football.
Trying to establish an active fan group - an 'ultra' group if you will - at ITFC has been a long, drawn out slog. We're met with a footballing establishment that actively tries to suppress active fan culture and a club that is, by and large, pretty indifferent. We relocated to A Block to create a space where it was explicit that fans would be expected to sing non-stop for the team as this just wasn't happening in the North Lower. We should've been based centrally behind a goal, like where every team's hardcore support is housed, but would you and your mates have made way? Of course not. So A Block it was, but displays would always look more imposing in the North Stand. Funnily enough, our first display last season was just in A Block - and we got pelters for focusing it just there.
Anyway, i've already spent too much time on this. Don't worry too much about missing the players coming out onto the pitch, they'll do it again against Fulham in a couple of weeks...
If I didn't hold up a piece of plastic, I'm not a fan.
And did i read it right, you're to thank for Phillips signing! What a joke.
Blue action is all very well in promotion seasons, you'll be the first to turn if results don't go our way. Portman road has been toxic over the years, a horrid atmosphere. Aimed not only at owners etc but players. How much of that was down to "fans" who are now BA or ultras etc? Death threats aimed at players at an away cup defeat springs to mind as a new low.
Exeter last year I inflated and gave away 200 blue and white balloons before the game. Made an impact but didn't block anyone's view. Am I now to thank for Johnson signing?
If I didn't hold up a piece of plastic, I'm not a fan.
And did i read it right, you're to thank for Phillips signing! What a joke.
Blue action is all very well in promotion seasons, you'll be the first to turn if results don't go our way. Portman road has been toxic over the years, a horrid atmosphere. Aimed not only at owners etc but players. How much of that was down to "fans" who are now BA or ultras etc? Death threats aimed at players at an away cup defeat springs to mind as a new low.
Exeter last year I inflated and gave away 200 blue and white balloons before the game. Made an impact but didn't block anyone's view. Am I now to thank for Johnson signing?
Whilst I've been a bit critical of their response here, it's ridiculous to suggest that they have only been active in promotion seasons.
If you're not going to get basic facts right then there's not a lot of point in reading on.
Winner of the "most obvious troll ever seen on here" award, sponsored by _Clive_Baker
I’m sure that going forward the club will impose restrictions on the size of banner that can be displayed. It was over the top yesterday and it did impact on some fans enjoyment.
Sadly Slambo, by his over the top responses, does little to help the cause. I know he doesn’t intend it but he comes over as self righteous. Pull the horns in, or better still let others speak for Blue Action.
I donate regularly to Blue Action and will continue to do so but please spend my money in ways that don’t impact on the enjoyment of others.
Just a thought but couldn’t you hang your banners over the new glass front to Cobbold upper?
You could consider, as some US fans do, a flag March from the fan zone to A block, some might have to change their pre match drinking plans though.
If I didn't hold up a piece of plastic, I'm not a fan.
And did i read it right, you're to thank for Phillips signing! What a joke.
Blue action is all very well in promotion seasons, you'll be the first to turn if results don't go our way. Portman road has been toxic over the years, a horrid atmosphere. Aimed not only at owners etc but players. How much of that was down to "fans" who are now BA or ultras etc? Death threats aimed at players at an away cup defeat springs to mind as a new low.
Exeter last year I inflated and gave away 200 blue and white balloons before the game. Made an impact but didn't block anyone's view. Am I now to thank for Johnson signing?
Probably killed a few animals though, so it’s all swings and roundabouts….
Yeah you're probably right, and we're normally pretty good at keeping our counsel (certainly won't have this carry on over X or facebook. TWTD just so much better for reasoned debate). But is this going to keep happening? Can we now assume that any display that obscures supporters' views - for however short a period of time and during however inconsequential a passage of play? You say I shouldn't use emotive language like 'sacrifices', but should we bother sweating in a sports hall to make a banner only to have it yanked about and ripped?
You choose to spend your time sweating in a sports hall, the people pushing the banner back didn’t choose to have their view of something they wanted to see obscured
OP was OTT but the core points they and others have made in this thread are reasonable. Not sure what’s too difficult to grasp,tbh
Highlighting crass stupidity since sometime around 2010
You choose to spend your time sweating in a sports hall, the people pushing the banner back didn’t choose to have their view of something they wanted to see obscured
OP was OTT but the core points they and others have made in this thread are reasonable. Not sure what’s too difficult to grasp,tbh
Exactly. This fella’s post have made my perception of BA go down a little bit. Blue Order always posts freely and listens. This just smacks of entitlement. People are allowed to not want to have their view blocked. That’s life.
Who said: "Colin Healy made Cesc Fabregas look like Colin Healy"? | We miss you TLA
Exactly. This fella’s post have made my perception of BA go down a little bit. Blue Order always posts freely and listens. This just smacks of entitlement. People are allowed to not want to have their view blocked. That’s life.
I'm sure Slambo's views are not shared by everyone who works so hard on behalf of Blue Action. Worth adding that his first post, on this thread, was relatively late in the evening.
Personally think the information BA sent out on the Friday before the game is probably a little bit late in the day, also think the tifo should have been displayed as the players was shaking hands and going towards the North stand. It was a great effort, and can only applaud what BA do, but on this occasion it needed better co-ordination.
I'm a bit of an old git, and have read the comments on this thread which are thought provoking. I do think there is an arrogance from BA when calling themselves ultras. I've been stuck over the Pennines in freezing fog on the way home from a 7-0 defeat at Bramall Lane. I've travelled from Suffolk to Anfield only to be locked out when the turnstiles closed in front of me. And the same at West Ham. I've been there in the sh1t years, as well as the good, shouting, singing, supporting, making banners as a kid, cycling home through blizzards to get home from games. But I also get that football has changed over the years, and I am sure there is more than a kernel of truth in the comments from Slambo about how the displays and the smoke bombs etc. are seen by fans and potential signings as signs that we are a big club and maybe help with attracting players.
However, the one thing that the old git that I am can't accept, is the imagery. Why of why do BA use the image of a pop band from Ipswich who model themselves on a murdering, raping psychopath? They could have chosen Sir Alf, or Sir Bob, or Kevin Beattie or Mick Mills, or even Kieran McKenna. I am never going to donate money to a group that use iconography associated with someone like that. I just don't get that part of it, and it leaves a sour taste to BA for me.
could have been worse, anyone remember that gigantic shirt we had last time in the premier league that they passed over a stand and everyones heads, blocked everyones view for minutes that did, Im sure a game kicked off once whilst it was still being passed around, and it was too big to be ever cleaned...
I was behind the banner and had my view obstructed and although I would have liked to have seen the players come out, I also want Ipswich Town to look awesome to the world. I think Tifos are fanfastic.
I thought it was the wind, but people are literally admitting in this thread to having pulled the banner back to get a view of the players entering the pitch. We had some good pics of just the banner, but none of it with the blue and white polysheets up as well, as by that hence why the display didn't 'work'...
3 minutes is all we asked for. 3 minutes where nothing was even happening. Yes it was the first game back in the Prem after 22 years, but someone moans EVERY time we do a display that obscures people's views for a brief period. We've had it with Remembrance banners and even banners to the memory of recently passed fans. Can you not see how frustrating this is..?
I have a couple of videos I took behind the banner as it came down etc, if they'd be useful to see drop me a dm. There was a significant amount of booing and people yelling their displeasure. Fans near the bottom of the banner were then grabbing it and then pulling it back so they could see. It was getting ripped at the bottom and at the time I thought there was a fair chance of it being ripped down. Even as it was being hauled up again, there were people holding on to the bottom of it and it was getting torn, although I think this was because from where they were stood they lacked the perspective to know if was being hauled up.
As I've stated earlier, I fully support what you guys are about and ordinarily I would have no issue missing the players walking out in order for there to be another excellent tifo, but on this occasion I did feel a little cheated as it was a big moment to see the walk out to a premier league game for the first time in 22 years. Hindsight is a thing I guess.
Regardless of how frustrated you may feel about the attitudes of others, I do think you also need to recognise the strength of feeling of other fans. There were a significant number of fans who were very angry. I think more concise communication might help, I actively follow your social media and shared the Facebook post about the tifo, but was still surprised that my view was obscured when it came to it.
Ah well. Storm in a teacup. Looking forward to the next one!
I have a couple of videos I took behind the banner as it came down etc, if they'd be useful to see drop me a dm. There was a significant amount of booing and people yelling their displeasure. Fans near the bottom of the banner were then grabbing it and then pulling it back so they could see. It was getting ripped at the bottom and at the time I thought there was a fair chance of it being ripped down. Even as it was being hauled up again, there were people holding on to the bottom of it and it was getting torn, although I think this was because from where they were stood they lacked the perspective to know if was being hauled up.
As I've stated earlier, I fully support what you guys are about and ordinarily I would have no issue missing the players walking out in order for there to be another excellent tifo, but on this occasion I did feel a little cheated as it was a big moment to see the walk out to a premier league game for the first time in 22 years. Hindsight is a thing I guess.
Regardless of how frustrated you may feel about the attitudes of others, I do think you also need to recognise the strength of feeling of other fans. There were a significant number of fans who were very angry. I think more concise communication might help, I actively follow your social media and shared the Facebook post about the tifo, but was still surprised that my view was obscured when it came to it.
Ah well. Storm in a teacup. Looking forward to the next one!
That’s the funny part. BA seemingly weren’t even underneath it to know how it was received.
Countless people have said they didn’t like it, perhaps just take this on the chin as a very rare misstep and move on.
Who said: "Colin Healy made Cesc Fabregas look like Colin Healy"? | We miss you TLA
Reading all the comments - it's a hard one to choose a side.
The tifo did look great and was a great "we're back" sign to watching audience.
But having also stood in the lower SBR stand for the league one years - it is also frustrating to have your view blocked.
The response from Shambo was out of touch and made me wince reading it. It was a backward step and made you you look very self entitled.
If they had instead released their own statement - and said "we had hoped to create a great atmosphere and response with our tifo and understand we blocked the view of those wanting to the see the historic view of the player running on to a Premier league season. We are sorry - we will aim to be better at communicating going forward"
I think we would all be more understanding. Thy do great work and they have communicated well in the past - but can always be better going forward.
"Bobby conquered Europe!!! And we won the FA cuuuuup!"
Imagine the disgust if anybody was to attempt to recreate anything like this near NSL.
Whole different circumstance. Celtic play Rangers every season, I think at least three times at home by the end of it. It's bogstandard, repetitive, every day. Anything to get the crowd going and to add a spark is probably embraced and welcomed.
Whereas Saturday was special for so many. Our first Premier League game in 20 years. Understandably fans wanted to be part of the action rather than have their view blocked, almost becoming disconnected from everyone else in the stadium.
What Blue Action have done for the club is superb (though didn't know about the Ipswich band image). This is a misstep, nobody's perfect and things which look great to begin with don't always work out as planned. A case of acknowledging the issue, learning from it and moving on - on both sides.
Whole different circumstance. Celtic play Rangers every season, I think at least three times at home by the end of it. It's bogstandard, repetitive, every day. Anything to get the crowd going and to add a spark is probably embraced and welcomed.
Whereas Saturday was special for so many. Our first Premier League game in 20 years. Understandably fans wanted to be part of the action rather than have their view blocked, almost becoming disconnected from everyone else in the stadium.
What Blue Action have done for the club is superb (though didn't know about the Ipswich band image). This is a misstep, nobody's perfect and things which look great to begin with don't always work out as planned. A case of acknowledging the issue, learning from it and moving on - on both sides.
"Whole different circumstance. Celtic play Rangers every season "
"Whole different circumstance. Celtic play Rangers every season "
Those tifos are great. It would genuinely be amazing if we all as a club could pull those off. But it's as much a cultural thing as it is a victim of circumstance.
The North stand isn't a cauldron of noise and full of young boozed up fans. People in there have been there for decades and with all seater, season tickets and the rebuild you don't have the right mix of people - as this thread shows, a lot of people there don't want that stuff affecting them (which is their right).
Had the club been able to put BA/Section 6 or whatever front and centre right behind the goal and relocated people, like they have had to do now, you'd be able to achieve something more akin to it.
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