| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger 06:42 - Feb 26 with 1913 views | LA_Tractor_Boy |
As we approach the 5 year anniversary of Gamechanger, I've been thinking about how lucky we are that they chose Ipswich.
Putting the back-to-back promotions to one side, our situation under ME was similar to Sheffield Wednesday, who's buyers have just pulled out because they can't justify the investment needed to refurbish Hillsborough and their training ground.
In terms of infrastructure, Gamechanger have now funded in (sort of) date order :
new dugouts
big screen
digital advertising boards
new and refurbished hospitality areas
new pitch & undersoil heating
TownTV
new website, app & resale platform
memorial garden
away end improvements
modern TV studio, TV gantry, press box, media areas & press conference room
modern changing rooms, players lounge and tunnel area
new floodlights & SAR illumination
new offices & reception
new outside broadcast area
Cat 1 & £40m training ground rebuild
Amazing. Gamechanger deserve every penny of the return on their investment. |  | | |  |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 12:32 - Feb 26 with 290 views | Churchman |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 06:51 - Feb 26 by hoppy |
Yeah, but apart from all that, what have Gamechanger ever done for us? |
Replaced the rusting seat frames in West Stand lower. Shame they couldn’t replace the miserable idiot that sat next to me. |  | | |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 13:17 - Feb 26 with 223 views | Vic |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 07:15 - Feb 26 by bluelagos |
All of that is welcome, but they have also failed miserably (or Ashton has) to engage constructively with Blue Action to improve the match day atmosphere. Hospitality capacity & revenue is persued whilst the lower tiers could easily be made safe standing.
We have to pay £40 membership for the right to purchase away tickets. We get charged admin fees for putting a ticket in an envelope. Match day prices are higher than ever.
Match days we have to listen to piped music and what passes as pre match entertainment. Coach travel more expensive than ever and I stopped looking at the cost of shirts when they sailed past £50. Away fans charged over £40 for poor seats.
We have been seemingly following the "tourist" model, Ashton's head no doubt turned by way Premiership clubs seek one off visitors and the extra revenue they bring.
I am not for a minute suggesting the ownership hasn't been positive but to suggest our owners are hero's, they've already got their investment back. They know sfa about football from what I can see and everything about maximising income.
How many of our current squad came through the youth team?
McKenna's appointment has been inspired and we have invested lots, but from where I am sat there is a gaping hole when it comes to improving Portman Rd, namely by excluding the traditional/poorest/working class fan we are continuing the journey of sanitising the game. The pace.of that is increasing imho.
And game changer are probably more responsible for that than anyone. If I wanted to go to a light show I'd go to a Taylor Swift concert ffs.
5 positive years for sure but let's not pretend everything is perfect. |
You makes some fair points, and I don;t think anyone would say that everything is sorted and right yet. But accepting that i think you're being overly harsh here BL.
You say "They know sfa about football from what I can see and everything about maximising income" and also have a negative take on the youth.
But surely the investment in the pitch after years and years of neglect, moving to cat 1 and the new training facilities are all mega investments with football in mind.
And to be pushing for a 2nd promotion to the prem in 3 years from the utter mediocrity suffered for the previous 15 years is a fantastic achievement.
Sure, there's more to do, but there always will be. This thread should be a celebration of the development & resurgence of our club over the last 5 years. |  |
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| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 13:27 - Feb 26 with 211 views | Vic |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 10:11 - Feb 26 by Keno |
another member of the 38,010!!
Maybe Glory Days could do a commemorative T shirt [Post edited 26 Feb 10:12]
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And another! | |
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| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 16:03 - Feb 26 with 135 views | hoppy |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 12:32 - Feb 26 by Churchman |
Replaced the rusting seat frames in West Stand lower. Shame they couldn’t replace the miserable idiot that sat next to me. |
They let all sorts of miserable idiots in that bit down there, don't they?!! |  |
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| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 16:04 - Feb 26 with 133 views | hoppy |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 07:31 - Feb 26 by Keno |
spoken like a true member of the Hadleigh Independent Supporters Club |
You're getting confused with the Independent Hadleigh Supporters Club | |
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| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 20:41 - Feb 26 with 72 views | peterleeblue |
Come along way haven’t we. |  | | |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 21:14 - Feb 26 with 55 views | BlueForYou |
Very grateful for everything Gamechanger have done so far. |  | | |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 21:21 - Feb 26 with 44 views | Blue_Order |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 08:24 - Feb 26 by bluelagos |
I'll stick to safe standing (or could end up with an essay!)
A thought: How many of our fans chose to sit at away games? I've been to many games and looking at the front rows (where people could sit) the vast majority stand.
So I'd have no issue with all our bottom tiers being safe standing, starting with the North and Chirchmans. Might annoy a handful of fans but nothing stopping moving to another part of the ground.
No one ever asked fans about sitting, it was forced on us all by legislation introduced at a time when football fans were seen as thugs. If standing up is inherently dangerous then why is it allowed at Rugby or Horse racing?
Truth is it was brought in as the govt a d football wanted to gentrify the game, yet no one ever asked the fans if that was what they wanted.
And still no one asks us despite literally everyone in the North stand standing up. If we introduced it to all the lower tiers we'd still have more seats than standing spots and no one would be excluded.
It would improve the atmosphere no end but is barely being considered from what I can see... |
There is plans to add safe standing/rail seating in the NSL. Not for atmosphere reasons, but to get the SGSA off their back. |  | | |
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| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 21:44 - Feb 26 with 19 views | Swansea_Blue |
| 5 Year Anniversary of Gamechanger on 12:26 - Feb 26 by MattinLondon |
Brought peace |
Oh peace. Shut up!
It’s been quite an unbelievable transformation after the Evans era neglect. We’re ridiculously lucky to have an ownership structure who backs us on and off the pitch. Whether this is sustainable I’ve no idea, but they’ve been true to their word for nearly 5 years. I wouldn’t swap this for all the Hollywood razzmatazz over here at Swansea with their high profile co-owners. That seems like window dressing compared to what we have. We’ve sprinkled a bit of star dust with Ed on top of very well funded foundations. And we don’t feel the need to shout about it, which I like. |  |
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