| What to do with PR to increase capacity? 19:54 - Aug 7 with 3292 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
Now it's been a long time since I have been to FPR so I have nothing to add but I'm curious as to what people think?
Spent a fair amount of time this summer reading about the spending of 2 clubs in particular, Newcastle and Spurs, probably similar sized clubs, similar ambitions, fan base etc. With the new SCR rules these 2 clubs offer quite the contrast, Newcastle with extremely wealthy owners, Spurs with a new ground that has allowed them to increase their revenue, allowing them far more spending power.
Newcastle are looking at whether to build a new stadium to increase capacity. Obviously building a new stadium brings huge costs and for Spurs those are offset by the ability to hold London based events, NFL etc.
With all that in mind, where/how can we best increase capacity? Idk if this is a stupid question but would it be a case of tearing down current stands to build new ones?
How many seats could we regularly fill if we're an established PL club? |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 19:56 - Aug 7 with 2804 views | Swansea_Blue |
The planned Cobbold redevelopment for starters |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:16 - Aug 7 with 2671 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 19:56 - Aug 7 by Swansea_Blue |
The planned Cobbold redevelopment for starters |
So we'll just go stand by stand you think? | |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:25 - Aug 7 with 2607 views | Zx1988 |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:16 - Aug 7 by BlueandTruesince82 |
So we'll just go stand by stand you think? |
I wonder if the open corners might get filled in with the developments. Redeveloping the Cobbold, and putting an extra tier on the Pioneer, would give the opportunity to try and link then with the North and Churchmans. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:32 - Aug 7 with 2561 views | Trequartista |
Build a new 50k stadium out at Westerfield which will compel the government to build a northern bypass, the ladies can play at Portman road |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:34 - Aug 7 with 2544 views | Coastalblue |
I can't see us ever regularly needing over 40k, even as an established Prem club.
However, when MA walked in and suggested we could fill the ground every week I took that with a shovel of salt.
Also, West Ham have sold 50K or so season tickets? Historically I've always viewed us as similar sized clubs.
Basically I have no idea. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:40 - Aug 7 with 2496 views | Perublue |
I always wanted a bigger ground capacity wise .. always felt we “deserved” one when I started following Ipswich in the early eighties .. but you know what I think I’ve changed my mind…geographically 40 odd years later we’re still no use to the rest of the country for big events as you’ve mentioned and also back in the day it was all gate receipts and sponsors and the odd youth here and there that broke into the first team and then sold on at a good profit that financed us.
Nowadays it’s all TV money and I guess merchandise globally… we could play in a small/empty stadium …. Bournemouth/Covid and do just fine without increasing the capacity and repeating the great pioneer stand sell off that led to years in the wilderness. [Post edited 7 Aug 20:42]
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:43 - Aug 7 with 2454 views | Swansea_Blue |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:16 - Aug 7 by BlueandTruesince82 |
So we'll just go stand by stand you think? |
It sounds like it for now. I’m not sure what the long term plans are other than they’ve said they’re committed to PR. Redevelopment of the west could potentially add a significant amount of extra capacity and that’s on the cards longer term. We’ve got all the space we need on that side. Maybe two new sides is all we’d need as that would surely get us to 40k.
We wouldn’t want to get relegated with that size ground though; it’d be beyond dead if we spent more than 2 or 3 years in the Championship. | |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:48 - Aug 7 with 2418 views | ParisBlue |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:25 - Aug 7 by Zx1988 |
I wonder if the open corners might get filled in with the developments. Redeveloping the Cobbold, and putting an extra tier on the Pioneer, would give the opportunity to try and link then with the North and Churchmans. |
I hope not, Portman Road has always been 4x distinct stands.
On the stadium tour in april I was told the plan was to build a new tier on the existing Pioneer, accommodating ~7000 more. That's would be enough to move supporters from the Cobbold stand.
Away supporters would be moved to the south stand as they have to be that end for access to the train station, meaning some relocation there.
The end goal was to get to a capacity of around 40k-42k, enough to host internationals.
The maths didn't quite add up, but I think the aim of rebuilding the cobbold and having a capacity of 40k is real. Whilst we're in the PL or yo-yoing then ~35k feels about right, but the new stand will be as much about non-matchday revenue as much as the stand itself - Ashton has spoken about making it the face of the Town, and we can expect another iconic PR detail - the players entering the field from the corner - to be no more.
We don't have a great record with replacing stands, however had we not replaced Churnchmans and the North Stand 26 years ago I'm not sure where we'd be now. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:49 - Aug 7 with 2412 views | Tampa_Florida_Blue |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:25 - Aug 7 by Zx1988 |
I wonder if the open corners might get filled in with the developments. Redeveloping the Cobbold, and putting an extra tier on the Pioneer, would give the opportunity to try and link then with the North and Churchmans. |
Being in USA I can’t open the plans for the summer on going work on the old pioneer stand nor part of the prep work for putting the extra tier on top next year. Am I also right in thinking with redesigning the lower part this year has added between 2-3000 extra seats.
I’m trying to understand what is going on as well |  | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:03 - Aug 7 with 2319 views | Scuzzer |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:32 - Aug 7 by Trequartista |
Build a new 50k stadium out at Westerfield which will compel the government to build a northern bypass, the ladies can play at Portman road |
What on top the quarry they want to put there. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:06 - Aug 7 with 2304 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
Additional revenue from general admission matchday tickets isn’t going to move the dial, although everything helps. So yes, more capacity, but not specifically for the GA seats.
The expansion will generate :
- increased hospitality revenue
- regular events (other sports, concerts, events, etc)
- conferences and exhibitions
- places to stay, eat and drink that are available 7/365
All revenue generated by facilities that are part of the stadium complex goes directly to the money available for the squad.
I foresee the club adding up to 10k capacity to the main stadium, plus an indoor arena capable of accommodating 7 to 10,000 | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:23 - Aug 7 with 2189 views | RetroBlue |
The Club & more importantly the owners sre veieing PR as a 365 day a year venue. Definitely thinking outside of the box in terms of revenue generation, from all sections of life not just football. Imbterms if football hiwever I coukd see ITFC easily filling a 40k stadium each week.if we became established in the PL. I could also see the owners developing in stages potentially up to 50k to provide a venue that is non football biased. Think big. They're piling money into every aspect of this club. They wll want ( and no doubt get) the payback. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:38 - Aug 7 with 2122 views | Kievthegreat |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:06 - Aug 7 by SuffolkPunchFC |
Additional revenue from general admission matchday tickets isn’t going to move the dial, although everything helps. So yes, more capacity, but not specifically for the GA seats.
The expansion will generate :
- increased hospitality revenue
- regular events (other sports, concerts, events, etc)
- conferences and exhibitions
- places to stay, eat and drink that are available 7/365
All revenue generated by facilities that are part of the stadium complex goes directly to the money available for the squad.
I foresee the club adding up to 10k capacity to the main stadium, plus an indoor arena capable of accommodating 7 to 10,000 |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a 7-10k indoor arena is substantially bigger than anything else in East Anglia? Would they get enough gigs given London is only an hour away by train?
Also would it even fit in the available land behind the Pioneer? I did some Google earth measurements of the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham which is 7k seats, with another 3k on the floor. It has an ice pad for Hockey, so not the most space efficient, but it barely fits between the council offices the road and the back of the Pioneer before any expansion. |  | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:53 - Aug 7 with 2048 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:38 - Aug 7 by Kievthegreat |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a 7-10k indoor arena is substantially bigger than anything else in East Anglia? Would they get enough gigs given London is only an hour away by train?
Also would it even fit in the available land behind the Pioneer? I did some Google earth measurements of the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham which is 7k seats, with another 3k on the floor. It has an ice pad for Hockey, so not the most space efficient, but it barely fits between the council offices the road and the back of the Pioneer before any expansion. |
The indoor arena at Coventry is a bit too big to fit in the available space, and that holds 10k. That’s why I say 7-10k, and it would be close to the 7 than 10 I suspect.
I believe those figures are based on standing events. Seated would drop to 4-5k. The whole point is that there is nothing of that size in East Anglia at the moment, which means the region often misses out on big events.
It also potentially links nicely into the bid to become the next city of culture. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:56 - Aug 7 with 2022 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 21:06 - Aug 7 by SuffolkPunchFC |
Additional revenue from general admission matchday tickets isn’t going to move the dial, although everything helps. So yes, more capacity, but not specifically for the GA seats.
The expansion will generate :
- increased hospitality revenue
- regular events (other sports, concerts, events, etc)
- conferences and exhibitions
- places to stay, eat and drink that are available 7/365
All revenue generated by facilities that are part of the stadium complex goes directly to the money available for the squad.
I foresee the club adding up to 10k capacity to the main stadium, plus an indoor arena capable of accommodating 7 to 10,000 |
Hospitality will play big part I'm sure and I do wonder if there are plans to create something a bit more swish for exactly that.
Idk if anyone else has seen of the padded seat venues they have done Ipswich and it's interesting to see what some clubs do, especially in other countries. I've had hospitality at Derby and Leicester but that was 20 odd years ago and the offering looks like its chnaged hugely. Not sure how long ago it was but when the package they did here was £270 plus VAT.
I think we should at a padel court, would be constantly booked up. | |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 06:23 - Aug 8 with 1430 views | ThatMuhrenCross |
Bit limited as to what we can do with the Sir Alf and Sir Bobby stands due to space, so I don't think much will be added to them.
Cobbold just needs to be completely demolished and rebuilt. At present, it only has about 3,750 seats, but a new modern stand could easily accomodate 10,000.
There's been talk in the past of adding 4,000 seats to the West Stand, which would take that up to around 12,000 capacity. Remains to be seen if that happens.
I don't think filling in corners is an option due to the current layout of stands. The Sir Bobby is too wide to allow for it. Potentially could fill in the corner between the Sir Alf and the new Cobbold if it was integrated into the new designs, which could possibly achieve around 2-3,000 extra seats. |  |
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| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 06:29 - Aug 8 with 1424 views | lurcher |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:25 - Aug 7 by Zx1988 |
I wonder if the open corners might get filled in with the developments. Redeveloping the Cobbold, and putting an extra tier on the Pioneer, would give the opportunity to try and link then with the North and Churchmans. |
Open corners?
The 2 blue things either side of the North are part of the stand and hold it up, removing them would mean a whole new stand has to be built.
The players entrance isn't likely to change until they have rebuilt the cobbold, so they cant do anything with that corner.
Likewise they have built a new entrance between the Cobbold and the Sir Alf. They could put removable seating below a fixed upper tier but they need height to get lorries into the stadium. Whatever they do there would surely happen after the Cobbold is done. |  | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 06:35 - Aug 8 with 1414 views | lurcher |
There will be new tier on the west stand. It will be part of and supported by an arena on the old practice pitch. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 06:36 - Aug 8 with 1407 views | lurcher |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:49 - Aug 7 by Tampa_Florida_Blue |
Being in USA I can’t open the plans for the summer on going work on the old pioneer stand nor part of the prep work for putting the extra tier on top next year. Am I also right in thinking with redesigning the lower part this year has added between 2-3000 extra seats.
I’m trying to understand what is going on as well |
Use a VPN. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 07:57 - Aug 8 with 1199 views | Olcol |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 06:35 - Aug 8 by lurcher |
There will be new tier on the west stand. It will be part of and supported by an arena on the old practice pitch. |
I believe this is what has been planned to accommodate supporters that use the Cobbolds stand now. This allows for the Cobbold stand to be built with minimum hassle for supporters. The new Cobbold will likely be another 8 to 12k stand with additional multi areas 365 day / year use, similar to Coventry. If we stay in prem league it could be completed in about 5 years.
The fan base appears to be younger and more family centric than when I was living in the UK. We never had such things as a fanzone and club shop.
On a cold midweek evening in 1975 we got over 38,000 in Portman road. The real number was probably 40k+.
If the club can establish itself in Premier league, I see no problem with a ground holding 42 to 46k with the available geographical support potential. The owners have already worked this out. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:19 - Aug 8 with 1100 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 07:57 - Aug 8 by Olcol |
I believe this is what has been planned to accommodate supporters that use the Cobbolds stand now. This allows for the Cobbold stand to be built with minimum hassle for supporters. The new Cobbold will likely be another 8 to 12k stand with additional multi areas 365 day / year use, similar to Coventry. If we stay in prem league it could be completed in about 5 years.
The fan base appears to be younger and more family centric than when I was living in the UK. We never had such things as a fanzone and club shop.
On a cold midweek evening in 1975 we got over 38,000 in Portman road. The real number was probably 40k+.
If the club can establish itself in Premier league, I see no problem with a ground holding 42 to 46k with the available geographical support potential. The owners have already worked this out. |
The arena will be attached to the West stand. There is not enough room behind the Cobbold. The club have purchased a narrow strip along the Cobbold stand, but with the aquarium etc going in where the car parks are, there just isn’t going to be room on that side.
See the other thread where I posted a speculative image. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:20 - Aug 8 with 1099 views | OldFart71 |
Field of Dreams "If you build,he will come". Whether that means 40,000 I'm not sure. Like any team it depends on success.
Currently I believe we have around 21,000 ST holders. 3,000 have to be allocated to away supporters and the remaining 6,000 ish are made up of those fairly regular but not ST holders.
According to the club another 6,000 on a waiting list. Whether this includes the regular but not ST holders I don't know.
Now many Premier League clubs, even those of a similar size would be able to bring more than the current 3,000 and obviously your Citehs and Utd's, Liverpool etc could be relied upon for at least 5,000.
So given those figures upper 30,000's should not be a problem. That of course depends on our league status. A drop down to the Championship would see us back to upper 20,000's. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:21 - Aug 8 with 1093 views | lurcher |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 07:57 - Aug 8 by Olcol |
I believe this is what has been planned to accommodate supporters that use the Cobbolds stand now. This allows for the Cobbold stand to be built with minimum hassle for supporters. The new Cobbold will likely be another 8 to 12k stand with additional multi areas 365 day / year use, similar to Coventry. If we stay in prem league it could be completed in about 5 years.
The fan base appears to be younger and more family centric than when I was living in the UK. We never had such things as a fanzone and club shop.
On a cold midweek evening in 1975 we got over 38,000 in Portman road. The real number was probably 40k+.
If the club can establish itself in Premier league, I see no problem with a ground holding 42 to 46k with the available geographical support potential. The owners have already worked this out. |
Once we do the west stand I think it will be a few years until we need more capacity. Maybe they will push on and do the Cobbold to create new dressing rooms, media areas and the like along with conferencing facilities. Only opening the top tier of the pioneer when it is required like Man City. I remember a little shop under the west stand in the 70s, not sure when the one in the Cobbold opened up. | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:25 - Aug 8 with 1066 views | tiptreeblue |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 20:34 - Aug 7 by Coastalblue |
I can't see us ever regularly needing over 40k, even as an established Prem club.
However, when MA walked in and suggested we could fill the ground every week I took that with a shovel of salt.
Also, West Ham have sold 50K or so season tickets? Historically I've always viewed us as similar sized clubs.
Basically I have no idea. |
I honestly think that now, with the coverage that the Premier league gets, if Ipswich could establish themselves there, then people from Norfolk and Essex as well as Suffolk would fill it every week, and that's without the extra Ipswich fans that would be generated from the exposure. If it was still the 70's I would agree with you, but it's not anymore | | | |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:40 - Aug 8 with 1007 views | lurcher |
| What to do with PR to increase capacity? on 08:25 - Aug 8 by tiptreeblue |
I honestly think that now, with the coverage that the Premier league gets, if Ipswich could establish themselves there, then people from Norfolk and Essex as well as Suffolk would fill it every week, and that's without the extra Ipswich fans that would be generated from the exposure. If it was still the 70's I would agree with you, but it's not anymore |
The population of Ipswich in 1975 was 95k, in 2025 it was 140k.
Suffolk was 560k in 75 and 763k in 2025
Quite some growth [Post edited 8 Aug 9:37]
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