Town have announced a restructuring of their ticketing operations which has led to a number of redundancies among ticket office staff.

The club’s ticketing has been brought within their wider retail operation with Lee Hyde now the director of retail operations. The Constantine Road ticket office has closed.

Several positions have been made redundant, including that of ticket office and call centre manager John Ford, who was with the club for nearly 12 years having been recruited from Norwich City, with numbers now down to two full-time and two part-time staff. Previously there were four full-time staff, including Ford, four part-timers and four Saturday casual employees.

Speaking about the changes, joint-MD Ian Milne said: “Going forward the club is committed to operating in the most efficient way possible and with the sale of tickets, our strategy is to focus on online sales, in line with the majority of football clubs and sport in general now.

“Inevitably that can lead to changes in personnel and we have taken the decision to streamline our ticket operation.

“We’d like to thank all those staff who have left us for their previous service to Ipswich Town and wish them every success for the future.”

Fans are being encouraged to use Town’s new online ticket service ITFC Direct to print their tickets at home or to buy them in person from Planet Blue. There will now be no telephone ticket sales.

To buy a ticket on the day of a game, fans can do so via Planet Blue between 10am and 1.30pm for a 3pm kick-off and 10am and 6.15pm for a 7.45pm start, with payment by cash or card.

From 1.30pm onwards (3pm kick-off) and 6.15pm onwards (7.45pm) on a matchday, tickets can only be purchased at the turnstiles and by cash only. Town are hoping to have an ATM installed in Planet Blue prior to the Millwall match. Ticket purchases on the day of a game will be subject to an additional £2.50 charge per ticket.

Supporters purchasing tickets online must do so 48 hours prior to kick-off at the latest in order to receive their tickets in the post. Those purchasing online after the 48-hour deadline should use the print at home option or buy their tickets in person at Planet Blue.

There will be no collection of pre-purchased tickets at the ground on matchdays. A ticket enquiries office will be open in Portman Road close to the away section between 1pm and kick-off for 3pm starts and 5.30pm for 7.45pm kick-offs. This will be for enquiries only, servicing ticket upgrades or reprinting lost tickets, but no tickets will be on sale.

The ticket office enquiry telephone line will be open from 9am until midday on weekend matchdays and 9am until 4.30pm for midweek games.

Meanwhile, Town have unveiled the matchday ticket prices for the new season with a lower tier Sir Alf Ramsey or Sir Bobby Robson Stand seat bought in advance of the match now costing £21 for Grade C games, which include the season first home game of the season against Millwall, £27.50 for Grade B and £32 for Grade A. That represents a rise from last season when, for example, a similar Grade C ticket cost £20. A full list of the new matchday prices, including concessions, can be found here.

We understand season ticket sales for the season ahead stand at around 12,000, about 500 down on the same point last summer.

Elsewhere at Portman Road, sales manager Rosie Richardson has changed her job title and is now the club’s director of sales.

Photo: Action Images

bluelodgeblue added 16:04 - Jul 22 Clive baker Who's talking hindsight, there were many fans who were either negative or very nervous when RK was appointed. I don't think ME did his homework on either RK or PJ. He had to with regards the 3rd appointment otherwise we would certainly have been in the s**t, so as usual its the fans that have to pay for all those mistakes. A club which already has one of the highest ticket prices in the league??? Its time for a bit of innovation from ME! Have to admit that MM was a good start though!

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Wickets added 16:06 - Jul 22 In line with the majority of other clubs, is that true?
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theobald1985 added 16:21 - Jul 22 love the club but the prices are just a joke. People like me often decide whether to go on the day depending on time available cash kids etc and they just make it a hassle. if i take my 2 boys over to a match after travel, parking tickets programme and refreshments etc i would not have much change out of £100. for people on the min wage thats nearlyy half there weekly wage. id rather have a few less senior players with more younsters given a chance and lower ticket prices.

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verulam added 16:37 - Jul 22 No Canaries allowed: the print at home option has been workingfor some time. I used it four times last season and it was a doddle.
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carlisleaway added 16:42 - Jul 22 Yes very surprised at the number of redundancies, what is going to happen if we become successfull. It has taken me 2 hours to organise Friends and Family for tickets for the Stevenage away game. Hope it becomes clearer in the future, also proves that to have a season ticket takes all the stress away. Sorry for those who cannot afford the luxury.
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MyBlueHeaven added 16:43 - Jul 22 I don't care what the club says about the different ways people can save money buying tickets - £32 for a seat in a standard part of the ground is just outrageous. And as for Category A... please... this is The Championship. There are no Category A games or clubs. And that £32 is actually £34.50 if you decide to just rock up on the day within 90 minutes of kick-off. Utterly ridiculous. I thought Clegg had no interest in filling the ground - seems his replacements don't either.

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SheptonMalletBlue added 16:44 - Jul 22 why make it so damn complicated for everyone? keep it simple!!!! if it ain't broke don't fix it!!!!!
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HARRY10 added 16:47 - Jul 22 " ITFC is a business, and does need to be run correctly for the sake of our club." Exactly and this is very misguided and ill thought out idea is going counter to what we need to get the club running correctly. Adding an extra £2.50 to the admission on the day is intended to drive ticket sales towards online sales leading up to match day For the few who do there will be far more who (as above) are unable to commit to going to right up till a few hours before hand. This is just an extra charge on them. Cheap and shoddy service from a club that should not be sinking to these depths.

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HARRY10 added 16:52 - Jul 22 " if you decide to just rock up on the day within 90 minutes of kick-off. " actually no ALL tickets purchased on the day whether at Planet Blue or cash after 1.30pm or 6.15 pm at the turnstiles will incur the £2.50 charge. Tell me how much this is going to earn, and then remind me how much we are settling on Chopra so he can leave
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sereneblue added 16:55 - Jul 22 I had been a season ticket holder at Town for as many years as I can remember,but packed in last season.Someone asked me today whether I missed it. My reply was' who misses getting ripped off'. Enough said.
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greenkingtone added 16:58 - Jul 22 Today I have tried all bloody day to buy a ticket for myself and my grandson for the away match at Reading. By the time I discovered how to add the boy to my "friends and family", all the tickets were sold out. I am livid at the moment. We are both season ticket holders, and I have told ITFC how difficult it is using the on-line system. I admit I am as thick as pig shyt in an aspirin bottle, but surely they should still offer a telephone service for us oldies. Does ITFC management realise how thick some of us are?

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Breedonblue added 16:59 - Jul 22 What a load of rubbish. I very often don't decide if I'm going to a home game until the day of the match as I have ~350 mile round trip, sometimes I don't arrive until very close to kick off due to traffic problems. I always pick them up from the Constantine Road ticket office. With this new system I either have to print the tickets out, no good as I don't have a printer at home. Or leave at stupid o'clock to get down before 1:30 in the hope that there are tickets left to buy adding to the queues in the already busy Planet Blue.

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kaiserblue added 17:00 - Jul 22 As someone who travels a lot for work I have no opportunity to go to the club in persom prior to match days and very rarely get a decent internet connection so there will 4 seats at 60% of home games that I can't buy now - well done Town!!! @Wickets - you can buy tickets over the phone for nearly all Premier League clubsand even Col Who have a manned ticket line, its just another non footballing businessman making excuses. What they should say is "we want to fill Portman Road and we invite fans to buy tickets, so in addition to the phone lines and shop fans can now also buy tickets on the web."

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PinstripeBlue added 17:09 - Jul 22 Surely tickets need to be available anytime and anyplace if we want to fill PR up!! What about those who are stood in the pub on a satdee lunchtime and decide to go to the game? Not anymore. Making tickets harder to get hold of cannot be a good idea for any sport. Maybe the few hundred pound a week for ticket sellers will pay for Chop's boots!!
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PunchNoHopers added 17:11 - Jul 22 So what if you don't know you can get to a game until the day before and have no printer at home? You might be a bit stuffed now without forking out considerably more!
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PunchNoHopers added 17:19 - Jul 22 Going to be fun getting tickets if we ever get to the play-off final again now then without a ticket office!!
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HARRY10 added 17:22 - Jul 22 "Or leave at stupid o'clock to get down before 1:30 in the hope that there are tickets left to buy adding to the queues in the already busy Planet Blue." No need. You can still pay at the turnstile (as long as you have cash). However, either option will mean you are still charged an extra £2.50. A so called Chopra Tax.
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keithclarkson added 17:27 - Jul 22 StowTractorBoy time to grow up, John Ford was a very valuable member of the ITFC team and will be missed, as an AMP living in Hampshire he & his staff always helped out whenever I needed it. I hope he soon finds a new job soon but above all I hope this new system works??
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Mark added 17:27 - Jul 22 Ordering online, printing at home...that's good. We're not yet fully electronic though are we, as the tickets much be printed on paper, we can't show them on our smartphones. I don't know if tickets can be bought on a smartphone browser, but in my experience of the ITFC website I doubt it. Not everyone wants to or can buy over the internet, and it seems a bad move to close the telephone ticket line. I use this myself when buying tickets for friends, as I move my season ticket seat for that game to sit with them...so now I will have to make the effort to visit the club shop in person?! The prices are a rip-off and to increase them is a bad move. Through my season ticket I pay abour £21 a game, but if I buy the seat next to me on the day it's 50p short of £40!! It is too much.

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h32 added 17:42 - Jul 22 ....... further proof that this Club is slowly but progressively losing every bit of it's once proud identity. Do the Fans / Supporters really matter anymore ?? - all that matters to ME and Co is that people still cough up one way or another - everything else is materialistic. Sad - but True. This could well backfire on them big time. Best wishes to all who have lost there jobs since the arrival of ME - most of who literally loved this Club.

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tearle1974 added 17:48 - Jul 22 Also everyone I believe no program sellers in the ground so make sure you purchase before entering.
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broadside added 17:54 - Jul 22 A poor decision and my sympathy to those who have undeservedly lost their jobs. You were friendly and helpful and the best part of the club staff. Online won't find you the seat next to your mate or get the best view for the kids so they don't sit behind some giant and can't see. Online registration is a nightmare and I would wager ticket sales will fall as a result of this ill judged decision. Another blow to the supporters.

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WorcesterBlue added 17:57 - Jul 22 It's all been said. Progress is great but if you want to fill a ground you a/ put out a winning team (hopefully capable of entertainment too), b/ make the rest of the match day experience enjoyable (food and drink, seats, entertainment, atmosphere, customer care) and c/ make buying tickets simple and affordable. How are we doing at all three will determine whether we slip further backwards and I fear one out of three isn't good enough (and we've yet to see if we will be a winning team!).

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runningout added 18:05 - Jul 22 this is not a plan of a team expecting over 25000 through the gate on matchdays.. What on earth were we thinking of recruiting a dumba*se from No*wich? Took him 12 years to sc*ew the system.. Hope this works.. Tend to agree with 'Scuzzer'
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Beattiesballbag added 18:06 - Jul 22 I can understand the logic of their thinking in as much that printers are so cheap these days most people would have one.... for various reasons! plus most people are on the internet & buying something from the same trusted site should be straight forward & more reliable & quicker than the post! But for a company that is struggling to get the public to buy their improved product . they need every option available to get the numbers back through the door. Ease of buying a ticket at a price that is realistic for the quality of product that's on sale. The scum down the road had an inferior product in the first Div They dropped the prices to a realistic level for the product that they were selling. As a full stadium of scum can create more of an atmosphere than a half full stadium. Not a pleasant thought I know but it got scum back through the turn stiles. Until the town are back in the Premier Div, if they fail to drop the prices to a realistic level for the product on offer The gates are going to continue to decline spoiling the atmosphere & making it harder for the team to achieve their goal.

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