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

blue_moon09 added 19:28 - Jul 23 What bunch of moaning idiots you part time fans are, just go and support the team..Bet all the stay away fans will drift back to PR if Town ever get promoted one day!! Sick of it
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h32 added 21:47 - Jul 23 blue moon09 - ..... seems as if you are in the MINORITY - so the question is really : - Who is the IDIOT ??
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kerryblue added 23:09 - Jul 23 Its a disgrace that because of paying the Scum of this world like Crapra and Jet honest decent hard working people have had to loose their jobs.Would they have had to still go if the club didn't bail out Crapra ?????What a waste of time money that proved as he clearly didn't give a toss the way he treated us loyal town fans last year
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kerryblue added 23:12 - Jul 23 PS Ticket office never the same since Bill Leggate ,he had it running like clockwork.
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Lord_Mac added 12:20 - Jul 24 Thanks for the minus 12 rating guys - but you are still all wrong. Today I have bought Ryanair tickets to Italy, Qantas tickets to Austrlia, concert tickets from the Royal Albert Hall. in no case have I spoken to a telephone operator and in all cases I've printed out my own boarding passes and tickets. This has nothing to do with paying for Chopra, it's just streamlining our business into the 21st century. Successful businesses operate contemporary sales online systems. We are right to be going down this route. And I say that while being desperately sorry for anyone who loses their job as a result. But we can't operate Victorian systems while everyone else moves forward. The rules that you claim need changing on the online system are exactly the same as what you would have been told if you had phoned up last year - you can't buy tickets ahead of your status - Gold Card, Silver Card etc, and one Silver Card buys you one ticket. The system is following exactly the same rules. It's a better, cheaper, faster system. No more worrying about things being lost in the post - and the club saves on the ever-increasing costs of postage. And please don't pull the one about not having online access - you're all on here complaining because you *do* have online access. Now go and use it. Everyone eventually will do that, except a few people (<1%?) who have no computer or smartphone and no friends, but they are catered for by alternatives, albeit slightly more expensive and more inconvenient ones. By the third home game of the season, everyone will be buying online and the queues at the shop and turnstiles will be as short as they have ever been.

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Lord_Mac added 12:21 - Jul 24 Thanks for the minus 12 rating guys - but you are still all wrong. Today I have bought Ryanair tickets to Italy, Qantas tickets to Austrlia, concert tickets from the Royal Albert Hall. in no case have I spoken to a telephone operator and in all cases I've printed out my own boarding passes and tickets. This has nothing to do with paying for Chopra, it's just streamlining our business into the 21st century. Successful businesses operate contemporary sales online systems. We are right to be going down this route. And I say that while being desperately sorry for anyone who loses their job as a result. But we can't operate Victorian systems while everyone else moves forward. The rules that you claim need changing on the online system are exactly the same as what you would have been told if you had phoned up last year - you can't buy tickets ahead of your status - Gold Card, Silver Card etc, and one Silver Card buys you one ticket. The system is following exactly the same rules. It's a better, cheaper, faster system. No more worrying about things being lost in the post - and the club saves on the ever-increasing costs of postage. And please don't pull the one about not having online access - you're all on here complaining because you *do* have online access. Now go and use it. Everyone eventually will do that, except a few people (<1%?) who have no computer or smartphone and no friends, but they are catered for by alternatives, albeit slightly more expensive and more inconvenient ones. By the third home game of the season, everyone will be buying online and the queues at the shop and turnstiles will be as short as they have ever been.

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HARRY10 added 22:42 - Jul 24 so Lord Mac this bit is actually a lie = "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." "But we can't operate Victorian systems while everyone else moves forward. " you really are clueless Everyone else is not 'moving forward' it's just that to save money we imposing unnecessary bureaucracy on something that not only needs to be simple but actually provides the service required this nonsense doesn't it penalises and possibly discourages late 'purchases' nor does it allow fans to arrange to sit together - for what, to discourage more fans from attending would beggar belief were it not set against so much else that is wrong with the club at the present

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Lord_Mac added 20:50 - Jul 25 Harry 10 - you are the one who is clueless - why don;t you familiarise yourself with the new system before spouting off? You can book online home tickets at any time, it's only if you want to receive them *in the post* that you need to book 48 hours in advance. If you order tickets online after that you print them out yourself, that's all. You could for example, book a ticket for a home game 30 minutes before the game. If you think about it, under the existing system, you wouldn't rely on the post less than 48 hours in advance of the game, so it's exactly the same, except now there's an alternative way of buying tickets which is faster than queuing up at a collection point on match day. For away tickets, you have to order them in time for them to arrive in the post - exactly as before. In terms of buying tickets to enable people to sit together, you can specify exactly which seats you want from a map of the whole stadium - you can do exactly what the people on the phone used to do for you. So if you want, say, three seats together in a particular row in a particular section of a particular stand, you just select them on the map provided. It shows you which seats are already booked and which ones are free. So you have more control over where you seat than you did when you were speaking to someone on the phone.

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