Blues managing director Ian Milne says Town have received great feedback from fans regarding the new home and away kits launched earlier this month, despite a potentially controversial switch to blue shorts from the traditional white.

“The feedback that we’ve got is great,” he said. “There are certain custom kits we can have from adidas.

“And in this case we were more interested in the chevron design, which I thought was fairly adventurous, slightly retro, and it’s gone down extremely well.

“I think people need to see it live because I don’t think it comes out well on the picture. There’s nothing wrong with the photography, it’s just it needs context.

“That design came with blue shorts and I think the balance is right. The difference in blues works quite well too.

“There aren’t many choices with a blue kit and it’s a struggle. Having gone for the collars, that was a great idea, what are we going to do next? It’s not as easy as people think.

“The white away kit has again gone down very well. Again, it’s got adidas all over it, it’s got the quality.”

Town recently announced that season ticket prices would be frozen at the early bird rate after seeing a drop in sales.

Milne says that with the club still to start their attempts to woo back non-renewing fans by contacting them personally, they already seeing some returning to the fold.

“That was something we felt we ought to do,” Milne added. “Particularly with regard to performances because we ended up seventh, we took that decision to allow people to think twice and come back.

“And there are nice early signs that they’re coming back. The percentage that we thought we were at we aren’t, we’re improving on it.

“I think we will get more back around the Euros, they will see some good signings coming through and hopefully they’ll scratch their heads and think ‘Maybe it wasn’t so bad, they did get seventh’.”"

Meanwhile, he says he hopes supporters have noticed an improvement in the concourse catering provided by Centerplate, who took on the role last August.

He admits that there were teething problems but has had more positive feedback recently: “At the last fans’ forum, which was at the last home game, they all congratulated us about Centerplate.

“I think we had teething problems going in with Centerplate and we were having weekly reviews with them at that stage, we knew we’d need to for the first three months.

“They knew where they went wrong and they’ve now dealt with those and, as I say, the fans’ forum came to us and said that it’s been good, much better.

“There were complaints but they reacted and they initially had the problem of, which I hoped they wouldn’t, of getting staff to work a half day for 23 days in the year. I appreciate that because we tried as well. But they really got that one right.”

Milne says the Blues continue to be open to Portman Road being sponsored, but no one has yet come forward.

“No ground sponsorship, there are various additional corporate sponsors that we will be having on board but no ground sponsorship. We’re still interested though,” he added.

“We’ve tried very hard to get more concerts on here as well, but we have to compete with things like the O2, Colchester United as well, and it’s a case of which bands are touring and I don’t think it’s been a fantastic year this year for bands touring. It’s supply and demand on that.”

Following yesterday’s Portman Cup match the club will be starting work to refurbish the pitch today.

“We’ll have a major renovation on the main pitch here,” he added. “We won’t go for a [full reconstruction], that’s a million, we’d rather spend that on the squad.

“It’s not a bad pitch really, compared to some. We’re doing a large scrape off and reseed, as we’ve done for the last couple of years.

“We missed out one year because of a concert and we did notice it. But it’s lasted very well and we consistently get good points for it from the Football League.”

Photos: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

Marcus added 13:16 - May 21 I can learn to accept the chevrons even though I don't really like them, however I think the shorts should be swapped between home and away kits.
2

ArnieM added 13:22 - May 21 I can see several occasions where e will use blue shorts with the away kit. Am really nit sure of hone kit at all. Its just not "Ipswich".
3

ArnieM added 13:23 - May 21 Sorry about typo errors!
2

BrettenhamBlue added 13:24 - May 21 Much better than that Barcelona kit we had
0

MattinLondon added 14:20 - May 21 Awful kits.
4

Drew added 14:57 - May 21 Love the home jersey tbf.
0

commuterblue added 15:52 - May 21 Do we have a third kit again? Surely too much white on either kit to play at eg fulham, leeds etc
0

Penguinblue added 16:18 - May 21 With the atrocious hoofball this season we may just as well ended up 17th as 7th. Some fans did not renew because McCarthy's 'brand' of hoofball is a disgrace. So far as the kits are concerned _ bring back Punch
-5

Bluebongo added 16:26 - May 21 We should have copied Millwalls shirts, blue with white sleeves, back to the sixtees. Quite like the new one tho, but we should have kept the white shorts.
0

BlueMachines added 16:50 - May 21 Punch were poor!
-1

Daleyitfc added 16:55 - May 21 Constantly changing kits, just to rip-off people for replica shirts etc, is a despicable practice and fans should refuse to buy any more of them : they cost less than a fiver to produce in foreign sweat-shops, and then charge about 10 times that to the public. The things are not even nice to wear, with players always wearing something underneath which can't be because they are cold, rather that they are so uncomfortable in them. How much longer will this nonsense continue? We should have blue shirts, white shorts and either blue or white stockings, with an away kit of something different, orange for instance, and that's how it should stay forever ; no tacky sponsor names on shirts ; no player names on shirts ; and numbers from 1 to 11. Like everything else in the game over the last 45 years, all change has been to its detriment.

8

Cheshire_Tractor added 17:20 - May 21 It's only great feedback if you ignore the negative feedback. The shorts should be white. Any other colour is a mistake and the fools who decided it was ok to play in the wrong strip should hang their heads in shame. "That design came with blue shorts" What a prat! Next season we could be playing in orange shorts if it that's colour the shirts come with.
6

jas0999 added 17:43 - May 21 Personally not keen on it, but it's one of those, different people like different things.
3

blue75 added 18:39 - May 21 Listen to feed back I doubt it! If they did tickets, merchandise and many other things would be cheaper. We'd be playing football on the grass!!!
3

RegencyBlue added 19:47 - May 21 To be honest after the fiasco of the Barcelona shirt last season it will be a long time before the club get any more of my money spent on replica kit regardless of how good or bad it looks!
2

Scuzzer added 21:12 - May 21 We will get relegated wearing that strip. It's that bad. White shorts should be never replaced. Let us have some tradition.
5

NSL added 23:09 - May 21 I'll tell you what would make it easier, not changing the bleedin' thing every season you money grabbing &@€¥
5

Knightsy added 23:20 - May 21 My feedback, away top is good , home is 5h1te
4

Carberry added 07:23 - May 22 "That design came with blue shorts...." What utter rubbish from a man whose wife almost certainly doesn't allow him to choose the colour of his living room curtains. "Oh Marcus, do you like this?" "Yeah alright, whatever. "
0

lightingblue added 08:27 - May 22 My 8 year has a spurs kit which he won at a spurs soccer school back in February. They had left the price tags on it. It costs the same as an adult kit. 60 quid a junior shirt at Tottenham. Before I get any abuse for him wearing it I only allow him to wear it when he does his club footy training,which gets covered in mud. Must admit the spurs kit looks better muddy

0

thebeat added 08:46 - May 22 What a donut this bloke is. The strip came with blue shorts. Have a day off mate. Ipswich Town wear blue shirts white shorts blue socks simple as. Anything else is not Ipswich Town. And if thats not bad enough he wants to get the ground sponsored hence commentators calling it something stupid like The Krispy Kreme stadium. Its Portman Road, do not change its name Milne.

9

Cakeman added 09:52 - May 22 Well I appear to be the only one that likes the Blue shorts. I believe when we have played in Blue shorts in some away games we have got some decent results, so could be a lucky switch. I agree with Daleyitfc that the constant changing of kit is a rip-off. I stopped buying shirts a long time ago for this reason. As long as we win games I don't really mind what kit we play in though.

0

Tedsleftfoot added 09:58 - May 22 Like away kit........home kit does'nt represent Ipswich Town whatsoever!!
1

shefkuqi32 added 10:15 - May 22 Swap the shorts around and I think we have a couple of nice kits.
0

carsey added 10:19 - May 22 The whole kit thing is a marketing rip off which only affects people who have young kids or are desperate enough to have to have the current fashion. Fortunately I am neither so they won't get any money from me. Do I like it? Not particularly but if they start playing football on the floor I might just buy one as a souvenir of the season the beautiful game returned to Portman Road

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