Owner Marcus Evans says Town could be £10 million down by the end of the season if the situation remains as it is and believes it is inevitable that some clubs will go under unless something is done to provide them with financial support.

Earlier this week, the Government halted plans for fans to return to professional football due to the following the rise in coronavirus cases and with the Covid-19 alert level having been moved from three to four. It may now be another six months before supporters are back in grounds.

Evans answered questions from the club regarding the impact on the Blues and football more widely.

What is your reaction, Marcus, to the decision by the Government this week for the planned return of supporters to stadiums to be put on hold?

"Disappointing. Disappointing for clubs, disappointing for local businesses that benefit from having a matchday in the town and most importantly, disappointing for the supporters, Evans told the club site.

I’ve been to our games at Portman Road this season and was also at Bristol last week and having no supporters is a very strange experience.

Forget the financial side of it - I’ll come to that in a minute - the actual matchday experience, it’s just lacking in atmosphere. It’s just not the same game and speaking to Paul [Lambert, Town boss] and the players, I know they feel the same. We all want supporters back as soon as possible. "

That’s the question though, when will supporters be back? What are your thoughts?

"Look, our primary concern obviously is the health and safety of all who come into the stadium. It has to be a safe environment but the staff at the club had worked very hard to implement all the measures needed to make Portman Road exactly that, a safe place to watch football in these testing times.

I am assured that the safety authorities were very impressed with what we put in front of them. That was clearly the case as they gave us the go-ahead to apply to hold a test event for Saturday’s game against Rochdale and were also happy for us to increase the numbers of supporters in attendance as we proceeded in line with Covid-secure guidelines.

We are not alone. I think there will be many football clubs who have some of the most developed and controlled Covid-secure measures in place and are ready to go.

""It’s the Government’s call though on when supporters will be allowed back and there is no indication that will happen anytime soon."

I’m sure there is a willingness from all parties to get supporters back into stadiums, not just football but all sports as soon as it’s safe to do so.

The Government will decide when that is but it’s important that the sports bodies maintain that continuous dialogue and press home how prepared we are to welcome supporters back.

I hope to have that very conversation myself with the local MP, Tom Hunt, when it’s appropriate.

This isn’t just about Ipswich Town, it goes deeper into the local community. A lot of local businesses thrive on the income generated by a football club being based in their town or city.

Ipswich is no different. Extensive research we have done with our supporters shows that around £200,000 is spent by fans every matchday locally. That’s money spent in local businesses and in council charges, not at the football club.

That’s £5 million-plus over the season. So it’s not just us that are being hit financially, it will spread around the high street and that’s at a time when high streets were already facing severe financial challenges before Covid."

Can you give us an indication of the financial impact that Covid is having on the football club?

"If you want a headline figure, we could be £10 million down by the end of the season if the situation remains as it is. "

That is a huge loss. That figure could wipe out other clubs. Do you fear that?"

Yes I do. Clubs are on the edge now. If something isn’t done to support lower level clubs who don’t benefit from the Premier League TV revenues, I think it’s inevitable that clubs will go under.

We are heading for a perfect storm in football. Owners, whose own businesses may well be suffering losses, will get to a point where they are not in a position to continue to cover substantial deficits at their football club.""

Ipswich Town went into administration before.

"I’m aware of that but it’s my duty as owner to make sure we do not follow that path again. We have had to adjust our budgets accordingly. At the moment, we have no income coming in outside season ticket revenue apart from those purchasing the streaming on iFollow.

That is important income for us. I know it’s not the same as being there on matchday but for now, iFollow is as good as football can offer given the circumstances.

I can’t thank season ticket holders enough for the tremendous support they have continued to give to the club and with the latest uncertainty over when limited crowds will return I am going to explore if there are any additional make-goods we can provide on top of those contained within the original season ticket offer.

Do you expect the Government to start helping the clubs lower down who are struggling financially?

"I hope so. I’d like to see some form of grants provided for clubs at the lower end who have suffered losses from the impact of Covid. As I said earlier, football clubs have a massive impact on towns and cities up and down the country.

They are often the focal point of the community but with no supporters at games, the impact is felt across the whole community.

""What about the argument that football should take care of itself? Look at the money spent in the Premier League on transfers, wages and the rest. Surely that can be filtered down to help the EFL clubs?

"I fully understand that argument and agree. There is a substantial imbalance in the game. I have always had that opinion and have long campaigned for a more level playing field, whether it be in the distribution of parachute payments or Financial Fair Play.

I know the EFL and the Premier League have been in discussions for months about securing the future of clubs and hopefully there will be some movement on that very quickly. There needs to be some help from somewhere or there will be an inevitable conclusion."

Photo: Matchday Images

Paulc added 21:30 - Sep 24 Marcus is absolutely spot on. This isn't about his performance as owner, we all aware of what a magnificent job anyone else would do. But that is not what this article is about , is it Bluearmy_81? Marcus has always been a realist, played it safe. But fans want fantasy, a risk taker. Easy when it's someone else's cash. This is a real conundrum though, in the eyes of the powerful, there are better places to spend public money than saving sports clubs. Especially in football when there is such an obscene amount of money sloshing around in the premier league. That top band need to take a long hard look at themselves, or the authorities need to impose a % based tax on those club's incomes to help out those that need it in the structure below. Only those affected by Covid-19 only, not those that have been poorly managed, mind you.

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Westy added 21:30 - Sep 24 God forbid but there is no guarantee that this season will be finished, which is why it was imperative that last season should have been with only eight games remaining for most clubs - two games a week for four weeks. Football will be irreparably damaged if two successive seasons are not completed. It is times like these that I am glad we have Marcus Evans in charge.
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dusth added 21:37 - Sep 24 Bluearmy. Have you tried Prozac?
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bobble added 21:45 - Sep 24 why did the government ignore WHO advice and allow the virus to march into the country ?
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inghamspur added 21:55 - Sep 24 Blue Army seems to be a bit deluded
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Bluearmy_81 added 22:05 - Sep 24 Dust, I'm not depressed in the slightest, just dismayed at how poor town fans are. You have no idea how embarrassing you lot are...
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Town4me added 22:07 - Sep 24 SuffolkBoy, this is a football forum not question time. In any case why should the government bail out football?! It's the greed of the premier League that's made football this way. They should feel some guilt and do the right thing, help put things right.
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dusth added 22:14 - Sep 24 Well, Bluearmy, I've been supporting Town since 1960 when I was 12 and I wear your apparent contempt as a badge of pride!
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shouldistayorcounago added 22:16 - Sep 24 It goes both ways really - we're in the predicament we dind ourselves in due to years of bad decision making by Evans. I've criticised him many times before, and I stand by that fact that is his own mismanagement that has seen us slide this low. However, as I have also said before, we are now where are, and have to be thankful that we have him instead of one of these crooks other clubs have fallen foul of. For the situation we find ourselves in, we are as safe as we can be and that is thanks to Evans. Its a nuanced topic but to summarise - its perfectly understandable to be critical of the Evans era, but at this point in time, its not greatly helpful. We have to weather the storm and he is better equipped and intentioned to help us do that than most. Keep the faith - there's a lot more at stake than our pride right now. COYB

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dusth added 22:27 - Sep 24 I'd give you a big tick for that Counago but i don't like 'em!
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dusth added 22:28 - Sep 24 Likes/not likes, i mean!!
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dusth added 22:31 - Sep 24 I think the current situation in football is exactly what is happening to the UK.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 22:56 - Sep 24 He speak a lot of sense and what he says about this is correct however it amazes me that as soon as he takes an interview of which most questions are staged (not necessarily on this occasion) that everyone falls for it. Remember he said beginning of last season we were due to lose 9 million from being in league one instead of the championship so not as much of a shock for him yes this is a lot of money and adds to our debt of which due to his poor decision making the past 16 years starting with sacking magilton then with managers, clegg, Milne, terribly low transfer fees for players sold, not buying players to invest the likes of Oli Watkins we was after or Webster sold for an extra 20 million only one season later. We shouldn't be reliant on him like he wants and he's correct in that manor however to be self sufficient we need some investment at the right times like when top of a league Brentford are a great example buy players for a couple of million sell on in maupay and Watkins case for a total of 55 million that's why they do well and we have an ever growing debt. If we had better management from the start we would've be where we are now OR relying on him as much now. This is unprecedented but I'm not going to fall for evans interviews every single time we are here where we had our lowest position because of him so for everyone who says ‘I'm glad we don't have greedy owners' there's people who see how other clubs like Brentford manager without huge debts or investment

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Daz added 23:01 - Sep 24 Blue army 81 I support town because they are my town team. If I wanted glory then I would support a prem team. It's your expectation that town should be in the prem. No team has a given right. We had our chance to be one of the greats many years ago and that boat sailed long before Goerge Burley. Many and there has been, many decisions decided our fate way before ME
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Bert added 23:04 - Sep 24 As Bluearmy81 is clearly not a supporter and barely hides his offensive language, isn't it about time he was told to keep to the rules of posting or be banned ?
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Daz added 23:05 - Sep 24 Talking of parachute payments. What ever happen to them being to help ease the jump from prem to champ. They where put in place after Portsmouth was it? to stop teams going into administration and help cover wages while players contracts got sorted. Now it's to buy players and spend on high wages
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runningout added 23:19 - Sep 24 Football in this country needs a facelift. I'm afraid this plight may enforce a necessity
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ringwoodblue added 23:25 - Sep 24 So many aspects of life and business are suffering at the moment and football is no exception. What saddens me is that the massive divide between the elite rich clubs and the lower league teams that's been gradually widening over the last few years is being exacerbated by this crisis and many football teams could end up joining Bury by the time this crisis is over. I think that Marcus is true to his word and will do everything he can to stop our club going under but that doesn't change the massive slide our club has undergone in the last ten years and Marcus has a lot to answer for in this respect including recruiting a succession of poor managers.

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KiwiBlue2 added 00:13 - Sep 25 Some good points made above. Certainly there have been mistakes made by ME but in this situation we should be grateful that he has the motivation and means to keep us afloat.
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Monkey_Blue added 00:25 - Sep 25 Am I allowed to say Bluearmy 81 is a moron or a troll?
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Lovemyclub74 added 07:05 - Sep 25 Oh dear, Bluearmy81 totally embarrassing yourself again on here with your mindless posts........
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Skip73 added 07:46 - Sep 25 Wow Bluearmy. You really are pathetic. I don't always think Evans does a great job of owning the club, lack of investment on players etc but in these difficult times I am confident ITFC will come out the other side of this intact because he will keep us afloat. You are an idiot. I look forward to your inevitable insult, in fact I will be proud to receive it as an honour.

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MurcianITCC added 08:01 - Sep 25 Oh for....BA81, for once why don't you shut up. We are all fully aware of your opinions..you chant them often enough without actually doing something about it...but for now there maybe bigger things going on on the world.
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Skip73 added 08:27 - Sep 25 Well put Murciani
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Karlosfandangal added 08:32 - Sep 25 Towns last 14 games 10 have been at home. .. That's some lost income. We are lucky we have someone who helps cover the cost Let's hope he keep doing that and not sell a Downes which is the easy way to balance the book
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