Blues CEO Mark Ashton says Town’s community work could eventually push into areas “that might be green and yellow right now, but might become blue again”.

In recent years there has been criticism that the Blues have been behind other professional clubs in the region, including Norwich City, when it comes to work in the community, however, with a new Community Trust having been instigated in September 2019, the previous Charitable Trust having been disbanded six years earlier, Town have started to re-establish itself on that front over the last couple of years.

Ashton says community will be a crucial aspect on which the future of the club will be built going forward, although he admits the focus has been very much on one area in his first two months at Portman Road.

“I think what we’d like to do is get through to the end of August and the transfer window because all my time and energy is in that,” he said at last night’s PLC EGM.

“I feel like I’ve been neglecting other parts of the business and staff at the moment, if I’m honest, because every second of every day is focused on the players.

“But once we get past that we will look at how we will structure the whole business. In fairness, [chairman] Mike [O’Leary] and I have talked about this before.

“I have a plan on how I operate and run football clubs and it’s based on four pillars, four pillars that have to be built in tandem and built strongly because they are the bedrock of the football club moving forward.

“The first pillar is the football department, and that’s the first team, the U23s, the academy, recruitment, performance, analysis, all of the ingredients that go into making the first team win on a Saturday.

“The second element is the commercial revenue part of the football club, which we need to drive. A gentleman earlier mentioned the financial protocols that we have to hit. It’s really simple in League One, we can spend 60 per cent of our revenue on players, so the more revenue we get, the more things we sell, the more we can spend.

“The third element is operations and that’s our facilities and our home. And we know we’ve got to invest and we’ve got to spend some time bringing Portman Road back to the standard that it should be.

“And the fourth element, for me, other than winning on a Saturday, is the most important element, and that’s community because community wraps around everything we do.

“I’m sure in a year’s time you’re going to be fed up of me saying this but I will be repetitive and I’ll come back to community, community, community again because I think for whatever reason, and I’m just learning about the history of the club, the old trust was closed down here.

“We have a new trust which has come back and is in its infancy. If you look at my record at other football clubs that I’ve been at historically, we run big community trusts that use the medium of football to motivate and engage our local community, and that again will wrap around everything that we do.

“And to answer your question, the more we do, the more we can spread out, the more areas we can go into. Geographically we can go into areas that might be green and yellow right now, but might become blue again.

“We’ve got to take the club into new areas because we’ve got to develop the next generation of supporters, it’s absolutely key to us.”

Photo: TWTD

trncbluearmy added 12:43 - Aug 3 Good
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Cakeman added 13:59 - Aug 3 That is good news. Living in the far North-East corner of Suffolk I have believed for a long time that that part of the county is left behind by Ipswich. Lowestoft for example has a very large catchment being the second most populous Town in the County but without doubt Norwich City make greater effort to engage with the residents. Very sad to see a large Suffolk Town being dominated by the Yellow and Green contingent. I have mentioned this to the club before but had virtually zero feedback. I have more confidence the the new ownership though.

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62WasBest added 14:35 - Aug 3 Cakeman - North Suffolk, East and West has always had a substantial Norwich following purely because much of it has always had better road communications to Norwich than Ipswich and more families split either side of the border. That said, it is the right idea to build up the links to the north of the county. As I have mentioned before, It seems to be often forgotten, probably because of Ipswich's proximity to Essex, that it is the senior team in Suffolk and the only Football League team in the county. On that basis it represents the whole county so needs to think much more inclusively than it has hitherto. I'm still not convinced that is really appreciated though, even now.

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norfsufblue added 15:10 - Aug 3 Absolutely right about Lowestoft and it should be noted it's not all green & yella here.. there's a huge dormant historical fan base that just needs hope and encouragement. Back in the 80's my kids regularly attended well supported and brilliantly coached courses during school holidays round here which sadly see few and far between now… and on the final day a well known player or ex pro was always on hand to dish out the certificates and medals. The Lowestoft supporters branch in the 70s was huge and regularly sent 3 or 4 coach's to home games and at least a coach to many away.. Please Town at the very least fight for every last inch of Suffolk!

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BobbyBell added 16:02 - Aug 3 There is and always had been an element of fans around the border areas who support which ever club is being more successful. Remember Delia was once a blue. Unfortunately years of dominance has still failed to put a single star on the canary shirts.
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Blue_Again added 16:42 - Aug 3 I've heard Tasburgh and long Stratton are up for grabs…
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ArnieM added 16:48 - Aug 3 I remember in the early Bobby Robson era ONLY seeing Blue shirts deep into North Suffolk AND into Norfolk. That dominance has eroded since Town were relegated from the PL and following the Evans era . Blue n White is on the rise again ..,., and that's even as we stand at present as a league one side. As the sayings go …. Cream always rises to the top …. And Form is temporary whilst true Class is permanent! This Club has the Three Stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ on its shirt for a reason and it is an achievement spread over decades, so no fluke. As someone else has mentioned, despite Norwich's supposed “dominance” over the last 15 years, they've actual won nothing and Their so called dominance is probably more a reflection of the after effects on Town from our administration coupled with the explosion of money awash in the PL than the nonsense of them being a “ better” Club. Any Club getting the amount of PL funding that they've had over the last decade SHOULD have been able to attract better players and build an academy. But despite all that funding they have never established themselves in the PL. When Town eventually get back to the PL, these owners intend to go far beyond just “ surviving” or being a yo-yo club like Norwich . And that's the difference between the Clubs. It's what you do with the financial backing that counts. COYBs

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HARRY10 added 18:58 - Aug 3 If PL 'funding' supposedly guarantees you a place in the PL then explain why Blackburn, Bolton, Fulham, Sunderland, Wigan, Cardiff, Hull, West Brom, Swansea, Bournemouth.... are not still in the PL. As to what they have won in the past 10 years, then three league titles, one FA Youth Cup and a Play off trophy for what it's worth - more than we have won in the past forty years. Nothing wrong with being positive Arnie, but delusion is a dangerous path to follow. There are clubs of our size Forest, Derby, Wednesday, Birmingham, Stoke who have not been able to get back into the PL, some for decades. The idea that a dozen, mostly L1 players are suddenly going to propel us to the PL is fanciful, at best. Evans crippled our club, and it will be a long, long haul back to where we were before he took over. Let's get there, then talk of what we might do. 'Mind the gap' should have taught us pride comes before a fall.

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Skip73 added 20:06 - Aug 3 So, no major trophies then Harry. 2nd Division titles aren't major, and if your club had managed to establish themselves they would only have 1. By the way its 2 Championships, not 3.
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