Ground improvements

Whilst the previous owner let the pitch and the ground rot and made a right old song and dance about touching up the paint, the new owners are already putting their money where their mouths are.

Plans are published for Premier League compliant luxury dugouts, a big screen and a new PA system is finally on order and will be installed over the summer.

COYB!

 

Everything about them seems so much more professional and ambitious.Getting a bit of our pride back.

 

And about time too.

Evans really was a penny pinching miser. Even though clubs have to stick with regulations over money spent on the playing staff etc and Evans hid behind FFP, there was never any reason why he couldn't have invested in the stadium or training ground.

Instead he just run us into the ground with cost cutting measures implemented throughout the club.

So glad he's gone!

 

So glad to read that electronic advertising boards are being installed on three sides of the stadium this summer. Everyone here knows I've been going on about this for a long time. It will make our stadium look modern and finally bring us up with the times, as well as giving us much more commercial scope for revenue.
The tannoy system and dugouts are also being done this summer and will add to our club beginning to look like a well run organization again. It's been annoying to see clubs the size of MK, Fleetwood and the likes having the lovely flashing boards around their grounds whilst Portman Road looks tired and old.

We are definitely moving in the right direction, on and off the pitch.

 

One thing to build on here is the merch. The quality of a lot of items is shoddy - just a badge stuck on some generic merch. The old beautifully knitted scarves have been swapped for nasty printed ones. Stock of what there is on offer is hard to come by. There’s no decent outerwear. The club shop hasn’t changed at all in at least 20 years. The iPod hadn’t even been launched when that was fitted out!

 

Ha, ha, I called it!

The fans forum revealed that we will be dropping iFollow soon to build our own platform. I could just see this happening as soon as we were acquired by the new owners.

Using iFollow is annoying, it's the only service where even when you pay for it, you get adverts! Normally you pay subscription to get rid of them. Half time is ruined because instead of highlights and discussion, you're forced to watch adverts, it's ridiculous. I normally switch to the audio and then go back to video at start of second half to avoid it.

 

I am really pleased to hear this. iFollow is a disgrace and lets thousands of fans who cant go to matches, down. Every season, I pay £50+ pm for unreliable, restricted stream service with as SD says, endless annoying ads.

We need a better experience to be able to watch our magnificent boys in blue.

 

I'm assuming there is normally a hefty sum to pay for tv rights but I think we will be doing our platform from in house with our commentators, cameras and broadcast to avoid having to pay anyone except maybe the EFL.

 

Sounds sensible. What about away games?

 

I think you may have found a flaw in the plan.

 

The TV rights are with Sky and that would continue. We only get money from ticket sale There’s no penalty for opting out of ifollow - loads of clubs do it - except that we don’t get the money for doing nothing. I’m not sure what the rules would be for taking our cameras into away grounds / paying the home team. Presumably ifollow cameras still come to Portman Road for the away subscribers. Unless the EFL films the game and this is about the streaming technology and sales then it sounds like whatever the situation it’s a bit of a mess. Their model will depend on bigger clubs like Ipswich selling passes so if it’s only the small clubs left eventually I don’t see the service continuing.

 

Its a mess!

 

Seems like our new owners are making smart business decisions and are breaking ties with some of our third party vendors. This will help us keep more of our revenue in house instead of paying a vendor for their services, which is generally more expensive than doing it yourself.

We're parting ways with Sodexo, who run the concourse F&B at Portman Rd so that we can provide that ourselves. We're also dropping iFollow so that we can build our own platform. This is all points to our owners wanting us to be more self sustainable and to be in control of the services we provide the fans. It will ensure more of the cash that comes in to the club from subscription fees for online media access and revenue from F&B will all circulate within our own books. What a huge change from the Evans era!