Chairman's report to AGM, October 23rd 2023
It’s been such a positive year for the Football Club both on and off the pitch. What a fantastic season we all had watching such entertaining football and gaining promotion back to the Championship. For a lot of our younger supporters this was the first chance for them to experience the joy of winning promotion. The scenes at Portman Road on the final game of the season against Exeter City both before, during, and after the match will long live in everyone’s memories.
It was fantastic to see our fan base grow, and to witness the number of sell out matches at Portman Road. Season tickets had to be capped at 21,000 and the support at away matches has been phenomenal with sell out at most away games.
All the supporters consistently asked - we want our football club back, and WOW we have it back. The Supporters club wish to thank everyone involved in making this possible. We thank our owners, all our management team, our players and coaching staff, the directors, all the numerous employees of ITFC and the Foundation and last but not least our supporters.
It is wonderful to see the improvements over the summer months at our stadium, so colourful on match days with blue and white, and orange shirts seen in great numbers in all stands and supporters singing their hearts out along with the beat of our drummer Nathan helping to make it fortress Portman Road.
The Ipswich Town Foundation has grown from strength to strength and has helped tremendously within our community.
The Supporters Club committee are all volunteers, and I thank each one of them for the hard work and dedication that they have put in during the year. We hold monthly meetings face to face and numerous Zoom meetings in between to discuss all the correspondence we received from supporters and the general public on such a wide range of topics. The supporters club liaise with the club on issues raised by fans.
During the year we have received numerous requests from across the globe to set up new supporters branches and these can be found on our website.
We are also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
We have held events during the year in association with the Ipswich Town Foundation with all ticket money going directly to the foundation which is why this is not shown in our accounts. The events were enjoyed by all who attended.
The Annual player of the Year awards took place on the pitch on the last game of the season which was won by Conor Chaplin and Runner up Sam Morsy with Megan Wearing winning Women’s Player of the Year and Anna Grey runner up. Academy player of the Year Edwin Agbaje, ultimate player of the Year Conor Chaplin and Kieran McKenna with the Patrons award.
In July we were invited to see the two re-wrapped Foundation minibuses, one which was purchased using money donated by the supporters club 2021/22 season and are now out and about in the community.
The Open day in the Fanzone in August was a great success with supporters having the chance to meet their favourite player. We were kindly given hundreds of programmes by Teresa which were given away to those fans who wanted to build their collection or our younger supporters which gave them an opportunity to learn about our vast history which we are all so proud of. Guess the chocolate footballs in the jar also proved extremely popular.
We have had a great start to the season, enjoy the football and we know every player on the pitch gives a 100% and let’s see where it takes us come the end of the season.
We want to connect with supporters from all around the world.
It’s a brilliant time to be a Town fan.
Come on you blues.
Mandy Garner