Ipswich Town season ticket sales are on course for a six-year high.
The star-spangled revolution at Portman Road, led by new American owners, new CEO Mark Ashton and a mass clear-out and overhaul of the playing staff, has seen excitement levels rocket ahead of the new League One season.
And that's been reflected in season ticket sales - more than 12,000 have already been sold in the run-up to the new campaign.
With the news that Portman Road looks set to be back to full capacity in time for the August 7 season opener against Morecambe due to the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, sales have taken another jump.
Purchases are up 33% on last season, with the current tally already good enough to surpass the final number for five out of the last six seasons.
The 2015/16 season, after Town made the play-offs the previous year, saw the highest number of season tickets bought in the last ten years, with just over 14,000.
But next in line to exceed is the 2019/20 season, when the Blues sold 12,928 season tickets - a figure which looks very much set to be broken.
Speaking back in June, as ticket sales broke 11,000, new CEO Mark Ashton said: “We are going to bring some energy, new focus and a new way of working to the club and that’s very evident in the positivity being shown in both the shirt sales and ticket sales.
“Season tickets are just over 11,000, which is great, and we were at around 9,000 before the start of last season so it’s going in the right direction.
“I’d just encourage the fans to make sure they get their season tickets and enjoy the journey.”
Ashton also stressed just how important ticket sales are for the club, given the Blues are restricted to spending 60% of their turnover on player salaries under League One’s Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) fair play rules.
“(Season ticket sales) are absolutely imperative,” he said. “We’ve said we’ve got a club that’s going to be well-funded moving forward but we’re governed by the salary protocols in League One (Salary Cost Management Protocol) and that’s really clear.
“We can only spend 60% of our overall revenue on players, full stop. Every penny we bring in, be it through supporters buying tickets or commercial activities, is absolutely vital to us because it means we can spend sensibly and to the best we can do to bring the best players into the football club.”
The Blues start their pre-season schedule at Dartford on Saturday (1pm).
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