LOYAL Ipswich Town fans are backing the club with their cash as season ticket sales for the coming season are likely to match or exceed those of last year.

Stuart Watson

LOYAL Ipswich Town fans are backing the club with their cash as season ticket sales for the coming season are likely to match or exceed those of last year.

Despite the credit-crunch and the disappointment of missing out on the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs True Blues are putting their money where their heart is.

Town fans are bucking the trend of falling season ticket sales elsewhere by taking up a healthy rate of renewals ahead of a campaign filled with hope and expectation.

The club - which froze season ticket prices from last season - said sales compare favourably with last season when around 15,000 were sold.

John Ford, Town's ticket office manager, said: “At the moment we are on target to start the season with as many season ticket holders as we finished last season and there is a possibility it could be more.

“The club is obviously delighted with the uptake, which shows a sign of the optimism that supporters have for next season and an indication of the performances delivered at Portman Road last season.”

Research by Virgin Money into season ticket sales across the top tiers of English football has predicted a sizeable drop in renewals due to the ever-rising costs of following football.

Last season, Ipswich would have finished six points clear at the top-of-the-table if the season had been based on home form alone, the club having lost just one league game at Portman Road.

Although the start of the 2008/9 campaign will mark the seventh consecutive season in the second tier of English football for the Suffolk club - the longest period it has had outside of the top flight since 1960 - there is a sense of optimism that promotion can be achieved following the investment of Marcus Evans' millions.

Such season-ticket loyalty is even more impressive if you consider the fact that a Virgin Money survey of 100,000 fans conducted back in April predicted that one in eight were considering not renewing their season ticket.

Kevin Mitchell, who wrote the Blue Army fans' column in the Green'Un last season, said: “This just goes to show the loyal nucleus of fans that Ipswich Town has got.

“The number of people renewing their season tickets is a role on effect from last season where, at times, some of the football played at Portman Road was nothing short of outstanding.

“In the Championship there are of course some very well supported clubs, but in terms of the more provincial teams I think Ipswich have got as good a fan base as any.”

Town's rivals, Norwich City have already seen an increase in sales.

Andrew Cullen, director of sales and marketing, revealed the club had already topped last season's 19,714 figure - attracting more than 1,400 new season ticket holders in the process - for the 2008/09 campaign.