Leeds will get 4000 tickets for the potentially vital final game at Ipswich Town, as we will be filling the entire Cobbold stand.
Last season we had 3,500 tickets at Portman Road, with the whole of the upper Cobbold stand, which itself was an increase on the previous allocation of 2,150 in the corner. This time they are going to be even more generous, as we will also have the small lower section of the stand.
Ipswich took this decision after meetings between the club, police and safety advisors, and the EFL had also been in touch to allow a few more of our fans to attend. That’s right, our beloved former chief exec Shaun Harvey has finally done something useful for Leeds fans. Ipswich delayed the decision till their relegation was confirmed, as it could also have been a vital game for them, even though they looked doomed from October onwards.
Ipswich secretary Stuart Hayton said "We have been aware of the demand from Leeds fans to attend but we needed to ensure that we could cover the demand to attend the game from our own fans first and that could have increased if our fate went down to the last game of the season. Having met with the Safety Advisory Group in an emergency meeting today and spoken to the police, it was felt that it was beneficial on safety grounds to allocate the upper tier of the Cobbold Stand to Leeds fans.”
Ipswich have also set incredibly strict conditions for their own fans looking to buy tickets, trying to ensure that Leeds fans don’t manage to sneak into the other three stands. They are only selling to those who were already on their database before the start of the current season, and they have only been able to buy one ticket per customer number, no extras. And any who are found to have bought tickets for Leeds fans face being banned from buying tickets in future.
The decision has met with a mixed reaction on the Ipswich TWTD forum. Some complain about the inconvenience of moving to another stand, others about the ticket restrictions, when they genuinely wanted to buy other tickets for Ipswich fans. And some say we’re all a bunch of thugs who will only end up wrecking their lovely little ground if more of us are allowed in.
Others are a bit more realistic, saying it might reduce the numbers trying to get into the home end. And that Ipswich need the money, and that Town fans won’t want to come now they are already down, so the displaced home fans can easily be accommodated in the other three stands. And a few wouldn’t mind Ipswich taking the game easily to keep us happy, bearing in mind this could deny Norwich the title!
Meanwhile, discussion is raging among Leeds fans on Twitter about how our allocation should be sold. Some are demanding it goes via loyalty rather than general sale, though that would be a bit harsh on those of us who would have been to more away games this season if we’d been able to get the tickets.
It would suit me if priority was given to everyone who was taken to the Leeds game at Portman Road in the 1971/2 season, and can still produce the matchday programme to prove it! Of course, the game will be live on Sky if anything depends on it, and it could be that we’ll already be promoted before the final day. (Says he in the hope of suppressing demand, fooling nobody).
The previous paragraph will tell you I’m desperate to get a ticket, having already committed myself to spending that weekend in deepest East Anglia. Word is that all the hotels in Ipswich are booked out, so some fans are having to book places in Colchester, so there is no evidence our fans have been deterred by the lunchtime kick-off on the Sunday.
Some Ipswich fans fear a repeat of Bournemouth 1990, when we took over the south coast town, and smashed the place up even though we got promoted anyway. It probably won’t come to that even though it looks like many of us will be in Ipswich, with or without tickets. One good omen is that in 1990 we played a relegated team on the final day, although on that occasion there was a bit more tension as the home side would have stayed up if they had won the game.
It’s got the makings of a great weekend, so we can just hope for the right result on the pitch and no unnecessary rioting off it. And please can I somehow get a ticket for the game.