After more than 20 years outside the top tier of English football, Ipswich Town’s return to the Premier League will have a huge impact on fans, businesses and the entire town. As such, Ipswich Central is launching a new campaign that will celebrate the impact of the Premier League on local businesses.
Over the course of the season, Ipswich Central will undertake a range of activity that links the business community to football in order to understand the knock-on effect from visitors and fans coming together around the town.
Football culture photographer, Adam Rosenbaum, has been commissioned to capture a series of portrait photographs of the people working at local businesses. These will be accompanied by short Q&As from the business leaders to detail how Premier League football has impacted the town.
We are giving disposable cameras to selected fans to capture their own match day experience over the course of the season, with these photos featuring in an exhibition to capture the highs and lows in the stands, in the bars and across the town. If you’d like to express your interest in being involved in the campaign, apply below.
For Kyle Duxbury, General Manager, Three Wise Monkeys:
“I hope that Premier League football this season will be a boost for the town as the buzz, sense of pride, excitement and community spirit is heightened. It’s great to see the town rallying together and embracing the energy that comes from being in the top tier of English football. It’s an exciting time for Ipswich Town Football club and the town itself.
We are planning a few changes this season, with extended opening hours on matchdays for early kick-offs and late-night celebrations, new drink specials and a themed food meu for the big games. We’ll also be brewing ‘Uppa Town’ beer at our own monkey brewery!”
Shan Johnson, Operations Manager at First Buses, drove the promotion parade open top bus that carried the Ipswich Town team at the end of last season.
“I’ve been an Ipswich fan since 1994 when I moved to Ipswich from London. Most of the First Bus drivers are football fans so there are always discussions at work. We have many fans who travel on our buses, so home match days means that we are very busy with a lot of people travelling into the town centre.
Not only for us but every business in the town thrives when Ipswich is doing well, and the customers are also a lot happier in general which is nice! With a large number of away fans coming to visit and stay in our town I hope this will be a good for all Ipswich businesses.”
Gareth Harper is the owner of Bar 21 in St Nicholas’ Street.
“As someone born and raised in Ipswich, I’ve always followed the football club, but my passion as a fan stepped up ten years ago now and again further three years ago when we opened Bar 21. On weekend home matchdays the bar is full of supporters for pre- and post-match drinks and a good 80 per cent of visitors are regular customers choosing us as their place to enjoy the build up and review the game. We only welcome home fans, and win, lose or draw, home matchdays are always busy so great for the business. When town are playing well, there is great camaraderie and high spirits with singing and chanting and the place has a superb atmosphere.”
Brenner Wooley has been the voice of BBC Radio Suffolk match commentary for Ipswich Town Football Club for 21 years.
“I always come across fans at the grounds on matchdays and when the football is good people are always much happier as everyone’s got a spring in their step! I hope Ipswich playing in the Premier League brings more people to the town. It’s certainly made people happier and proud to be from the town, plus I’ve noticed more flags on display!
This season I have a new show on BBC Radio Suffolk every Monday night. ‘The Blue Hour’ focuses on all things Ipswich Town, something fresh and interactive for a whole new generation of fans who are experiencing Premier League football for the first time after 22 years in the Championship and League One.”
The Reverend Tom Mumford is Vicar at St Mary Le Tower Church and has been an Ipswich Town supporter since arriving in Ipswich and becoming Vicar of the town centre civic church three years ago and watching the team play in League One that first weekend after arriving in the town.
“The congregation is full of life-long fans and a number of season ticket holders, so the church often sees people popping in for a pre-match ‘word with God’ ahead of home games.
I’m a much happier Vicar when we win and it’s great that the town buzzes, people are happier, more hope-filled, it’s just wonderful! There is a real sense of hope, optimism and belief to the town, but I do find that I have to queue longer for a pint though, which is the only real downside!
This season I really want to see Ipswich flourishing and Suffolk businesses recognised for their excellence across the country and across the world.
Huge thanks to Keiran and the team, and to Mark and the board. You’ve helped bring belief and hope back to Ipswich – two very important things… But then I’m a vicar, so I would say that, wouldn’t I? It won’t stop me praying for results to go our way ahead of every match this season though!”
Ashley Symonds, Resourcing Advisor at East of England CO-OP, has supported ITFC since he was 12 years old and had a season ticket for 20 years!
“I encounter football fans and seem to talk about football every day, as it’s important to so many people. As a business servicing the East of England, conversations about Ipswich Town are an absolute given! This season so far I’ve noticed increased footfall, increased sale and a much more positive football culture around the town. I’d go so far as to say that well-being has been boosted among both staff and shoppers. The togetherness of the local community is abundantly clear, we all love our local team and the impact of being in the Premiership playing great teams I believe cannot be understated.
I hope that Town playing in the Premier League will have a massive impact on the regeneration of our town. As long as we can consistently perform at the top of our game, the town will thrive – this can only be a positive thing for local businesses. Our new store at Ipswich Rail Station serves not only commuters and visitors but home and away supporters travelling via train. Large teams have a huge following of fans, who will come just for the away day feeling and/or atmosphere even if they haven’t got a ticket for the game.”
Nick Gregory is the Head at Ipswich School and a life-long Ipswich Town fan. Having grown up in Ipswich, he’s enjoyed a professional career that has taken him to five different schools in other parts of the country and in Summer 2024 returned to Suffolk as Head at Ipswich School.
“For the first match I watched, I remember in the 1970’s standing on a milk-crate alongside the pitch in the East Stand, then joining my grandfather (who had a season ticket) to watch matches in 1975. I’ve now been watching them for 50 years! Nostalgic highlights for me are a 7-0 win versus West Brom and 6-0 versus Manchester United from our 70’s era that I can still picture in my mind really clearly, plus the UEFA Cup run of 1980/81 of course!
I want our pupils to be proud to be from Ipswich and I want them to believe that they can go on and achieve anything at the highest level in whatever field, competing with anyone. The Bobby Robson years showed that to be possible when I was growing up, when a team from Ipswich could justifiably claim to be the best in Europe in 1980/81. The current Kieran McKenna era continues to set the same example to young people in Ipswich, encouraging them to ‘dream big’.”
Andy Elvin, a Waste and Cleansing Supervisor at Ipswich Borough Council, has been an Ipswich Town supporter since 1973 (age 5).
“I’ve worked in the waste team at the council for three years now, we have several football fans in our office, a lot are ITFC but some support other Premier League clubs. With the increase in footfall around the town there’s going to be an increase in litter on matchdays! There is certainly extra waste for our street cleansing teams to deal with, all bins in the town centre need to be emptied more regularly sometimes four or five times in one day on matchdays! There is usually extra road sweeping on the morning before a match, and more staff will be on duty to help with litter picking around the ground and town centre. When we had the bus parade and promotion party from league one to the premier league in Christchurch Park, an extra five tonnes of rubbish from around the football ground, town centre and park was collected!”
This season we’ve installed 21 new ITFC inspired litter bins along Princes Street between Ipswich Train Station and the town centre and installed new signs encouraging people not to drop litter but to use the bins provided. We are also carrying out extra weeding, road sweeping and litter picking around the town centre too. With Match of the Day, Sky Sports and TNT Sports all covering Ipswich Town matches this season it’s important to me that the town looks as litter-free as possible.”
Brought to you by Ipswich Central, the Business Improvement District (BID) for the town centre and waterfront thanks to Ipswich Borough Council and Towns Deal funding.
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