With a victory against Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town FC achieved its second promotion in as many seasons, securing a spot in the Premier League for the 2024-2025 season. As the team catapults to the greatest heights of English football, the town of Ipswich stands to benefit greatly from its success.

Twenty-two years have passed since the team’s – known to fans as the Tractor Boys – last top-flight campaign. In that time, the Premier League has grown exponentially, now the biggest and most lucrative league in the world. 

Terry Baxter, who represents local businesses in the town’s Central Business Improvement District, stated that the club’s promotion could provide an economic benefit of approximately £500-600 million to the town. While Baxter did not respond to an interview request, and more conservative estimates place the boost lower, many in the town believe that Ipswich will experience major change from next season’s first kick-off to its last and beyond, as Premier League participation will yield unprecedented capital, tourism and notoriety for the town, and its impact will be felt by all.

Premier League: Cash Cow

An unparalleled increase in revenue lies ahead for the club, says Dr. Dan Plumley, a sports finance lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. Its three main revenue-generating arms – match day sales, commercial, and broadcasting – will rake in several times more than in previous seasons. Even if ITFC finish in last place next season, they will earn £100 million from broadcasting rights alone.  With substantially more lucrative commercial deals and an expanded stadium next season, the other two streams of revenue look to grow substantially, too. 

Dr. Plumley says a conservative estimate of the club’s revenue would be around £120 million, but the club may earn more. Compared to the £21.8 million generated in the 2022-2023 season – its final season in League One – the jump in revenue is immense. Dr. Plumley says the majority of this money will be invested in the team, but some may trickle into the local economy in various ways.

 

The economic effects of ascendance to the Premier League will be tangible outside of the walls of Portman Road and will provide a “certain” economic boost to the town, according to the professor. 

Ipswich will benefit from “fan bases in and around Europe that will fly into the UK to watch the games,” he said. “And when they start to stay in the local area, hotel nights, food, drink and any other secondary spend, that’s what can generate a boost to the town.”

Alongside tourists, new signings and returning players with higher salaries will spend more money in the local economy, and new jobs will be created, he says. With jobs created, community initiatives, and money spent in the town, Dr. Plumley says these marginal additions to the economy can add up and create a substantial difference.

While it is impossible to estimate an exact figure when predicting economic impact, a study done in 2011 showed that Swansea City’s first season in the Premier League generated a £58 million boost to its economy, with 400 jobs created . 

Thirteen years later, Dr. Plumley said he assumes that number to be even higher in Ipswich.

With a salary around £5,000 below the national average and a recent rise in unemployment, an economic boost of this scale is especially important for Ipswich and its residents, says Dr. Plumley.

In 2019, Ipswich was the 84th most economically deprived town in the country, according to a report done by Public Health Suffolk. In recent years – then exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic – storefronts have been closing down at an astonishing pace in the town.

The economic downturn is evident on the short journey from Portman Road – the home of the club – to the town centre. Boarded-up windows and “for sale” signs are visible on many corners leading to a dull, desolate shopping mall that was once a hot spot in the town.

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“It’s a very difficult time for the high street,” said Holywells Councillor George Lankester. “It’s a difficult time for shops and hospitality. They are struggling across the country.”

According to Westgate Councillor Colin Kreidewolf, the local government is looking to leverage these economic opportunities to uplift the town amidst difficult times, and so are its residents.

Growth & Prosperity

The number of fans descending upon Ipswich calls for expansion in Ipswich. Games against giants like Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea will draw both domestic and international crowds in numbers, unlike any fixture in the lower leagues. 

To account for this, large sums will be put towards enhancing Portman Road. Upgrades have been proposed for the stadium, its parking lot, and an ambitious master plan that includes a nearby hotel, park areas and an aquatic centre.

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According to Dr. Plumley, these additions will also benefit the greater community.

“Whatever you do around the stadium with retail parks or community clubs, anything that the town is planning to do there has benefits to the town as well as the football club,” he said.

Establishments in Ipswich are preparing for the influx of visitors, too, with work already beginning in some places. Less than one kilometre from Portman Road, the Station Hotel Pub – the town’s only away pub – is gearing up for the season. 

Already very busy on match days, shift manager Madalin Acunune expects the Premier League to bring unprecedented numbers into the pub. He laughed as he recounted a story told by his general manager about a 2011 match against Arsenal before which thousands of fans showed up to the pub that sits just metres away from the Ipswich Train Station.

Now facing widely followed teams weekly, the pub is hastily working to expand and upgrade ahead of next season.

For the downstairs bar, an outdoor seating area, Acunune says the pub is planning to add chairs and sofas to the current setup of wooden picnic tables. They are also going to cover the patio to shield guests from rain and add a “huge” projector for matches to be screened.

Additionally, the pub plans to increase its seven lines of beer on tap to 30.

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Not only will the pub look different, but its order of operations will change in hopes of capitalising on ITFC’s Premiership participation. The biggest, says Acunune, is remaining open after matches, a task he says will require more staff. The pub will also be adding streaming services BT and Sky Sports to air all Premier League games, an addition that has been a popular ask from customers in recent times.

Work has already commenced, and is scheduled to be finished around the opening of the season, with a rough “re-opening” date of Aug. 22.

“That’s going to be brilliant for us as a business,” said Acunune’s colleague and fellow Shift manager Louise Cammell. Enhancing the pub will bring in more revenue and necessitate more jobs, which will “benefit everybody,” she said.

Not a football fan herself, Cammell believes the economic benefits of promotion – such as tourism and increased spending – will impact more than just those connected to the club.

“We [the town] were very much overlooked prior to this,” she said. “Things like this pull us into the spotlight.” 

Now in the spotlight, Cammell hopes to see improvements that make the town look nicer, and become more entertaining for visitors and residents alike, outside of football.

Transforming the Town

The two young colleagues hope that more in the town will follow in the footsteps of the pub, acknowledging a lack of “stuff to do” in Ipswich. “Ipswich is boring. I would say that,” Acunune said with a smile. The pair say new businesses and additions to existing ones are needed in the town to expand the appeal of Ipswich beyond its football club.

The town council recently identified a regeneration area, a central section of Ipswich it would like to see development in. There are two boundaries – one inside the other – that stand to positively impact existing businesses and residents if developed. The government website encourages applications for “projects” within the area, and has a corresponding fund.

Cllr. Kreidewolf says this is the perfect time for development, noting that while promotion will bring visibility and more spending to the city, it can also pique the interest of businesses, especially those looking to move the relatively short distance from London. New businesses in Ipswich can create more jobs and higher paying ones, which Cllr. Kriedewolf says are needed in the town.

With an identified area and fund, the town is prepared for upcoming development.

Kriedewolf described the local government as “strapped for cash” and in need of private investment for these developments. He says positive association with the newly promoted side may prove beneficial to the town.

“Brands and businesses will want to be associated with a really successful football club, so there’s that chance for investment through that kind of positive association,” he said. 

Alongside projects like the regeneration area and fund, the councillor said he and the council are working with owners, U.S. private equity fund Bright Path Sports Partners, on various matters regarding the upcoming season. He added that, while nothing has been agreed upon, the relatively new owners are dedicated to investing in the surrounding community, not just the club.

Infrastructural and economic developments are largely in their early stages, and it may be some time before they become visible, but Kriedewolf, Lankester, alongside local journalists Phil Ham and Stuart Watson brought up various “intangible” changes that can be felt in the town.

The Intangible

“You can certainly feel this kind of – it’s intangible – but you can feel this kind of feel-good factor in the air.” – Stuart Watson, head of football at the East Anglia Daily Times

What can’t be seen through numbers is a feeling that is flowing through the town. On their historic run in the Championship, morale was high in Ipswich. During the season, Portman Road’s 30,000 seats were regularly filled, over 65,000 jerseys were sold, and when promotion was finally achieved, 55,000 descended upon the town centre to celebrate.

“The fact that there were 55,000 people at the parade, to celebrate promotion from the Championship to the Premier League illustrates [its importance] really, when the town population is only one-hundred-and-something thousand itself,” said Ham, editor of Those Were The Days, an ITFC dedicated news website.

Cammell described the feeling leading up to and after the promotion as an overwhelming positivity. “There’s not an awful lot that brings a town together like that,” she said.

Pride and positivity within the community is an invisible factor that has grown with the success of the football club, said many interviewees.

“People are a bit happier, the mood is a bit better,” said Ham. “It means a bit more, I think, when you’re a town like Ipswich.” 

A club that seemingly peaked in the mid-to-late 20th century under Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson, many in the town have displayed steadfast loyalty through painful times, however, some chose to look to greener pastures.

Cllr. Lankester – whose favourite moments in 22 years of fandom come from this season – said he remembers a time when the number of ITFC jerseys dwindled in the streets of the town.

“Five, ten, fifteen years ago, you wouldn’t see that [Ipswich jerseys]. You’d see lots of Manchester United shirts, or Arsenal shirts or Chelsea shirts,” he said.

“But now it’s Ipswich everywhere, which is just brilliant. Wearing this shirt is pride, isn’t it? You don’t wear something you’re embarrassed of.”

Now on the world’s biggest stage, brushing elbows with the teams that children once swapped their Ipswich jerseys for, the Tractor Boys are helping bring visibility to the town. Broadcasted in over 200 territories, there aren’t many places in the world the club won’t reach next season.

“It will be silly little things…Ipswich will appear on video games more, Portman Road will appear as a stadium on FIFA, they’ll be on Fantasy Premier League when people are picking their teams, they’ll be on Match of the Day week in, week out,” said Watson. 

As the fortunes of the football club turn upwards and those of the town go with it, naysayers – who the councillors say look at Ipswich with a “glass half empty” view – may fall back in love with the town.

“The football can remind people of the positive things we have,”  said Cllr. Lankester. “The great businesses that are still in town, the parks that are great to walk around and the waterfront. It can remind people of the good things the town has to offer.” 

“It can add some more drink to some people’s cups,” said Kriedewolf.

The Proof is in the Pudding

With the team now launched into the limelight, its upward movement has already boosted morale in the town, but many hope the economic impacts of being a Premier League club will help turn Ipswich into a thriving place that is more appealing to visitors and residents alike.

Estimates are being thrown around and plans are being submitted by the council, but nothing is concrete in terms of development in Ipswich, however, one thing is certain, and that is that the town is going up, and they hope to stay up.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” said Cllr. Kriedewolf, joking the only negative aspect of the club’s ascension is the upcoming use of Video Assistant Refereeing, known as VAR.

“It’s how you use the next year as a town, a region and as an economy to leverage everything as best as you can,” said Dr. Plumley.

 “Hopefully we’ll continue to grow and build on it, you know. We’re still looking forward, and improving will be really important,” said Cllr. Lankester. 

“We don’t want to just go up, spend the year in the Premier League come back down. Even if we were to be relegated, hopefully, there’s lots of positives that can be taken from it.”