New Blues co-owner Mark Detmer wants to get what he believes is a lost generation of Town fans back to Portman Road.

Detmer, speaking to TWTD and Blue Monday in the first podcast of what will be an ongoing collaboration, says it was notable that in the wake of the takeover the successes fans were talking to him and his fellow Three Lions Brett Johnson and Berke Bakay about on social media were all some years ago.

“When we closed on the club, with all humility, there was reach from far and wide, to me personally, to Brett, to Berke and all our group, just thanking us for our involvement, thanking us for our interest in the club and for trying to hopefully get the club back to its former glory.

“With that, the stories were constantly about 1981, 1978 - 40 years ago - it was very hard to find a young fan that reached out to us saying ‘wow, I can remember in 2012 when they got this victory’.”

He added: “There’s been this whole lost generation or era of fan that we want to engage. I think that’s really a big part of our strategy to bring the energy back into the club, which again transfers on to the pitch.”

What have the Three Lions done at their USL club Phoenix Rising to engage the community that they believe can be replicated at Town?

“Some things will translate through football. Others maybe just slightly different [within the] community,” he reflected.

“We’ve engaged with the children, I think that’s something that we need to do and you saw that we've offered up under-19s [season] tickets for free, which was a way to hopefully draw in some of the younger fans.

“I know that as soon as it’s acceptable with the restrictions I’ll be travelling with my family to Ipswich and we want to get more engaged there. I think that’s an area that we can definitely help.

“And a couple of other areas. Obviously performance is at the top of it and that involves training, that involves nutrition, that involves recovery, that involves so many other aspects of the player other than just their pace or their foot-skills.

“We’ve done a phenomenal job at Phoenix, and give [head coach] Rick Schantz all the credit for creating a programme that kept our players healthy through the season and identifying the right talent that [incoming Town CEO] Mark Ashton and collectively the team are really good at.

“Finding a way to keep them healthy and on the pitch because it’s a long season, there are a lot of matches, their bodies take a lot of abuse. It’s all about recovering and I think those are a couple of things that we can bring that we’ve learned in Phoenix. Some of that new science and technology around nutrition and recovery.”

He added: “We think we bring a different perspective to the boardroom, to leadership, to culture, to fan engagement, to the ability to hopefully engage the children.”

The 49-year-old knows it’s not something which can be done at the drop of a hat.

“Creating a better fan experience, it won’t happen overnight,” he continued. “I don’t want people to have unrealistic expectations. We would all like it to happen overnight.

“These things take time. Just like it took time for the club to go from the Premier League to the Championship and the Championship to League One, it will take us brick-by-brick, time to build back the club both with the play on the pitch, which is our first and foremost and, as you know, there’s so much happening right now between the manager and the players and so much of what we want to do [is] to get the performance that we’d all hope and expect on the pitch.”

Photo: Blue Monday

rob442 added 16:04 - May 12 Free season tickets for u19's? Have I missed something. I though the deal was if you paid for a junior season ticket last year and saw no football at all, the club would issue you with no refund at all but give you a season ticket for the 21/22 season. So it's not free for all U19s and even the ones it is free for have already paid for it last March - not free in any sense of the word. Am I understanding this correctly Phil?

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BlueArrow added 16:12 - May 12 Concession prices from 60yrs of age like it used to be.?????
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JackSted added 16:18 - May 12 failed parenting is the reason why kids don't support the town nowadays ;)
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ElephantintheRoom added 17:17 - May 12 Quite amusing really to hear this twaddle. I'm sure if Cook can stop himself criticising his players and actually win a few games some people will be persuaded to return - others will have gone for good. Speaking as a pensioner, ,one of the core support groups looking at the silver hair around me on my now occasional visits, when allowed, I don't much like the idea of Ipswich Town being in the hands of offshore debt peddlars - its too big a shift from what the club used to be. So I guess in that respect the debt peddlar is right - new fans with low expectations are needed. Whether Ipswich Town franchise are any better placed than 30 or so other clubs who think they also belong in the Prem is open to doubt. Perhaps he needs a five year plan

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cat added 18:05 - May 12 Hey nice 1 JackSted lol, my kids are Town fans and I don't live locally to PR. Guess that means my parenting skills are bang on point!
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Benficablue added 18:06 - May 12 Rob 442, the free season tickets for u19's refers to Phoenix Rising not ITFC.
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Skip73 added 18:36 - May 12 Elephant, maybe you can start an online petition to get Evans back as you are so unhappy.
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Juggsy added 19:12 - May 12 Massively positive and open vibes coming from the USA. The future is looking more interesting than it has in decades!
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Hamish1979 added 20:24 - May 12 You're looking incredibly healthy Phil! Heston B like...
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rob442 added 20:41 - May 12 No Benficablue he is referring to what they announced that they are doing at Ipswich. They are making a headline that u19 season tickets are free but they are just tickets that we have already paid for. Can anyone clear this up?
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WorcesterBlue added 08:10 - May 13 I think allowing Paul Cook to get rid of a whole squad, several of whom are excellent home grown prospects with whom "the lost generation" might have an affinity, smacks of the complete lack of understanding of what makes club football in this country unique. Yes we all agree that change was needed but Cook since he arrived has made Paul Hurst look like a footballing genius. I for one am completely turned off by it all. And don't say give him a chance. He's had a reasonable one and blamed a whole squad of players for his inadequacies. Franchise Ipswich - you're welcome to it!

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HopefulBlue69 added 08:24 - May 13 Wow, didn't take long to turn on the new owners... has this site been infiltrated by NC supporters trying to sow discord at PR...
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TractorRob added 08:29 - May 13 The club could engage with the current generation by not charging season ticket holders £230 each for iFollow which we were told is free and in many cases people could not or did not use. They have lost at least one over this.
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shadoof1016 added 09:32 - May 13 I personally have not been a season ticket holder for nearly twenty years and in that time ITFC have at no stage every emailed in an attempt to entice me back........no problem to me. But the new group should attempt to re engage with those ex holders.....I am aware of so many older fans who just gave up when the age limit increased just as they were about to receive a concessioned season ticket. Will be interesting to see what the actual cost to the fan is for new season tickets considering under 21s and over 60s......get it right and there will be 20000 first game.......get it wrong it will bring problems. Remember we have been taken over by business people who want their buck.....just like Evans. I wish them good luck.

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midastouch added 21:48 - May 13 My son is still hanging tough as a Town supporter. He strolls into football training wearing his Ipswich shirt surrounded by teammates mostly in mustard yellow and bogey green. He's put up with a lot following Town. The team have given him barely anything to shout about in his whole life, so it would be so nice to see the boys in blue finally come good and make him proud to wear the shirt! :-)

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