By Mike Rowbottom
February 26 – It was ten years ago that Roy Keane (pictured) made his celebrated remarks about Old Trafford spectators in executive boxes - “they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch.”
But Simon Clegg, chief executive of the club which Keane now manages, Ipswich Town, revealed that the former Manchester United midfielder’s attitude to corporate hospitality has mellowed a little in the intervening decade.
“Roy recognises that corporate hospitality is an important aspect of the club,” says Clegg, who spoke on the subject at the SpoBis Conference in Munich, where he was a guest of PROSKE, the international sports hospitality group.
“Although he is obviously otherwise preoccupied on match days, he accepts that there is room for both the regular supporters and corporate guests, and that the issue is about getting an acceptable balance.
“The fact that we have a capacity of more than 30,000 means that there is space here for both the corporate guest and the man in the street.”
At the start of this season, Clegg decided to prepare a win bonus for Keane which reflected the manager’s celebrated remark.
“I spoke to our head of catering and told him that when we won our first game I wanted him to prepare something which I would want boxed up as a gift for Roy.
“When he came to open it he said he had been expecting to finding something like a CD player or a DVD recorder.
“Instead he found the most gigantic prawn sandwich.”
Clegg believes that Ipswich’s location in the East of England means there is an added onus when it comes to making sure corporate entertaining in the club’s boxes and restaurants does the job effectively.
“We are out on a bit of a limb at Ipswich, so it’s important that we make sure people enjoy their experience at the club enough to want to come back.
“Our three main aspirations in terms of corporate hospitality are to give good value for money, to look constantly for new ways to expand, and to exceed expectations.”
The last of these aspirations has been addressed by Clegg (pictured) this year through the introduction this year of senior players to the matchday package.
“Involving ex-players in hospitality is fantastic, but if a squad player is able to appear - perhaps because he is not selected for a particular match, or because he is recovering from injury – he will be able to give our guests fresh insights into the way the team is operating because he will have been up at the training ground in the week.
“In the current economic climate we need to recognise that corporate hospitality is one of the first things that get dropped when companies feel the pinch.
“So it is more important than ever to make the experience feel special, to provide added extras so that people feel they are getting better value for money.
“That means they are more likely to stick with it.”
In terms of expanding revenue sources, Clegg is reviving pop concerts at Portman Road, which hosted the likes of Elton John and Neil Diamond in the early Noughties.
The United States singer Pink will be next up onto the performing platform.
“It’s all about sweating the asset,” Clegg says.
“No club outside the Premier League is making money, and many clubs in the Premier League are not making money.
“No Championship club is making money, so you are looking to minimise the difference between revenue and expenditure.
“Sometimes that means you have to be a bit creative.”
But, as Clegg points out, it does not mean you have to accept every offer that comes along.
“We are always getting commercial opportunities presented to us,” he says.
“Recently we were approached by a film company who wanted to use the ground.
“But when we looked into their requirements, they would have compromised the ground for the match the following week, so we decided against it.
“The overriding principle is to create success on the pitch.”
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