Welcome to the “Tour Of The 72” series, where I attempt to visit every EFL ground to find the greatest football experience there is to offer and rate each ground on five different factors: Pricing, Atmosphere & Quality of the game, Food, Facilities and the overall experience of the matchday. For this edition, I made the short trip up the A12 to Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town for their Championship fixture against Charlton Athletic on the 21st of October 2025. I’d already visited their local rivals Norwich City in this series, so how do they compare to their fellow East Anglian side?
Pricing 5/10
Fortunately, I received a ticket for free, as my good friend was unable to use his season ticket, but I will be going off the basis that I purchased a regular matchday ticket in the exact same block, which came to a total of £38 for an adult seat in the Upper Alf Ramsey Stand. The seat in which I was located, unfortunately came with a slightly restricted view, as what I assume was the press or policing box blocked my view of the dugouts and corner flag.
These restrictions didn’t impact the price of the ticket, despite the slight restriction, but tickets around the ground did fluctuate in price, with the cheapest coming in the block next to the dugouts at £28.
When comparing this price to other grounds within the Championship, it comes out at slightly above average, although this marginal increase could potentially just be due to the hangover of a spell in the Premier League, as tickets are hard to come by in a rapidly growing fanbase, with attendances almost doubling in the past eight years.
On some other factors aside from the ticket, a matchday programme cost £4, which is slightly steep in my opinion price, for a decently sized programme of around 75 pages., but I respect Ipswich for continuing to produce a physical matchday programme, rather than switching to digital ones.
Atmosphere 6/10
From my personal experience, I’d actually say Ipswich usually have one of the best atmospheres in the Championship, but the atmosphere wasn’t exactly bouncing during my visit. Perhaps I’d just sat at the wrong end, as the opposite Bobby Robson stand and a small section of the Cobbold Stand certainly tried to lift the mood a bit, particularly in the first half.
Credit where it’s due however, Charlton fans were in fine voice for a midweek away day, certainly creating plenty of noise following Sonny Carey breaking the deadlock early in the second half. Not really relating to the atmosphere, but it always boosts the mood when every supporter and member of staff is incredibly friendly, and the community of Ipswich Town certainly did that, some lovely people work for the club, everyone seemed up for a chat.
In terms of the atmosphere as the match progressed, it started on a high note, with all four stands joining in for Ipswich’s rendition of “Hey Jude” but slowly petered out as the minutes went by. An occasional chant about their dislike for Norwich City and the classic “Allez Allez Allez” were sung at high volume, but weren’t quite up to what I expected, perhaps my expectations were too high considering I watch League Two football most weekends!
A personal highlight was the chanting towards Charlton’s substitute Onel Hernandez, who is a Norwich City cult hero, and didn’t have many positive things to say about Marcelino Nunez’s big money move from Norfolk to Suffolk, leading to some chants about Nunez directed towards him, even as he warmed up at half time.
Food 7.5/10
Relating to food surrounding the stadium, the options are immense, but that’s for the next category, as this is purely based on inside the stadium. Perhaps this is due to the plethora outside, but there weren’t as many available options inside the ground as I’d hoped. Five flavours of classic football stadium pies (locally made rather than mass produced which is always a bonus) were available as well as a hot sausage roll, including a “Tingly Ted’s” Pie, a chilli beef pie with some of co-owner Ed Sheeran’s hot sauce inside, which tickled my fancy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Albeit a bit strange having a chilli-based pie, the flavours were strong, but not enough to blow your tastebuds away, and as a person who was raised on spicy food, this was a top tier pie!
Towards half-time, I got a bit peckish again and got myself a chicken Balti pie to try this time, which once again, was a solid pie. The pastry was a great texture, and the actual contents were a pleasant flavour, the only thing preventing Ipswich from getting a higher grade here is the lack of hot food options. If you are in the mood for something sweet, Ipswich will have you covered as there were numerous bags of sweets and chocolates on offer, but if you aren’t a fan of pastry, you are a bit out of luck!
Facilities 8/10
Portman Road is rooted into the heart of Ipswich, just a short ten-minute walk from the train station the other side of the River Orwell, with plenty of pubs and bars within a one-mile radius of the stadium, leading to Ipswich being one of the most popular away days in the Championship.
Surrounding Portman Road on a matchday is plenty of matchday programme stands and newspaper stands, and a couple of burger vans with shouty men outside trying to pull customers to their burger van. Bordering onto the family stand is a designated “Fanzone”, which is free to access for all home supporters, and I was pleasantly impressed by what was on offer.
Once entering the fanzone, you are immediately met by a DJ spinning some decks, and countless food outlets from a wide range of different cuisines, from burgers and hotdogs to Mexican food, to a pop-up coffee shop, there was even an ice-cream van, despite the Baltic temperatures! Additionally, there was plenty to keep adults and children entertained, with football-based activities provided by the community foundation on offer for the youngsters, as well as a large bar selling different beers for the adults, keeping any whole family happy until kick-off!
Furthermore, I wasn’t aware of this, but I was told that the entire stadium had a bit of a revamp following their promotion two campaigns ago, particularly in the stand I was located, making the turnstiles and security checks run smoother.
Overall Tour Experience 7/10
Overall, it was an enjoyable evening of football (although likely not the case for Ipswich fans), enhanced by the fact I got to spend some quality time with my mates watching an improved level of football to what I usual must suffer watching. As I mentioned earlier, every supporter and staff member I spoke to was jolly, no problems at all with that, in fact I usually say Northern football fans are friendlier, but this might have altered my opinion!
Regarding the game itself, I expected Ipswich to perform a serious amount better than they did, given how much money they invested back into the playing squad following their relegation back to the Championship, boosted by the parachute payments. There was an essence that the squad hadn’t quite gelled together, as Ipswich’s squad depth is seriously high quality, with McKenna making seven changes from their most recent Championship fixture. On another day, they could have been two-nil up in the first half, but Charlton’s backline got stuck in and their goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski put in a serious shift to deny Ipswich a goal and retain his clean sheet.
Charlton on the other hand took their chances well, despite a lack of clear-cut chances for them in the first half, with their short spell of domination midway through the second half allowing them to capitalise on some questionable defending from the Ipswich centre-backs, firing them into the Championship playoff positions for the first time since their playoff victory in May.
At full-time, the mood turned sour however, even causing a couple of fans around me to have a pop at each other for having disagreements over the current state of the club, which is never a pretty sight at any stadium.
Full time Score: Ipswich 0-3 Charlton
Goals: Carey 52’, Gillesphey 56’, Leaburn 64’
Lineups:
Ipswich: Palmer (Walton 28’), Davis (Johnson 75’), O’Shea, Greaves, Young, Cajuste (Taylor 75’), Nunez, Clarke, Akpom, McAteer (Philogene 62’), Azon (Hirst 62’)
Charlton: Kaminski, Bell, Gillesphey, Jones, Ramsay, Bree, Docherty (Rankin-Costello 90+1), Coventry (Burke 90+1), Carey (Knibbs 86’), Kelman (Leaburn 62’), Olaofe (Campbell 62’),
