Wednesday 24 November 2010

Portman Road A 12 Month Sports and Live Show Venue

By Rob Atherton


Since 1884, Portman Road has long been the home stadium for Ipswich Town F.C. who at present compete in the Championship in England. It's a all-seater stadium that has a capacity of 30,031 and lies in the centre of Ipswich, simply two or three hundred metres from the railway station which is on the mainline to London.

The stands at either end within the stadium have been rebuilt in recent years and there are actually quite a few executive boxes along with other suites intended to have corporate events in.

Before the mid-eighties, Portman Road was principally a football venue while there was times when cricket was played here during the summer and throughout World War I, the stadium was also used by the British Army for a training camp. Nevertheless, a large number of supporters only knew Portman Road being a football ground.

In March 85, the American Evangelist, Billy Graham including Portman Road as part of his tour of the UK and nearly 8,000 people came to see him. With income becoming increasingly more critical to clubs, various other opportunities were considered to make use of the stadium throughout the summertime as there wasn't any football.

During the summer time of 91, Status Quo end up being the very first of various top music megastars and groups to play at Portman Road. Bear in mind it was more than a decade prior to the next significant music act visited Ipswich as Elton John performed at the arena. Subsequently, momentum has increased with a lot of top music stars performing including Tina Turner, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, REM, Dire Straits, Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart and more recently, Pink.

The summer events at Portman Road are going to continue because they reward both the football club along with the area.




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