Ashton: A Busy and Productive Summer
Wednesday, 19th Aug 2026 19:40
Blues chairman and CEO Mark Ashton has been outlining the changes which have taken place at the club over the summer ahead of Saturday’s first Premier League game of the season at home to Sunderland, not least the new training ground building, which opened this week, and developments at the back of the West Stand.
As has been the case in virtually every summer since the 2021 takeover, Portman Road, and this year Playford Road, have been building sites since the end of last season.
Among the Portman Road projects have been putting safe standing into the North Stand, a new PA, moving the accessible areas from one end of the West Stand to the other and bringing in digital ticketing, all while a new management team has been finding their feet and players have moved in and out with great frequency.
Ashton talks about these and other matters, including practical issues regarding Saturday’s match in the video below.
“A busy summer and I’d like to think a very, very productive summer,” he said. “I think probably best start with our people.Big change in management, delighted with the way that Gary O’Neil and his staff have settled in and integrated really quickly.
“They’ve had to do that at breakneck speed and it’s been good to spend some time with them to get to know them, but also just to see their level of professionalism because we do set high standards at this football club, and you fairness to them, they’ve more than met those standards.
“They’ve integrated extremely well with the staff at Playford Road and the staff here at Portman Road.
“And that was the key, I think, first milestone to get that done, so we could then move on to the multiple projects that we have at both sites, and a little thing called the transfer window.”
Regarding the training ground, which TWTD and other journalists were shown round at the start of last week, he added: “Beyond happy. When you build infrastructure projects such as this and this started with me sketching something on a piece of paper in the first week I joined the football club, the best part of five years ago.
“To see that to come to fruition is quite something and I was at the new training facility late one night last week on my own, and I must admit I had a moment where I actually took in for a second what we’d built as a football club.
“There’s been so many people involved in that construction and delivery. We’ve not missed one second of one training session to build it.
“We’ve launched this week, the players have moved across this week, which has been really seamless.
“But it’s an outstanding facility, it’s a world-class facility. There is nothing like that in the east of England, for sure, and I’m very, very proud of it.”
On the work at Portman Road he continued: “The West Stand work this summer has been immense.
“We’ve changed and moved our accessible areas, both in the bowl of the stadium and also, as you come into the stadium, and inside the stadium. That is going to be a far better fan experience.
“In addition to that, we’ve extended the concourse area on the back of the West End. That is a huge project.
“I’ll give you an example of what we find. When you break ground on these projects here at Portman Road, because of the lack of investment historically, and I’m going back a long time now, things are never straightforward.
“So, when we broke ground on the West Stand concourse extension this summer, we found part of the roof of the stand from the 1950s, which when it had been taken down wasn’t taken off site, they simply buried it.
“So then you’ll sit back because you’ve got to clear that out. You’ve got to dig further down. It’s a challenge. It’s not easy.
“But there’s been an incredible team of people here at the stadium who’ve worked tirelessly on the West Stand project.”
That continuing work means numbers will be limited in the Fanzone in the initial stages with fans with tickets from stands other than the West Stand only admitted prior to 2pm. However, the club will have food and drinks offers around the stadium.
Ashton believes the atmosphere at home games will be key to the Blues retaining their Premier League status this season.
“If we recreate what we did in that first 15, 20 minutes against QPR here at Portman Road, we’ll have a very successful season, I’m sure,” he added.
Turning to transfer business, he says the Blues aren’t done despite having spent around £150 million already.
“Probably easiest to say this: We’re not done. We are not done,” he said. “There’ll be more ins, there’ll be more outs. We’re not done.”
_Photo: TownTV_