Our founding fathers, PZ & Mick, outside the Globe pub, prematch, May 2000
A short history of the NASC.
On May 29, 2000, the Blue Army travelled to Wembley, where we watched Town beat Barnsley 4-2 to gain promotion to the Premier League. Two travelling Tractor Boys that day were Eric "PZ" Piazzoni and Mick Scrivener, who struck up a conversation on the train and realized they had a lot in common. They were both not just supporters of Ipswich Town, but they both lived in the United States.
Not only did Town win that day, but the idea of the Ipswich Town Supporters Club of North America was born. This new group would come to be known as the Ipswich Town Football Club - North American Supporters Club, or the ITFC-NASC. Since then numbers have steadily grown with members in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
The NASC’s fortunes have echoed those of the Club we love and support. We have had lean years, we have had good years, but there’s always been a hardcore foundation of North America-based supporters, and while the distance sometimes makes it difficult to connect face-to-face as often as we would like, we maintain a great contact through the various social media channels.
One of the two core goals of our Supporters Club is therefore to connect all North America-based fans.
In 2024-25, we will endeavor to achieve this goal through a greater online presence, but also through the development of regional chapters or “meet-up groups”. The geography in North America is challenging; the distance from Vancouver to Cancun is almost as far as Ipswich is from our East Coast fans, and even within one state in the USA, there can be many hours between fans! That said, in major cities like New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Toronto, and in some smaller cities where we just happen to have a bigger Town fanbase, regular meet ups do occur.
Our second goal revolves around staying connected to our beloved club, and manifests through one major activity which is player sponsorship. This started with sponsorship initiatives through the Ipswich Academy and for the last two seasons we have sponsored Leah Mitchell of the Women’s team. Our goal is to raise sufficient funds in the future in order to sponsor both a men’s and women’s first team player.
