IPSWICH Town Football Club is in negotiations to secure a £100,000 sponsorship deal for the North Stand.Ipswich Town chief executive Derek Bowden is confident that a national company with local links could soon be investing as a sponsor.

IPSWICH Town Football Club is in negotiations to secure a £100,000 sponsorship deal for the North Stand.

Ipswich Town chief executive Derek Bowden is confident that a national company with local links could soon be investing as a sponsor.

He said: "We are in conversation with someone about sponsoring the North Stand and hope to have something in place this season.

"It is the home of the fans and £100,000 is the area of value we put on that. It is a large sum of money and someone is going to have to take a commercial and emotional decision about that."

Another avenue of investment for the club would be to grant the naming rights of the Portman Road stadium but the club are keen not to dilute main sponsor Powergen's branding and no immediate move on this is thought likely, with Powergen's current deal having two years to run.

Mr Bowden said: "We could go to someone else but as Powergen are our main sponsors it is a bit incongruous to have someone else sponsoring the stadium although that could happen if Powergen don't take up their option of having the stadium name."

The club is keen to secure more investment in order to give manager Joe Royle a bigger budget to strengthen his squad which, following the departure of several key players during the close season, has been further depleted by injuries.

The west and south stands at the Portman Road ground are already sponsored, by the Britannia Building Society and brewer Greene King respectively. The Cobbold Stand, which fronts Portman Road itself, is named in honour of the Cobbold family's long association with the club and is not linked to any sponsorship.