As the vultures circle round Charles Green, and question the funding he has available to him to run the club following the withdrawal of the Walter Smith consortium, it strikes me that this representation of funds, or lack of them is somewhat misleading.
Every year, football clubs across the country pull in revenue at this time of year from Season tickets, then have it supplemented over the summer by friendlies, shirt sponsorship, the sale of corporate boxes, then supplemented throughout the season by cup games, catering, direct sales and merchandising.
That’s how football clubs generate cash.
Why does anyone expect that Rangers should be different?
In a normal season Rangers could budget for some European football. Rangers have no European football now for 3 years.
Therefor I’d expect that the club should tailor its expenses accordingly.
The normal kind of revenue Rangers should expect for the next 3 seasons should be largely unchanged.
Rangers are due substantial payments this summer from JJB, Tennents, Corporate sales and player sales, as well as Season Ticket Money.
Clearly some of the above may be variable depending in what league we are in, and what sanctions we face, but the cash flow in the immediate term should not be a concern.
The longer that fans are advised not to buy season tickets the more trouble Rangers may find themselves in. We should not be expecting Green’s consortium to fund the club.
We should not be expecting whoever owns the club to be funding a £10M Hole in the balance sheet.
Dave King has already made reference to having to find £30M of funding over the next three years to fund the club.
That’s on the budget of the previous regime.
We cannot have the same budget, unless Green and Chairman Malcolm Murray can miraculously generate £10M of additional revenue for the club. Note I say revenue, not funding. There is a huge difference.
We have to find out if Green’s plans are to tailor our outgoings to match our normal incomings, or to generate £10M of revenue.
But, and it’s a crucial but, if McColl’s consortium had been successful in securing ownership of the club, we could not have blindly allowed them to follow the same business model as the David Murray led organisation that led us to the precipice.
What we will have to accept for at least the next three years is prudence, and the level of prudence will be harsh, whether we are in the SPL or the SFL.
It’s the only way forward, unless revenue can be generated.
Like it or not, the revenue will vary depending in what league we are in, by significant numbers.
Now given that King, Murray etc sat on a board that couldn’t generate a break even position without European football over the last decade, then I for one don’t believe the Green and Murray led Rangers can do any worse…unless the lifeblood of the club is starved by fans not supporting the club as they usually do.
If the club dies because of fans not buying season tickets, and that is a distinct possibility, it will be us, the fans, who will have hammered the final nail in the coffin of the club.
My understanding is that influential fans will be meeting Green soon, and his plans need to be clarified, but fans need to support the club and give the club a fighting chance of survival.
What the wider Rangers support need to be aware of is that withholding your season ticket money might suit The Blue Knights mark IV, it will most likely plunge us back in to Administration first, with a further set of sanctions from the authorities on top of everything else.
Were that to happen, how could The Blue Knights Mark IV manage to pull us from the brink, stabilise the club and move us forward?
I’d love to know, but the latest version of the consortium didn’t lay out any detail whatsoever, so what am I supposed to read from that?
These are worrying times, and I hope the picture can be made clearer by Green and Malcolm Murray over the next few days.
………………..
Dave King has made one positive contribution to his tenure as Director, in the shape of his initial £20 investment in the club.
Since then, his tax issues in South Africa have brought nothing but bad publicity to the club.
His public “apology” over the use of EBTs, and some of the terminology within is unhelpful to say the least. This expense sucking parasite making these ill judged comments while the club are under investigation is naïve and ill advised.
Quite what his game is I do not know, but I can’t help thinking I wish he’d never speak about Rangers again, and walk away from the club never to return.
Bill
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