By Paul Nicholson
March 9 – Rangers’ new board had a slow start to their tenancy with a lifeless 0-0 draw away to Cowdenbeath on Saturday. Now the directors are hoping their promised revolution will get a kick start with a packed Ibrox this Tuesday in their first home Championship match under the new regime against Queen of the South.
New chairman Paul Murray has called for supporters to return to the club for the Championship fixture. Rangers’ stay-away fans – discontent with the previous board and the influence of minority shareholder Mike Ashley – will need to start returning in numbers if the club is to start generating the cash it needs to challenge credibly for their return to the Scottish Premier League (SPL).
50,000 capacity Ibrox had just under 30,000 supporters at their top of the table clash with league leaders Hearts for their last home game. The average home attendance this season has just over 31,926, compared to average of just under 43,000 last season, and 46,000 in the 2011/12 season the club were relegated to the fourth tier of the Scottish game.
It is the spending power of the Rangers’ fans that will dictate the financial future of the club. If fans continue to stay away and reduce spending on club merchandise, then the financial struggle involved in returning to the SPL could be crippling for the new club and the new board.
Rangers are not entirely free of the influence of Ashley. The shareholder meeting last Friday may have removed Ashley’s associated Derek Llambias and Barry Leach wit a massive 85% in favour of their replacement by Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan, but Ashley still has at least £5 million of loans to the club as well as effectively controlling merchandising sales through his Sports Direct subsidiary.
King has said he is encouraging Sports Direct to engage with the new board – something they refused to do prior to the shareholder meeting.
The exact staus of the loans Ashley has made to club and the conditions of those loans appear unclear. He may well now have security over £10 million of loans. “I haven’t seen the terms of [the loan agreement]. If [a second £5 million loan has been] drawn down, I don’t think that will be a bad thing. It would be very nice to find there’s £5 million in the bank,” said King, who is awaiting his clearance of the fit and proper person criteria before he can officially take his seat on the board.
“Issues have been raised about the appropriateness and the quality of some of the negotiations, discussions and implementation of agreements, but until we really look at it, it’s very difficult to say,” said King.
“I reached out to Mike Ashley a couple of times before at a shareholder level and he’s chosen not to engage with me, which is fine, he’s entitled to do that.
“As far as Sports Direct is concerned, I’ll be encouraging them to come and work with the new board because they are a partner. As I understand it, they want to continue being a partner of the football club and they see Rangers as being quite an important part of the development of their business.”
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