Ibrox And Auchenhowie: Can We Afford Both?

[Hildy 0]

Zappa, a fan-owned club would be an ambitious club, extremely reluctant to part with its assets.

 

A club under rogue ownership though - it'll do whatever it can to make a fast buck.

 

We've now experience defective ownership, and look what it did to us.

 

I hope lessons have been learned.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Ian, join the RST. It believes in fan ownership.

 

I'm a member of the RST's BuyRangers scheme, so I am part of a group that owns around half of one per cent of the company.

 

Don't expect us all to one day sing from the same hymn sheet. Even if you live longer than Methuselah, you won't see that happening.

 

It's not something to worry about either.

 

That's exactly my point Hildy and one I've made here more than once in the recent past.

 

Admirable as the RST effort was, it only succeeded in raising £250,000 to buy about half of one per cent of the company. Approximately 20x - 25x as many fans (by volume of shares) bought shares in their own right rather than go through the RST Scheme. Buying the company out of liquidation in concert perhaps with other wealthy investors or buying shares as a group in the IPO was the answer at that time but buying shares now is not the answer. 5% is the first threshold that you need to pass, so that you can call a general meeting of the company and require the company to consider something like a membership scheme at a general meeting. So the RST would need to raise 10x the money raised in that highly charged period of time when we were in liquidation, just to get to the starting gate. Frankly, even if the RST could raise another £250,000 to subscribe for shares in a new offer, and they would have to if it was a rights issue or the percentage would be even lower, it is pissing in the wind. I too believe in fan ownership or at least fan influence on the ownership; which is why I was member of the RST and its Secretary for a time; but that model is not going to succeed whilst the current structure is in place.

 

It's not an impossible pipe dream in my view; but it would take a massive world wide coordinated effort and I don't see it happening any time soon. The reason I say that is that whilst it is a much debated topic on here and no doubt on other forums; the vast majority of Rangers fans don't give a toss who sits in the Boardroom, so long as there is a winning team on the park.

 

 

PS: This thread has quickly gone off at a bit of a tangent!

[Hildy 0]

Brahim, that's why the ownership issue at Rangers should never be allowed to rest. Most Rangers fans may not seem to care about it, but when when the club actually gets defective ownership, it suddenly takes on new importance.

 

We're seeing Hearts moving in the fan ownership direction now, and we can only applaud if they get it right and make it work.

 

As for the main point of the thread, I suspect that we'll only retain both stadium and training ground if we can participate in an Atlantic League or something similar.

 

If our future is to be Scottish football and only Scottish football, it's difficult to be optimistic.