Rangers fans and football fans in general always want to see the best possible quality on the pitch, however, since 2012 there has had to be a lot of money put into the infrastructure of the club and the facilities in particular.
Ibrox was dilapidated, as was Auchenhowie, from 2015, Dave King and co. put millions in to them to bring them up to standard before Steven Gerrard’s needs saw an even greater investment, now, it is about making our home and surrounding area a truly “best in class” facility.
Edmiston House is nearly ready which will bring in a lot of money, the Blue Sky Lounge has opened and the disabled facilities will be next, however, our commercial director has given an update on what will happen to the current club shop at Ibrox with a plan for a sports bar and exciting proposition, as reported by The Rangers Review:
“We’re right at the start of that project. We’ve had a couple of meetings to look at concepts. We’ve looked at some other sports-based sports bars in other clubs with designers and partners. It’s something we want to move forward quickly after opening New Edmiston house.
“Hopefully, by the summer we will be close to having something there. It will be another area on matchdays, and non-matchdays, supporters can come and have a positive experience. The numbers we are thinking of at the moment is around 500 or 600, when you add to that Blue Sky Lounge with 300 and Edmiston House with 1000 – we’re creating so many additional areas in and around Ibrox for people to spend additional time.”
These are expenses that the club won’t have to pay every year, making alterations of this sort of scale is expensive but, once complete, they will enhance the match day experience and bring in extra revenue – in the long-term they will be worth it.
Having a meeting place for fans and even somewhere else at the ground for them to watch games means that the money is going to the club rather than going elsewhere, Bisgrove might not be correct with every decision he has made, but you can’t argue about his ability to make money which, one day, should see us even stronger on the park without having to rely on hand outs from directors.