Rangersitis

The failure to recognise that Rangers is damaged goods and beginning to have limited appeal is not just silly, it's negligent.

 

Using terms like middle class is certainly simplistic, and although it probably antagonises folk who are sensitive about these things, it does get the point across.

 

Our appeal is reducing. We can either pretend that it doesn't matter and attempt to define class until the club is history, or we can discuss these things in an effort to successfully address them.

Of course there is limited appeal. Declining standards of football in the Scottish game has been happening over many years and it is terminal. People just need to accept that and work with what is there until such time that an escape route presents itself, most likely some sort of European set up. Even then it would be in a second or third tier.

Merely stating a fact buddy.

 

 

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I know.

I don't deny that there is a drain in general from a largely uninspiring Scottish game but this has it's roots in simple customer choice rather than based on some motive to do with supposed societal 'class'.

 

Perhaps the Marketing Manager that Mr.Hemdani has in mind, currently works for the EPL.

Aye, that's exactly what is called for.

Don't bank on it.

 

The middle classes are increasingly reluctant to have their children following a club whose reputation is so poor. Rangers fans who have been 'inconvenienced' by their football allegiance start to wonder if they should encourage their children to take the same path - and neutrals generally see Rangers as a no-go area.

 

Parents want their children to be advantaged in life; to attend good schools, to live in nice neighbourhoods, to have high standards, to behave well and to steer clear of areas that could be troublesome.

 

These days, Rangers is not generally thought to be an enlightened place to be.

I have always had those aspirations for my children, but I have also encouraged them to think for themselves. If I raised a child who didn't have the wherewithal to adapt to their surroundings, I would see it as a failure on my part. I'm afraid that this is where all this talk of 'class' becomes rather silly.

Whether we like it or not, to many in Scotland we look like the right wing of the BNP. Parents just do not want their kids wearing our colours or going to our games. I wonder how many going to the games actually hide their colours until they leave home.

 

To my mind this happened in the early seventies with the troubles in NI, we changed from being a Scottish Club to a 'British' Club.

I would say that you need to go back to 1912 for the start of Rangers being a 'British' club, and it was for quite a few different reasons.

Much of todays 'middle class' seek bargains.

 

London ("Arsenal, Chelsea or West Ham") is another economic world.

It's all relative, but ok, let's take Newcastle United. The London to Edinburgh trains after a match are stowed with their supporters travelling back to Scotland. They won't be the only team.

There are 60 bands in Stirling tmrw with no doubt thousand of followers too, that will undoubtedly affect the turnout.

You're simply enforcing a lazy stereotype with that comment !

I don't agree with the direction of travel in society. I don't think a politically correct society is healthy and I certainly don't want people criminalised for being tasteless and uncouth, but we have to exist and flourish in society as it is - not as we wish it would be.

 

Rangers is on the back foot in society, partly because of rogue ownership and incompetence, but also because it has lost influence within the sport; within government both locally and nationally, and because its large fanbase has minimum influence in high places - and when it takes centre stage for televised football, it tends not to present itself in a way that is attractive or endearing.

 

When a football club sinks as low as we have, it really has to address negative issues constructively, because if it doesn't, a full recovery becomes harder to achieve. When the club is in disarray on and off the park to the extent that we are, it will lose people that it simply cannot afford to lose, and in my experience, this process is already well under way.

Sir David Murray was the man who recruited the middle-class money to the club by marginalising the traditional core support, let's call them bigoted, one-eyed dinosaurs , by pricing them out and through the mass introduction of season tickets. Look how that turned out.

The middle-class will return once they have a leisure activity which is expensive enough to make it exclusive. One only needs to look to the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea or West Ham to see that in action.

That's a bizarre reply. It's nothing to do with being shunned for a sunday fourball and everything to do with not been seen as a bigoted, one-eyed, ranting dinosaur with no grasp of modern Scotland. Still, as the club becomes ever more isolated and friendless you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that you're still getting your 90 minutes of rough once a week.

 

There's an interesting parallel with Espanyol at play here, or Queens Park. Football is littered with sides who used to be important but didn't move with the times.

There are bigoted, one-eyed, ranting dinosaurs within the support, with some of them coming from this middle-class, but then again the same can be said for most clubs in one way or another.

It's called society.

much, much deeper. DK isn't anywhere near as rich as some would have you believe in my opinion

Care to set everyone right on the true figures of King's wealth?

Also, the depth of the pocket is relative to the length of the arm, which I took to be the gist of Frankie's post. Apologies if I am mistaken.

EDIT: I wasn't.

We are alienating our own. Society has changed and things that never used to raise an eyebrow now have people recoiling in horror.

 

Whether we like it or not, the vocal presence of Rangers fans goes a long say to defining us, and when we hear, usually at away games, questionable songs and chants, a televised audience is listening as well as watching and wondering if Rangers really is the dinosaur that it is often portrayed to be.

 

How many discerning parents want to bring their children up in an environment immersed in that? Sit and watch a televised Rangers game in the company of non-football people and justify the pride you have in your club in the face of the bilge coming from the terraces.

 

Read forums where Rangers fans congregate and despair at the the lack of respect that people have for each other. This forum is not typical of the level of debate that can be found. There are some excellent contributors on busier forums, but I know a few who have become tired of the vitriol and monocultural tone, and now they no longer bother. I know people who are polite, well-mannered and articulate who have been banned for posting unpopular opinions on one of the busier forums - but not the busiest - and they have chucked it too.

 

There is nothing worse than people who see themselves as 'real' Rangers fans sounding off about how staunch they are and decrying the rest. To be a big club, Rangers has to be a multilayered, multi-opinioned entity. Sadly, though, non-hardcore opinions don't fit in with the strident and often unthinking attitudes that some Rangers fans have, and if the debate can't cope with their opinions, and if they are banned from articulating them, we all suffer as the club begins to resemble the beast that our enemies constantly portray it to be.

 

To be a big club, Rangers has to have an appeal across all classes in society. I'm not sure that it is doing that any more. I believe it is losing the middle class, and in doing so, it will diminish in status and pay a heavy and damaging price.

The middle-class has always been there, and I'm sure that there has always been a level of disdain shown to those who don't quite 'measure up'.

The bigger problem to me seems to lie with the social climbers who like to hide their true roots behind a veil of respectability. The Hyacinth Bucket effect, I suppose. This, coupled with a political elite who are hell-bent on seeing multiculturalism and political correctness foisted upon everyone, leads to a situation where, yes, there will be some who hide their allegiances for fear of being shunned for a Sunday fourball with the club captain, but to achieve that multilayered, multi-opinioned entity that you crave, there will inevitably be casualties along the way.

There will also be others, myself included, who yearn for the days when the game was a bit rough around the edges and where passion frequently boiled over for a couple of hours each week. Give me that over the soulless stadium filled with the 2.4 family bedecked in matching bench coats and their six quid gourmet burgers.

The socio-political make up of a football crowd has naturally evolved through time and will continue to do so. Engineering it to go a certain way will never work as it will always alienate someone.

Anyone could set up a scouting dept. Whether it's any good is another matter. Neil Murray was a ridiculous appointment. Green was spot on to get shot off him. Other than being McCoist's buddy what background/experience did he have for the job ?

The facilities are Auchenhowie may be world class but are no being utilised properly. That needs to change even if it means personnel changes. I reckon the board are terrified to do this as it would meet with usual squeals of protest from the usual suspects

They are more than capable of doing things which don't meet with the approval of the 'usual suspects' when it is done to protect their own positions and those in the shadows pulling the strings.

Any board worth it's salt would be making decisions which were for the good of the company, regardless of how popular that made them.

Forgot to say....well in, FS.

How many do we have now?

 

And still no chief scout.....

Probably the biggest pointer as to where their priorities lie. The fees for this continual firefighting must be horrendous.

Perhaps the board should consider hiring some PR gurus.

Well done to all involved. A triumph for justice.

davie smith our half back in the 72 euro final was never booked in his entire playing career

A feat shared by Eric Caldow in a career that stretched to 600+ games.

How much has the club ever had to persuade people before? You can argue things have changed dramatically but usually season ticket renewal time's never been like an election, people renew or don't either because they're fed up of the football or because of personal circumstance.

 

An issue right now is that without a massive source of working capital it'll be difficult for the board to be making many plans to tell us about anyway.

Well things have now changed. If the board want to treat fans like customers, they need to accept that a sub-standard product, shady deals and faceless shareholders is not a great marketing strategy.

Their reliance on season ticket sales is their problem. How are they going to find a solution?

That doesn't make any sense PapaBear.

Just wait until you get to the lightswitch bomb!

Plastic tumblers that night!

If it isn't that important to you then it is hard to understand why you keep making the same point ad nauseam and why you feel the need to add comments like ""it doesn't quite sit right with me that you didn't smell a rat with Green."

 

I admit that I didn't at the outset, guilty m'lud; and as you have previously acknowledged I was in the majority.

 

That said I will accept the compliments and be thankful that I am not applying to you for employment.

 

Might one ask your occupation or profession?

Seriously, Time4_Change, unless you are self-employed, tell him nowt.

I simply disagree and believe the AIM rule 11 would apply IF renewals were significantly down on the comparitive stage last year.

More especially given warning in the business review.

In that case, given the lack of a statement, it must be assumed that ST sales are on a par with expectations.

Does a significant drop in ST renewals effect:-

 

- Financial Condition

 

- Expectation of its performance (projections)

 

 

 

 

In looking for the section within the business review it perhaps highlight the timescale the club are working to and justifying thre being no annoucement.

2 months would take you to second half of June.

 

However is there an argument that if numbers are way down at this stage compared with last year and that they can give no good reason why this is suddenly going to change...................the 'without delay' part of the rule should be focussed upon.

I'm merely playing Devil's Advocate here.

If they have the funds to limp through the next 4-6 weeks then there is no effect on the immediate financial conditions. Until they are well into the public sale they can say that they still 'expect' to sell the same numbers. Whether they do think that looks to be immaterial.

Do they really need to provide a 'good' reason to anybody in order to fulfill their obligations as laid out in that rule you quoted?

They appear to have had everything worked out up to this point, I can't see any reason why that will change in the future.

Petition at 5,000 signatures but how many ST's have been renewed ?

 

And if the number is significantly down on last year why doesn't the PLC inform the market under AIM rule 11 'without delay' ?

 

Under Aim rule 11

A company must issue notification without delay of any new developments which are not public knowledge concerning a change in: its financial condition; its sphere of activity; the performance of its business; or its expectation of its performance."

The wording of that is pretty loose. Expectations are just that.

What does that mean? Firstly, it's not my petition so it's not aimed at me. Secondly, is decision maker defined? The decision maker of the petition?

 

Edit: having to rely on hidden small print is something I'd expect the current board to do.

No point in regrets now, your name will already have been cross-referenced with the club's database.

Chap, chap, chap!