RST involved in new takeover bid?

[wabashcannonball 0]

Take your pick from a different angle.. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/28/rangers-supporters-group-takeover

[stewarty 1,877]

For the reluctant link clickers...

 

The Rangers Supporters Trust (RST) today confirmed they had submitted an "exploratory document" to the club with the aim of taking over Sir David Murray's majority shareholding. But they refused to reveal whether Jim McColl was involved in the scheme following reports the Trust had held talks with the entrepreneur, who – with an estimated fortune of Ã?£800m – is said to be Scotland's richest man.

 

Any RST plan would involve some degree of fan ownership, which is the ultimate aim of the Trust. But a takeover of the club, who are �£31m in debt, would need to be underwritten by either a wealthy individual or consortium.

 

"At this point, it's an exploratory document only," said the RST spokesman, David Edgar. "We can't comment on speculation over any names mentioned with regard to underwriting or backing the scheme. And we stress that all discussions must remain private and are at a very early stage."

 

Describing talks both with the club and potential backers as "positive", Edgar insisted it was "too early to say" whether the RST proposal would ultimately end in a takeover bid. "Rangers find themselves in extraordinary circumstances and, at the moment, it's pertinent to assess all options," he added. "Anything the Trust does, we study to make sure it's viable before we go down that path."

 

The London-based property tycoon Andrew Ellis was this month revealed to be considering a bid for Rangers. Edgar insisted Ellis' interest had no effect on the Trust's plans, adding: "At the moment, discussions are ongoing with all parties who would be involved with the scheme.

 

"This is another step towards what the Trust has been working on and continues to work towards, which is full supporter ownership. It hasn't come about overnight."

 

Last year saw the RST invite representatives of Espanyol and Hamburg to Ibrox to discuss their members-run models. Rangers have been working to a business plan in conjunction with Lloyds Banking Group since Murray stepped down as chairman in August. The influence of Lloyds has sparked protests from supporters at some matches this season.

 

The club's manager, Walter Smith, and his backroom staff have been working without contracts since January in a bid to ease the financial pressure on the club. He has also not recruited any new players since August 2008.

[Totti 0]

I fail to really see the advantage of any fan involvement at board level other than accountability - ie stopping another Murray type figure single handidly doing what he wants and almost destroying the club.

 

What does the typical Ibrox punter know about running a football club? Nothing whatsoever. It's complicated business in difficult economic times and I couldn't care less who our owners/board support as long as they run the football club efficiently and effectively.

[stewarty 1,877]

To move from the current model to full fan ownership is too big a jump for me. Any fan ownership model would need to include all supporters groups with open transparent governance structure which doesn't appear to be there at the moment. Added to that, as Totti el al have said, what relevant experience do they have? I can't help but feel the RST is getting a bit carried away with itself. They should have simple achievable goals within a long-term strategy. For me, their first goal should be to regain the club's trust, then seek to unite the support. At this point, fan representation on the Board might be achievable and palatable to the then owners.

[wabashcannonball 0]

For some reason neither Hunter or McColl appear in last years rich list, is this because they are not UK residents ?

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/richlist-app/?l=30

[Zappa 0]

I for one would love for the club to be owned and run by the fans like the Hamburg model.

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One of the things Hamburg have done to raise money perplexes me. In the past 9 years their stadium has had it's naming rights sold 3 times and is due to change to it's 4th name in a decade this summer. Since 2001 it's gone from being the 'Volksparkstadion', to the 'AOL Arena', to the 'HSH Nordbank Arena' and will now become the 'Imtech Arena'. These stadium name changes have given the club a large chunk of cash this decade and I can't help wondering how their finances & related success would have been without this extra revenue. I doubt they'd have been able to afford the same quality of players which might have seen them failing to compete at the same level, achieving European football etc. All I'm really saying is that the apparent relative success of HSV under it's fan ownership isn't necessarily as cut an dry as them having the mother of all ownership models.

[Zappa 0]

Zappa I happen to fully agree , however these points are just as pertinent when directed at Ellis , in fact I would say more so than any fans group .

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Absolutely mate and that's something I should have added because any potential takeover of the club should be heavily scrutinized. Not that we have that much (if any) clout when it comes to influencing any decisions, but there's nothing stopping us from reading about the backgrounds of potential buyers/investors, asking questions, discussing supposed plans and writing down our individual opinions.

[Tannochsidebear 2,316]

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One of the things Hamburg have done to raise money perplexes me. In the past 9 years their stadium has had it's naming rights sold 3 times and is due to change to it's 4th name in a decade this summer. Since 2001 it's gone from being the 'Volksparkstadion', to the 'AOL Arena', to the 'HSH Nordbank Arena' and will now become the 'Imtech Arena'. These stadium name changes have given the club a large chunk of cash this decade and I can't help wondering how their finances & related success would have been without this extra revenue. I doubt they'd have been able to afford the same quality of players which might have seen them failing to compete at the same level, achieving European football etc. All I'm really saying is that the apparent relative success of HSV under it's fan ownership isn't necessarily as cut an dry as them having the mother of all ownership models.

 

It is arguable if the fan ownership model as seen in Hamburg has actually been "successful" at all. In Germany, there is a totally different mindset when it comes to football clubs and ownership. The different tiers of management and committees at Hamburg is mind-blowing and I wonder how anything gets done at all.

 

I do however think that it would be preferable for our club to be owned by the fans rather than a sugar-daddy type owner. That is the thing I would love to see, and Hamburg's model only really proves that it can work, just like Barcelona and others. Wether it can work in Scotland with our mindset is doubtful, but IMO desirable nonetheless.

 

As for the stadium naming rights, my personal opinion is that if a Company wants to pay �£millions to call Ibrox after their Company, go for it. In the fans eyes it remains our home and Ibrox Stadium, and as long as it remains in our clubs ownership, I dont care what it is "officially" called. For the same reason I dont call our training ground it's official name, but Auchenhowie. If Murray wants to sooth his ego by naming it after himself, that is his right with his shareholding, but it wont be called that by me.

[Zappa 0]

It is arguable if the fan ownership model as seen in Hamburg has actually been "successful" at all. In Germany, there is a totally different mindset when it comes to football clubs and ownership. The different tiers of management and committees at Hamburg is mind-blowing and I wonder how anything gets done at all.

 

I do however think that it would be preferable for our club to be owned by the fans rather than a sugar-daddy type owner. That is the thing I would love to see, and Hamburg's model only really proves that it can work, just like Barcelona and others. Wether it can work in Scotland with our mindset is doubtful, but IMO desirable nonetheless.

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The points you make are exactly what make me doubtful that full fan ownership of Rangers is even within the realms of possibility. A look at a club like HSV only tells us that their particular model can work/function in Germany, nothing more. Further to that (and I've pointed this out before on Gersnet), for every German club that's managed to actually work under their fan ownership scheme, there's another that's had very serious financial problems, had to have real player 'fire-sales' and in at least one case, even had to sell their stadium. Amazingly, the team that had to sell their stadium (Dortmund IIRC) was actually the team with the highest average attendances in Europe with about 80,000 regularly going through the gates.

 

The other important factor to consider when looking at football in Germany is that their revenues from broadcasting rights are massive in comparison to ours. I don't know the current figures, but a couple of seasons ago they were pocketing roughly about 6 times what we are at the moment, which leads me to assume that the gap is even wider than that now. On top of that, the total average attendances are higher in Germany, due to their average stadium size being bigger than in Scotland and these different factors enable them to keep ticket prices low for the fans, which in turn attracts the fans to continue turning out in large numbers - nice cycle!

 

As for the stadium naming rights, my personal opinion is that if a Company wants to pay �£millions to call Ibrox after their Company, go for it. In the fans eyes it remains our home and Ibrox Stadium, and as long as it remains in our clubs ownership, I dont care what it is "officially" called.

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I'm open minded about that subject, but if it were to happen I'd like it to be a long-term contract and on the basis that the money was mostly spent on improving/developing Ibrox.

[wabashcannonball 0]

The Rangers Supporters Trust (RST) today confirmed they had submitted an "exploratory document" to the club with the aim of taking over Sir David Murray's majority shareholding.

 

Debt ?