Possible move south for Rangers?

[craig 5,199]

If it was the EPL or Championship even then I'd think about it but the Conference is 5th tier. Not for me, I want us back playing in Europe as soon as possible. We are Rangers, not some obscure English team.

 

But you are potentially only forsaking two years are you not ?

 

Next season we will be in Scotland's 3rd tier. If we start next season in England's 5th tier you arent really sacrificing a whole lot. But you do get the possibility of washing your hands of all the hatred and evil bile being spouted forth against us by all and sundry in Scotland.

 

I am still a fence sitter on this one.

[der Berliner 3,263]

But you are potentially only forsaking two years are you not ?

 

Next season we will be in Scotland's 3rd tier. If we start next season in England's 5th tier you arent really sacrificing a whole lot. But you do get the possibility of washing your hands of all the hatred and evil bile being spouted forth against us by all and sundry in Scotland.

 

I am still a fence sitter on this one.

 

Not really. Up here we face low-key half-amateurs week in and week out, right till the top tier. In England , you will face professional footballers and the higher you go, the better they become. Not great, but far better than what we face up here. We were bitten once when this season started and these half-amateurs have shown that they can - on occasion - also play some neat stuff. The English down there will give it their all to prove that they are better than us too and I think I do not need to remind boarders how quickly they grew restless with even the odd draw. We will most likely need more than the 1/3 of our turnover in wages and fees to get us through the lower tiers of England alone. I sure don't want to spoil the party, but we need to stay objective here.

 

BTW, is there actually a TV deal in place for Conference or League 2 games and if so, how much do these clubs get?

[simplythebest 0]

Not really. Up here we face low-key half-amateurs week in and week out, right till the top tier. In England , you will face professional footballers and the higher you go, the better they become. Not great, but far better than what we face up here. We were bitten once when this season started and these half-amateurs have shown that they can - on occasion - also play some neat stuff. The English down there will give it their all to prove that they are better than us too and I think I do not need to remind boarders how quickly they grew restless with even the odd draw. We will most likely need more than the 1/3 of our turnover in wages and fees to get us through the lower tiers of England alone. I sure don't want to spoil the party, but we need to stay objective here.

 

BTW, is there actually a TV deal in place for Conference or League 2 games and if so, how much do these clubs get?

Sky will show the odd game for League 2 and all the play-offs.

 

Conference not sure.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

we could be in Europe via the cup in the same timeframe as staying here.

[simplythebest 0]

Europe is good but you need to wonder if we're even likely to get through the qualifiers over the next few years. Our seeding will have shot down thanks to the lot absence and we know the disasters we had as a seeded team anyway.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

realistically we need some time in the UEFA cup in the first few years to build a ranking.

[craig 5,199]

Not really. Up here we face low-key half-amateurs week in and week out, right till the top tier. In England , you will face professional footballers and the higher you go, the better they become. Not great, but far better than what we face up here. We were bitten once when this season started and these half-amateurs have shown that they can - on occasion - also play some neat stuff. The English down there will give it their all to prove that they are better than us too and I think I do not need to remind boarders how quickly they grew restless with even the odd draw. We will most likely need more than the 1/3 of our turnover in wages and fees to get us through the lower tiers of England alone. I sure don't want to spoil the party, but we need to stay objective here.

 

BTW, is there actually a TV deal in place for Conference or League 2 games and if so, how much do these clubs get?

 

Read my post again... me thinks you will find I used the word POTENTIALLY.....

[calscot 0]

The TV deal for the SPL is so low that I don't think a lower one will bite our budget that much and I'm sure if we were in the conference the TV rights would be picked up. Setanta used to show them which I think was partly to get English customers to sign up to watch the Premiership PLUS their local team.

 

Most of the clubs would be of the size of SFL1 clubs with Luton the exception with an average crowd of 6k. If we will struggle to win that league then how will we win the SFL1 (or whatever)?

 

League Two is more like the bottom half of the SPL and top half of the SFL1 but double the number of clubs. League One is more like the SPL without Celtic with double the clubs.

 

So far the challenge is little different from promotion to the SPL and then finishing second.

 

Now the Championship is a different story. However, not one club has much more than half our fans and we would benefit from the TV and sponsorship money they get. A third of them have a following between Dundee Utd and Hearts. The rest would be difficult but we should still be the best and a bit like Newcastle were there.

 

They were down for one season and won the title by 11 points, and gained promotion back up. I'm not saying we'd do that but they are of an equivalent size and were in a shambles when they were relegated. You'd have to expect us to finish in the top two within a few years or at least the top six most years and eventually up through the playoffs.

 

Sunderland are another big club who didn't have much problem winning that league. The cream rises to the top.

 

Looking at that, I can't see us failing to get to the Premiership pretty rapidly with perhaps a few bad seasons getting in the way. But surely even a few years in the Championship would be a lot more interesting than another two horse race in a poor, messed up league with a lot of catching up to do with our one and only rival.

 

I think we'd also attract massive investment to get us there as the rewards are easy to see. I can see a lot of rich Rangers fans wanted to get involved with the club for the last push into the Premiership - as well as ordinary Rangers fans if the money all went on players and maybe expanding the stadium.

[RANGERRAB 3,271]

In the unlikely event we do get into the National Conference (to give it its proper title) we'd need to ensure we could get promotion right up to the EPL thro' the leagues. Hope they don't just want us to boost the lower leagues & would deny us promotions

[bigy 0]

The big risk for me of a move is that it opens the floodgates and we miss the bigger boat.

 

If we can move cross border, then every big team in a small or medium sized country will want the same and will have precedent. This is likely to lead to a European league of some sort, and as a non league or lower league English team will we be in a position to get a seat at that table? I doubt it.

 

We could find ourselves taking 5-7 years at best to get to the Premiership, and in that time European football has moved on. It's a massive risk - but one I think we may need to take.