Season Ticket Renewals

[Dragonfly Trumpeter 50]

If you are referring to the Chairman's statement in the accounts then I have quoted it often enough for you to know that I have read it very well; if you are referring to something else then please enlighten me.

 

As to Hearts, I was refering to your use of the word "crooks", which implies criminal activity and is not a word to be used with impunity; nor is "lied" for that matter.

 

Have a nice night.

 

How about if I lie with impunity, is that okay?

 

On Wednesday night I posted a comment that I was concerned about the involvement of one of the Blue Knights and that I had written to his employers in that connection. I am now prepared to name that person as Mr John Bennett.

 

I would stress that my concern is in no way personal. It is simply the case that as an employed person I could not see how Mr Bennett could make enough time for Rangers as well as his full time occupation. Mr Bennett is employed as a fund manager with Henderson Global Investors, so I wrote to the CEO of that company as follows (name and address omitted):

 

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

 

RANGERS BLUE KNIGHTS â?? MR JOHN BENNETT

 

I am writing to you as an IFA who has transacted business with your Company for many years as well as some of the companies that you have acquired recently, such as Gartmore and New Star. At the same time, I am a lifelong supporter of Rangers Football Club and a former secretary of Rangers Supporters Trust. Although I do not have any direct link to a supportersâ?? organisation at the moment, I have been a shareholder for nearly 30 years.

 

In terms of Funds Under Management, currently I have approximately £xxx,xxx invested in your products, either directly or through the xyz platform; of which just over £xx,xxx is invested in Mr Bennettâ??s European Selected Opportunities Fund and £xx,xxx in your European Growth Fund managed by Mr Pease. The juxtaposition of these two Funds is something that has been exercising my mind since your acquisition of Gartmore last April and the fund integration in July 2011.

 

As a supporter and shareholder in Rangers Football Club, naturally I welcome any moves to bring the club out of administration as soon as possible but as an IFA with clients invested in Mr Bennettâ??s Fund, you will appreciate that I am extremely concerned about the possible impact on Fund performance of his involvement with the â??Blue Knightsâ?.

 

I understand that Mr Bennett is the sole Manager of this Fund and also your European Focus Fund, lead Manager on four other funds and co-Manages your European Absolute Return Fund; with total assets well in excess of £2 billion. Therefore, it does seem to me that he certainly has his hands full managing seven funds, without the added pressure of being involved in the â??Blue Knightsâ? group and the possibility of becoming a Director of Rangers FC.

 

I look forward to your comments with great interest and hopefully you will consider that this matter is urgent, given that offers to purchase the club have to be submitted by this Friday, 16 March 2012.

 

Yours sincerely

Mr Bennett called me at 2.00pm today. The call lasted about 40 minutes. He told me that he fully understood my concerns. He said that â??he was one of the parties to have expressed an interestâ? in the consortium but that his name had been quoted by PM â??earlyâ?.

 

He told me the background to his involvement and said that he had been in Glasgow yesterday and that he had had an â??extensive talk with PMâ?.

 

I told him that I would be posting details of the conversation on Gersnet this evening and he agreed that I could say that he had given me an undertaking that he would do nothing that would compromise his ability to do his day job. He had â??looked at the complexities in terms of the management (of Rangers) and had had time to study what was requiredâ?. In his opinion it would require a â??full-time commitmentâ? and that was â??not something that he was able to offerâ?.

 

I asked him about the amounts that individual members of the consortium were able to contribute and his response was that he was sure that â??the BK will raise sufficient funds to bidâ?. He did not know how much of that would come from Ticketus.

 

Not surprisingly he would not say how much he intended to invest personally but commented that he â??would want a big say for (that) type of moneyâ?. This took him back to say that that would involve â??too muchâ? of his time.

 

I told Mr Bennett that I was also concerned that the description of him in the Daily Record as a â??financial big hitterâ?¦.from Londonâ? might lead some fans to conclude that he would be able to invest some of the â?¬3 billion that he has under management at Henderson, in Rangers and he confirmed that this was a certainly not the case and that to that extent the description of him as a financial big hitter was false. He agreed with me that he should take steps to ensure that if there was any such misconception it be corrected as soon as possible.

 

He concluded by saying that he would meet me the next time he was in Glasgow on business.

 

Interesting comments re Mr Bennett.

 

Good morning, FS.

 

For the last time; I did not do anything to John Bennett; he stated himself that he was never part of the Blue Knights "my name was released prematurely"; he came to Glasgow, saw the size of the task, realised that for the amount of his investment he would want to be a director, knew that that was inconsistent with his day job, decided not to be part of the Blue Knights; all before he spoke to me.

 

Neither you nor I know if he ultimately invested any money.

 

The vast majority of people acknowledged that I did what I had to do from a professional point of view. I made the mistake of being open and honest and releasing the letters; but at the end of the day, he made his own decision.

 

Now will you give it a rest.

 

Thank you for agreeing that the proposed ST scheme is ridiculous.

 

Alternative but also very interesting version.

 

You lied. Care to browse your posts?

 

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/vb/sh...(Blue-Knights)

 

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/vb/sh...hts-Consortium

 

Finally, I cannot see why you are backing to the hilt the guys who burned the £50 million. But I have an idea.

 

Now you're talking.

 

Instead of all this put your ST money in a trust nonsense, and make no mistake it IS nonsense and will achieve absolutely nothing at all except put the future of the Club in jeopordy; how much better would it be for King and the UoF et al, to hold up banners saying

 

SAFEGUARD THE CLUB, BUY YOUR SEASON TICKETS AS SOON AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE

 

I hope you get everything they have promised you, make sure the chest size is okay on the blazer.

 

How is your RangersFirst foray going btw?

 

You have a nice night also.

[Super Cooper 0]

I am genuinely struggling with the importance that some contributors are attaching to the 120 day review. There are quite a lot of people who are uncertain over whether to renew or not. So what would be the key issues that are included in this 120 day piece that would persuade anyone who is doubtful, to take the decision to renew their season ticket?

 

Announce an immediate share issue which is a must, Gut the squad of highly paid imposters if that costs us in the short term it's a price worth paying to rid our club of such poison, sack the management team which is the deal breaker for me, build a scouting network, make an end to 2 and 3 year contracts for over 30's, acknowledge it and then rid the club of our jobs for the boys mentality, let fans know exactly what each board members is earning to put a stop to "board stealing money" rumours, tell us who BHP and Margarita really are and tell us what exactly is Laxeys game, head hunt a young, vibrant, exciting and ambitious coaching team and show ambition. Bring back expectations and targets. Be Rangers.

 

That's just for starters.

[Zappa 0]

It might interest you to know that when Rangers tried to insist that Travel Club members have insurance (quite right) and use Rangers own provider (out of order) I complained to Trading Standards who instructed them to drop the insistence on their own provider and introduce a tick box if you already had insurance. When that was not introduced the next year, I complained again and Trading Standards appeared at the Ticket Office one day unannounced. Rangers were forced to invite those who had their own cover to notify and drop their own (Rangers) charge. This story is legend in the Ticket Office.

 

Words fail me!

[Tom Davison 0]

Announce an immediate share issue which is a must, Gut the squad of highly paid imposters if that costs us in the short term it's a price worth paying to rid our club of such poison, sack the management team which is the deal breaker for me, build a scouting network, make an end to 2 and 3 year contracts for over 30's, acknowledge it and then rid the club of our jobs for the boys mentality, let fans know exactly what each board members is earning to put a stop to "board stealing money" rumours, tell us who BHP and Margarita really are and tell us what exactly is Laxeys game, head hunt a young, vibrant, exciting and ambitious coaching team and show ambition. Bring back expectations and targets. Be Rangers.

 

That's just for starters.

Thanks for an honest answer to what was a genuine question Super. However, I suspect that like me, you know that even half of what you have listed will not be addressed in the 120 day review and that is why I felt that the importance being attached to it, in relation to season ticket renewals was unrealistic.

[Blue Moon 1,138]

There are too many political posts that are way over my head and not relevant to the issue for me about whether to renew or not.

 

Right now I won't be renewing for 2 reasons.

 

Firstly, the 120 review. Unless this appears significantly prior to deadline to allow us to see what funding mechanisms the board is putting into place then I won't renew.

 

Secondly, I will not continue to watch the dross that we have been subjected to for too long at this club. The football side needs a complete overhaul from top to bottom.

 

If one of these doesn't happen then I am out for good.

 

We are all at different stages in our lives in terms of income and in terms of what we can continue to endure and I am sad to say that I no longer have the stomach for all of this. The only thing I have any influence over is my own cash.

[Super Cooper 0]

Thanks for an honest answer to what was a genuine question Super. However, I suspect that like me, you know that even half of what you have listed will not be addressed in the 120 day review and that is why I felt that the importance being attached to it, in relation to season ticket renewals was unrealistic.

 

Agreed mate. As I say the main thing for me personally is the coaching team and manager. Change that and we will be back.

[andy steel 0]

It might interest you to know that when Rangers tried to insist that Travel Club members have insurance (quite right) and use Rangers own provider (out of order) I complained to Trading Standards who instructed them to drop the insistence on their own provider and introduce a tick box if you already had insurance. When that was not introduced the next year, I complained again and Trading Standards appeared at the Ticket Office one day unannounced. Rangers were forced to invite those who had their own cover to notify and drop their own (Rangers) charge. This story is legend in the Ticket Office.

 

Mate, I'm struggling to work this out.

 

You are willing to call Trading Standards on Rangers over travel insurance, yet are calm about lobbing another tranche of ST monies at a corporate structure which has done much, much worse?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

So now it transpires that auto renewal is not a choice it's automatic if you are on the 4 instalment plan.

[RANGERRAB 3,337]

Agreed mate. As I say the main thing for me personally is the coaching team and manager. Change that and we will be back.

 

The status quo is no longer an option. Change is imperative.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Dear Supporter,

 

 

We are extremely sorry to hear that you are deciding not to automatically renew your Season Ticket.

 

Just to make you aware that if you do choose to renew your season ticket at a later date the ClubÂ’s credit/debit card 4 instalment option will not be available. We are replacing the ClubÂ’s 4 instalment option with an alternative Zebra Finance payment plan which also has the option of either 4 or 10 instalments however it is with Zebra Finance not the Club itself.

 

Also if you choose not to renew your seat by the deadline of 6 May you may not be able to secure your current seat as we will then start transfers and then new sales

 

 

Regards,

 

Stuart Cullen,

Ticketing Operations

 

fairly clever from the club. canceling and going back later costs you more and gets he club the money sooner.