Sports retailing and spending what you earn

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You get the sense that the Sword of Damocles is hanging over Newco Rangers.  Some wondered about the sense in Mike Ashley controversially renaming Ibrox as the rumoured ‘Sports Direct Outlet Village’ but having bought the rights to do so for £1, he is now able to leverage this detail in his earlier loan.

He has the retail and stadium naming rights but ownership of the club badge, details of which it appears the Newco board leaked to the Daily Record yesterday, would allow him to control the strips, novelty ducks and other tat, no matter where it’s sold.  Any future shirt deal would need his authority, as it would require use of ‘his’ logo.  Which would inevitably lead to shirt deals being concluded by one of Ashley’s in-house brands.

All this makes sense if you are a retailer with notions of monopoly status.  ‘Rangers’ branded pencil cases, alarm clocks and shirts will continue to sell, no matter in which league Newco inhabit.  It’s a straight merchandise play from the retailer, who is the only person in the UK in a position to exploit clubs going through a hard time, like Newco.

Ashley is thick-enough skinned after sitting through all that Newcastle fans could throw in his direction for years.  He doesn’t need to be liked, and with control over intellectual property like the badge, he doesn’t even need to be the retailer to make money every time club merchandise is sold.  Newco wouldn’t even be able to put the badge on their tickets without his agreement.

In many ways this proposed deal is an inevitable step.  Clubs are enormous merchandising opportunities, the people who can profit most from this are the retailers.  It is, of course, only inevitable because of the state Sir David Murray left oldco in.  As soon as he handed the keys to a liquidation specialist the game was over.

News in today’s Herald that an S&P study makes Celtic the least likely publicly listed football club in Europe to default is likely to sound a little hollow to some who watched us against Accies on Sunday. There are many ways to build a sustainable and successful football team, but none of them involve spending more than you earn.

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648 Comments

  1. RobertTressell

     

     

    07:58 on 10 October, 2014

     

     

    petec

     

     

    03:16 on 10 October, 2014

     

     

    Nothing changes, who really thinks Blondie wrote the Rapture lyrics.

     

     

    It certainly was not a Christian, I have no clue if Debbie is or not.

     

     

    We are asking so much of so many now, especially as the Foundations have been wrecked, very subtly.

     

    ==============================================

     

    From what point in time are these ‘foundations’ being wrecked? When was the all encompassing good time when Christianity (real genuine Christianity, not political Christianity which in it’s hey day looked a bit like ISIS) dominated the world?

     

     

    Petec my man, I know you are in earnest about this, I know you probably regard me as part of the problem with posts like this, but if you want to know why the world looks like it’s gone belly up you need to look in the direction of Global Capital and Neo Liberalism. There was a short period of time (Post 1945 – 1970 ish) when things in the ‘West’ were reasonably prosperous for many – but even then it was pretty grim in some of the UK’s cities and people still starved in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

     

     

    The reality Petec is that the decent human values proposed by the Gospels of loving neighbour and respecting the planet the almighty gave us are counter to the needs of Capital. There in lies the answer as to why the Gospel is perverted, ignored, belittled and worst of all, manipulated by money men as a justification for their wrong doing.

     

     

    Modern Post 1970′s Neo Liberal Consensus are rubbish BTW…….

     

     

    Have a good day.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     

    I Always take on board what you say. The Gospels have never been perverted though, it is just Man was, well och, ye know what I’m saying.

     

     

    HH

  2. lennon's passion on

    michaelj

     

     

    12:17 on 10 October, 2014

     

     

    Thanks better than a small one.Hope you have a good day know.

     

     

    DEILA is a dud

  3. Classy Anne 525 Muss

     

     

    Twisty

     

    I Fancy big Jim Goldie to bag a few there today

     

    Best of luck

  4. tommytwiststommyturns on

    I’ll go for Nearly Caught in the Cesarewitch (Newm 3:50).

     

     

    Good luck.

     

    T4

  5. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    SADLERS ROCK 350 Newmarket.

     

     

    Long time since it had a mark this low. Though I may soon find out why!

  6. Morning all…………..will give ‘Fire Fighting 3.10 Newmarket’ another go,beaten by neck last week.Good luck.

  7. Daddy or chips

     

    Educate at York or Swivel at Musselburgh:)))

     

    and the coin is spinning

     

     

    SWIVEL 16:50 Musselburgh for me today

  8. Celticrollercoaster supporting Shay,our bhoy wonder along the way on

    Oh we’re all off to York in the Sun….

     

     

    Master of Finance 1.50 York

  9. 16 roads - Celtic über alles... on

    16:00 @ Fairyhouse – Pumped Up Kicks – NAP!

     

     

    Good luck everybody.

     

     

    HH.

  10. Som mes que un club on

    Fleagle.

     

     

    FFS.

     

     

    2 n/r’s on the bounce….

     

     

    Selection to follow……

  11. Lads, apologies to all the napsters.

     

     

    I was stuck up in Glenfinnan & Fort William all day with no mobile signal or internet access, and just got back to Glasgow now.

     

     

    I will check all of the outstanding results tomorrow.

     

     

    My nap has got to be a late one…

     

     

    Muqaawel (Johnston/Norton)

     

    8.20 Wolves

     

     

    Cheers, fleagle1888