Stadium, please, CQN11 launched today!

1145

Before you start on the subject of the breaking news at the top of the page, we have a VERY important message lower down the page, so make sure you read the whole blog!

Since Rangers first went into administration on St Valentine’s Day 2012 those seeking to phoenix the club have kept their eyes on the critical item – ownership of Ibrox Stadium.  Ultimately it doesn’t really matter who owns intellectual property like the badge or crest design or domain name, if you own Ibrox, you decide who can play football in your stadium, or not, as the case may be.

With wages day approaching, and with creditors having taken recovery steps earlier this month, Rangers International are in urgent need of cash to stave off an insolvency event.  Two groups of potential new investors have failed to come up with the cash necessary to secure control of the club, and the SFA stopped the club from issuing more shares to Mike Ashley, so, as many predicted, Ashley has lodged papers to gain security over Ibrox and Murray Park.  A loan from the affable cockney now seems the club’s only viable option.

The first thing to point out is that this security does not mean Ashley will acquire Ibrox, such an eventuality would only happen if newco Rangers failed to adhere to the terms of any loan secured against it, or both parties agreed to forgive the loan in return for Ibrox being passed to Ashley, with a tenancy agreement being struck.

CQN reported Heads of Terms drawn up in 2012 for the sale of Ibrox and Murray Park, with the leaseback of Ibrox at a rate of £5.4m a year.  It’s worth refreshing some of the options which could be on the table.

An annual rent of £5.4m is a bit steep in return for the estimated £10m-or-so cash necessary to finish the season, but newco may consider living month-to-month like this is unsatisfactory and instead take the opportunity to borrow enough money to see them through the next 18 months, a figure well north of £20m.

With no Hearts (and possibly Hibs) to compete against next season, newco would have an excellent chance of promotion into top-flight football for season 2016-17, with commensurate access to additional revenues.  They would have to pay rent, and learn to survive without profitable merchandising revenue streams, which have already been sold-off, but at least there is a chance they could muster a football budget almost double the size of that oldco had in 1876, their fourth year of business.

Remember what we covered a few weeks ago.  A football club is actually a collection of businesses: merchandising, hospitality, publishing, broadcasting, advertising, property rental, and football.  In business terms, the ‘football’ part is rubbish.  It always loses money and attracts incessant complaints from fans, who are both necessary to keep the venture afloat but always want to see budgets expanded to allow them to live vicariously by reaching whatever ‘next level’ floats their boat.

Merchandising and advertising are hugely profitable, publishing and broadcasting less so, while hospitality is hugely dependent on the vagaries of sporting fortune.  Ashley has merchandising, stadium and possibly shirt advertising.  If he picks up stadium rental income, newco have reached the logical conclusion of where a distressed club ends up- someone will come in and strip away all the profitable revenue streams, leaving some other mug to take flak from fans.

This is the template, more clubs will follow.

Tickets go on sale TODAY for CQN 11, our St Patrick’s Day Dinner event, which this year celebrates the 50Years since Stein, the 50th anniversary of Jock Stein becoming Celtic manager will occur a few days before the event, which takes place in the Kerrydale Suite on Friday 13 March.

Last year, CQteN raised enough money to build three school kitchens in Malawi for Mary’s Meals.  It was a stunning achievement, attendance at the schools has increased by over 30% since the kitchens were built, over 2000 kids are being fed each day, often their only meal of the day.  We’ve told Mary’s Meals we’re going to fund another school kitchen this year, and they have asked us to build at Chibwata Primary School, which has 909 pupils, without any kitchen facility.  The UN regard Malawi as the 17th poorest country in the world, but it is making progress and is fertile territory for targeted aid like this.

We’re going to change the mix from last year but as well as your dinner, there will still be a dance with great singers, you will hear from some former players, and Jock’s biographer, Archie Macpherson, will say a few words on the man.

You can book individual tickets or tables on CQNBookstore (at the bottom of the page).  Any problems, let me know, celticquicknews@gmail.com

It will be another fantastic event, look forward to seeing you there.

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

1,145 Comments

  1. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    I hope everyone enjoys their wee day at the BVCSC

     

     

    I’m off to the pub to get seriously

     

     

    JEALOUS!

  2. BMCUW

     

     

    Think that great Derek ‘n Clive line you mentioned earlier was from the sketch about room service delivering dissidents rather than the desired steak ‘n chips.

     

     

    “If you’re expecting a tip, mate. . . . . .”

  3. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    BEATBHOY

     

     

    I’ve got the album on an iPod. Brilliant at times. I might give it a listen later. Take me back a few years.

  4. FFin’ ideas men will stop at nothing:

     

     

    “We need a list of Cashley’s businesses to boycott

     

    If I know which stores not to shop in, I will go elsewhere.

     

    Tesco will no longer get a penny from me.”

     

    ——

     

    “I will be e-mailing the Chief Exec of Tesco over the weekend to highlight why their brand is now toxic and will post on here for others to do the same (assuming I can find the e-mail address).”

     

    ——

     

    “I must admit I like the dead fish hidden somewhere in the shop idea.

     

    In and out SAS style – job done”

     

    ——

     

    “Boycotts won’t work but negative publicity will. This is what we need to concentrate on and come up with ideas to get the message across. Do you remember when Ratners went bust due to bad publicity?”

     

    ——

     

    “I love the Tesco Ceaser Salad Wrap and Cajun Chicken one too…..just not the same elsewhere”

     

    ——

     

    “7.45 Kick off time. Throw a tennis ball on the pitch. Those inside and outside ( over the blue gates) can participate. Game is live on TV and would have to be stopped to clear the pitch. Simple but effective.”

     

    ——

     

    “We should be storming the front doors and forcibly eject each and every one of the theiving rats occupying our boardroom make a citizens arrest for fraud and hand them over to plod”

  5. twists n turns

     

     

     

    10:06 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

     

    I believe they nicked the headline from Twitter but nevertheless made me laugh, which given I’m recovering from a hernia op was very painful:

     

     

    ” today’s the day the teddy bears have their pitch nicked”

     

    ————————————————————————————

     

    I’m hoping some witty Tims have come up with alternative lyrics for the rest of the song. Might come in handy in a few weeks…

  6. When we look at the shambles in Govan, oh how we should rejoice that we have had people like Fergus, Desmond, Brian Quinn, John Reid, Ian Bankier and Peter Lawwell as custodians of our beloved club.

     

     

    If the usual clique of CQN malcontents, Findlay et al, had had their way over the years, we too would be a ‘basket-case, running around chasing our own tails, looking for bail-outs.

     

     

    As it is, we are in good health, not ‘rolling in cash’, but in complete charge of our own destiny, albeit in an environment that does not match our stature.

     

     

    Of course in the market place that our financial constraints force us to operate, there will always be larger than desirable number of moves that don’t ‘come off’; however the same is also true of those sitting at the ‘high-stakes’ tables of the EPL – of course our detractors conventiently forget this when they denigrate our club.

     

     

    We were told by the Ibrox followers and their sycophants in the media, that the second-tier Championship was to be the centre of attention this season and would provide real competition – how wrong could they have been?

     

     

    And yet as a real challenge emerges in the Premiership, there are those on here using it to ‘rip’ Celtic apart because we are not ten points ahead.

     

     

    We WILL win the league, and who knows the treble, in our,’new broom’ manager’s FIRST season – we are in place to challenge on ALL fronts.

     

     

    Yes we should always be aware what officers of the club are doing in our name, however there are many many clubs, yes even in the ‘bloated’ EPL, who would ‘give their eye teeth’ to have such an honest and dedicated bunch such as ours, in charge of their affairs.

     

     

    I know that the ‘clique’ will personally abuse me for my comments and, as they always do, suggest various names to call me – let me assure them – when one knows that one is righr, it is like a teaspoon of ‘water off a duck’s back’ Forza Celtic

  7. Question, if MA manages to get Ibrox and Murray Park as security against his loan does this put the Contingent Liability issue to bed?

  8. Monaghan1900

     

     

     

    10:15 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

     

    FFin’ ideas men will stop at nothing:

     

     

    “We need a list of Cashley’s businesses to boycott

     

    If I know which stores not to shop in, I will go elsewhere.

     

    Tesco will no longer get a penny from me.”

     

    ——

     

    “I will be e-mailing the Chief Exec of Tesco over the weekend to highlight why their brand is now toxic and will post on here for others to do the same (assuming I can find the e-mail address).”

     

    ——

     

    “I must admit I like the dead fish hidden somewhere in the shop idea.

     

    In and out SAS style – job done”

     

    ——

     

    “Boycotts won’t work but negative publicity will. This is what we need to concentrate on and come up with ideas to get the message across. Do you remember when Ratners went bust due to bad publicity?”

     

    ——

     

    “I love the Tesco Ceaser Salad Wrap and Cajun Chicken one too…..just not the same elsewhere”

     

    ——

     

    “7.45 Kick off time. Throw a tennis ball on the pitch. Those inside and outside ( over the blue gates) can participate. Game is live on TV and would have to be stopped to clear the pitch. Simple but effective.”

     

    ——

     

    “We should be storming the front doors and forcibly eject each and every one of the theiving rats occupying our boardroom make a citizens arrest for fraud and hand them over to plod”

     

    ——————————————————————–

     

    I thought your last post from the frontier was funny, but I think comments 3 and 5 above are up there with the best. Really really funny. Have an image now of the SAS in balaclavas tearing around with bags of fish… :-)))

  9. P67 , declared at the tail end of summer that preparation for next year’s champions league campaign started there and then.

     

    Fast forward , we now have an unforseen title challenge with a packed fixture list.

     

    Kris Commons is unhappy with the contract offer.

     

    £250k seems beyond our limit for a player

     

    with capabilities ( hitting the bye line , crossing a good ball , scoring the odd goal) not often blessed with in the current squad

     

     

    We continue to pay high wages to players not in the managers plans.

     

    The preparation looks more like being the previous brinkmanship.

     

    Last minute.com.

  10. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    MONAGHAN 1900

     

     

    I think the tennis balls idea is a goer. Good thinking on their part.

     

     

    In these times of economic uncertainty,I appreciate that cash can be a bit tight. And Poundland don’t do tennis balls.

     

     

    The cheapest ones are here

     

     

    http://www.sportsdirect.com/tennis/tennis-balls

     

     

    Always happy to help…

  11. Monaghan 1900

     

     

    How stupid are they?

     

     

    They should be hiding tennis balls in Tesco, and throwing dead fish on the pitch.

     

     

    I think they’ve started acting on this already, as I saw some dead fish in Tesco this morning.

     

     

    They seemed to have forgotten the ‘hidden’ part, though!

  12. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    ALFIE NOAKES

     

     

    Ffs,even my Mum isnae right all the time.

     

     

    Get off yer self-righteous high horse and have a look at reality before it deals you a sore one.

  13. Monaghan1900-a few good bhoys interloping ,added to comments akin to early Viz like material.HH

  14. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    Monaghan1900

     

     

    Hahaha, dead fish hidden, tennis balls thrown from outside the ground ! In and out sas style.

     

    Thanks for that mate, their ignorance and stupidity never ceases to amaze

     

     

    HH

  15. pedrocaravanachio67 on

    frankmarker

     

     

    10:22 on 16 January, 2015

     

    Sky 10.16

     

    Looks like Shaun Maloney

     

    Switch from Wigan to Leicester is off

     

    ————

     

     

    Yip, I heard he picked up an injury doing his medical :-)

  16. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    PEDROCARAVANACHIO67

     

     

    Ah,the hit-and-run one-liner.

     

     

    A thing of beauty,if I may say so!

  17. The “policy” we use trying to approach the CLQ’s in recent years,has been one of gross negligence IMO.We had a big warning when scraping past The Karagandy Arms a couple of years back.Still we sign diddies on loan,on the last day of the Window,and put them straight in to the team.The CL money,enhanced by the BT contract,is around £21 mil for Celtic to reach the Group Stage,and it’s still amateur hour at CP.

  18. pedrocaravanachio67

     

     

     

    10:26 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

     

    frankmarker

     

     

    10:22 on 16 January, 2015

     

    Sky 10.16

     

    Looks like Shaun Maloney

     

    Switch from Wigan to Leicester is off

     

    ————

     

     

    Yip, I heard he picked up an injury doing his medical :-)

     

    —————————————–

     

    “Wee” Shaun used to stay in the flat upstairs from me. He’s bigger than he looks on the telly!

  19. sixtaeseven - je suis charlie on

    Monaghan1900

     

     

    You must be making those up !!!

     

     

    “I must admit I like the dead fish hidden somewhere in the shop idea.

     

    In and out SAS style – job done”

     

     

    Ha ha ha ha

  20. Why do certain posters on here put- for no apparent reason – words like clique in inverted commas. Kev Bhungle loves doing this, does it change the meaning of the word or what? perplexed csc H H Hebcelt

  21. sixtaeseven - je suis charlie on

    “7.45 Kick off time. Throw a tennis ball on the pitch. Those inside and outside ( over the blue gates) can participate. Game is live on TV and would have to be stopped to clear the pitch. Simple but effective.”

     

     

    Tears rolling down my face…. “over the blue gates” ….

     

     

    Ha ha ha ha

  22. hebcelt

     

     

     

    10:31 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

     

    Why do certain posters on here put- for no apparent reason – words like clique in inverted commas. Kev Bhungle loves doing this, does it change the meaning of the word or what? perplexed csc H H Hebcelt

     

    ————————————————————

     

    Absalootly. Some of the “grammar” on, here is, “attrocious”.

     

     

    Affoot…

  23. beatbhoy

     

     

     

    10:33 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

     

    Shaun Maloney is 1.70m tall/small.

     

    ————————————————-

     

    Really?? I must be shorter than I previously thought then!

  24. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    !BADA BING! 1030

     

     

    After Karagandy I breathed a sigh of relief. We all did. None more than PL.

     

     

    I reckoned the one good thing to come out of it was that having come so close to disaster,he would never be so stupid again.

     

     

    WRONG! He viewed it as a successful initiative,and therefore the future…

     

     

    Get the eejit away from football matters,back the manager,build the team. THAT is the future.

  25. Inter

     

     

    Much media hype that they will sign Mario Suarez from Atletico Madrid today.I have no idea if he is cup tied.

     

     

    Beautiful day in Siracusa .22 degrees at 11 40.

  26. Alfie Noakes

     

     

    10:18 on 16 January, 2015

     

     

    When we look at the shambles in Govan, oh how we should rejoice that we have had people like Fergus, Desmond, Brian Quinn, John Reid, Ian Bankier and Peter Lawwell as custodians of our beloved club.

     

     

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

     

     

    In the main, I actually agree with you, On the otherhand, Celtic need to get some better players in pronto but that is easier said than done in such a diddy league.