o Newco Rangers have £1.2m in the bank and the courts have just arrested £620k, leaving circa £600k available. In early September. Football clubs have their cash high water mark in June, after season ticket money arrives, with the low-point coming the month before, so is liquidation just around the corner? Not necessarily.
The club has a couple of significant problems: it’s short of money and has significant monthly outgoings, but it also has assets, and may have buyers for those assets.
Murray Park is an outrageous folly and should be sold immediately. Protests to secure it have been acts of self-harm; swallow your pride and sell. This is a football club in acute danger, pretentions of grandeur, and Murray Park is exactly that, should be shed immediately. Albion car park and the Edmiston House office building are superfluous property assets and could be sold without stopping football operations.
Mike Ashley has an asset Newco want back – stadium naming rights. He could repatriate these rights as a sweetener in a deal to buy Murray Park, Albion and Edmiston. Newco could leaseback the training ground, Sports Direct would be able to build a stonking big tracksuit shop on the Albion site and the club could boast to fans that they negotiated back Ibrox naming rights.
This might sound like a bitter pill but it will keep the lights on a little longer, makes irrefutable sense and is relatively painless. The original Rangers existed for over a century without Murray Park, one of Scotland’s best run topflight football clubs’ Motherwell, train on a school sports field, Newco Rangers could do the same. A little humility right now would be good for them.
There remains a problem: cumulatively, these assets are unlikely to be worth more than the £4m the club hope to raise in their proposed (not underwritten) share issue. This is still not enough to see them through the season. Expenditure for the last season accounts are available, 2012-13, averaged close to £3m per month. The club will need close to £20m between now and season ticket renewal time.
Creditors must be paid or the club will go into administration. To pay creditors, without sufficient income or credit, more assets must be sold, specifically Ibrox.
If they go into administration before selling Ibrox, don’t expect events to follow a similar path to the one Duff & Phelps took when administering Oldco Rangers. Duff & Phelps were appointed by a liquidation specialist with a specific remit. They even tried to sign a player. Newco in administration would follow a more conventional route: redundancies would take place and assets would be sold to pay creditors.
Ibrox is the only significant asset administrators would have to sell. It could generate enough to pay creditors in full and get the club through to the end of the season. Finding a buyer would be the main challenge, but as we all now know, the club can stand or fall, but whoever controls Ibrox can continue to get a rental return from successor club.
An administrator could dismiss the manager and some other highly paid staff, reducing costs to a more manageable level, and pay ordinary creditors in full.
Newco Rangers need to finish in the top four to be in with a chance of promotion, which would be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one with the right manager in place. They could be a top flight club next season.
This is not how fans wanted the Newco to progress but after they were unable to raise more than the £5.5m Charles Green’s consortium put on the table to buy Rangers assets, the future was mapped out.
Costs for police, insurance, electricity, IT, office staff, security and the million other items needed by a football club who occasionally host 50,000 people will be no less than circa £17m p.a – before you employ a footballer.
Newco’s income could rise from the £19m they earned in season 2012-13 (though possibly not this season), but there’s just not enough money to run a football team. Scottish Premiership football would be a chastening experience, the levels of austerity required going forward would be draconian.
Fans can protest that they are watching the same old club all they like, but it’s not going to look anything like the Rangers you or I have ever known – and I knew them under John Greig. And here’s the nub, the most optimistic financial projections are based on Newco selling the same number of tickets Oldco sold. Would a Newco competing alongside St Mirren and Kilmarnock sell any more than the 23,000 season tickets they’ve sold this year?
The long-term financial fundamentals remain unchanged. In 2012 the Blue Knights concluded there was no viable future for football at Ibrox if Rangers were liquidated. Two years later all the evidence reaffirms that position. This is a dead multi-club franchise.
Looking forward to the Maestro Match tomorrow. See you there.
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Surely the bloo Ordure won’t let them go down the pan again, again.
Guid riddance to thems, ( again).
Scottish football needs strong antibiotics so that this infection goes and stays gone.
Every day in life at some point, and it may only be a few seconds, a smile crosses my face as I think of their demise.
The ‘peepil’ indeed.
HH
If rangers/sevco/Huns disappear for good how much more downsizing will Pedro crack on with. Since the Huns died the team has got worse as time has gone on, crowds are dropping ( hopefully with the signings in this window they will get higher) and Pedro is saying we lose £10m a season without them.
My fear is the drop in standards will continue until we’re winning the league easily doing nothing in Europe and playing in front of 15-20 thousand supporters because it’s so boring. HH
P67
Wasn’t the Letham loan secured against the car park or edmiston house ? If that was the case, they need to repay those loans first before it becomes a sellable asset ? Or do the normal rules not apply (aye, what normal rules ?)
BT
Hope you are recovering well mate
South Of Tunis 12.39 hrs.
“Maybe the Deady Bears could simply renege on all that debt and then print their own money ? .
Might struggle to be allowed to play in Europe but hey ho.”
—————————————————————-
Touché : They would never, never ever be able to compete with us. No club / company would let them pay anything up. Cash only, possibly “Disney” money for a Mickey Mouse club would be appropriate
.
Of course some spiv may be prepared to lend them money at Wonga rates.
HH.
Paul67
Would it be possible, ok realistic and beneficial for Celtic to buy Auchenhowie ?
Tony,
Have you answered my question yet?
Snake.
Elections often throw up anomalies in people voting for or against something for different reasons.
It doesn’t lessen the person voting.
CQN Coupon so far…
The Token Tim – Peterborough
Lennybhoy – Fleetwood
Jobo – Bradford
Blantyretim – Bristol City
Robcfc
cheers, made it to my bed this morning, been on the couch since getting home Thursday..
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family
Pity, I have that bridge to cross one of these days too.
TKR if it helps the back issues that I think I remember you saying were created by the knee will change your life for the better.
My brother in law had both done over a period of three years, no pain, doesn’t limp or have any issues, his football playing days are over, but so are mine anyway!
Take care……..
RobinBhoy
Thanks robinbhoy, as you said last year it can put the tnr back by 15 years but needs must…
Hugh Keevins had the right idea….keep the huns in the league with sanctions.
20 points deduction ‘every’ season until the – £140 million is paid back in full.
But, the huns have took the craw road and, slipped under the radar for 3 years
and will come back the victims, claiming to be ‘done’ out of 3 years CL money.
Keevins was right.
The huns would have been paying the £140 million for how long? 5 / 10 years?
Think of all the ‘demolition-derby’ DVD’s that would have been enjoyed through-out
Timdom?
I still think that the Celtic ‘bored’ have downsized the quality of the product on the pitch
so that the huns will be closer to us. imho
Shame on the Thatcherite bassas who run Celtic FC.
The most colourful section of the Celtic ‘support’ The Green Brigade are – imho – banned
oot of CP with all their green & white ‘YES’ banners till the refrendum is past coz, the GB’s expressions wont sit too well with all of Thatchers children on the Celtic ‘bored’!
Effffff thum!
Enough, bye.
Bed time – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
neg anon2
Never said it did.
P67
You have no class.
What a load of point scoring, cheap shot, jibe heavy nonsense.
£17mill pa you really are having a laugh.
Please don’t belive everything PL tells you.
That is a cost base / structure that Wee Eck would be proud off.
When is the analysis of our last 5 months going to appear?
Pravda wasn’t this bad.
brth
my favourite post for a long time.
thanks
And then there were 5…
CQN Coupon so far…
The Token Tim – Peterborough
Lennybhoy – Fleetwood
Jobo – Bradford
Blantyretim – Bristol City
Pogmanthony – Walsall
Good luck to all the cyclist taking part in in the paradise to Cardenden cycle ride.
Proud o ye’s.
madmitch
13:00 on 6 September, 2014
P67
You have no class.
————-
If anyone was ever looking for a definition of irony.
BRTH
Brilliant read mate, very interesting.
On the subject of white elephants …
If MP is so bad then where does that leave L/town?
RD wants a full sized indoor pitch.
Probably happy to sell VvD to fund it.
My question — whete to build it?
My answer is in the East End.
L/town works as an academy.
The training ground should be in the East End.
PL got that one wrong as well.
Quick question for a 120m x 90m enclosed space?
The beany in me suggests £7mill max.
Any thoughts?
Behind the JS stand?
BRT&H,
Lovely piece by your Dad ( RIP ).
Brought back a lot of great memories, not least the old Shamrock bus leaving Cart St. with a motley crew of local characters, many of them long gone.
Like your father I still find it hard to leave Willie Miller out of any ‘best ever’ Celtic eleven.
His only omission from my own personal favourites was the classy Dunky McKay, but I suppose that the Ghod who is Danny McGrain explains why Dunky is overlooked.
Thanks for posting that gem.
One problem with the sale of Murray Park, if it’s such a loss making folly then who would buy it?
A potential buyer would be left with an expensive operational and potentially no customers. It’s not like ibrox which is central to rangers identity, therefore the club could choose to train elsewhere. There’s a limited market for this type of operation, and even more limited for such high end (and high cost) facilities.
A local council, perhaps?
Celtic Park – open to all, except if your seat is in the upper tier.
When I was a wee bhoy (© Billy Connolly) we used to get into Celtic Park as soon as the turnstiles opened we were there, green steel door clanged open,into the East terracing or the Rangers end as it used to be called. You could go wherever you liked, wandering round paradise, deserted except for a few seagulls, some grounds men and the blaring tannoid announcer exercising his vocal grounds, and playing popular songs, of the time.
We tried every vantage point for the best Celtic view and progressed to the Jungle, where we’d stand at the front leaning on to the trackside, and writing Celtic on the gravel with a stick. On another day we’d venture to the back of the Celtic end with a half covered terrace, and a great atmos in the big games. You could climb the steel girders at the back standing on the rails high above the adults, holding on with your arms, as your hands were up your sleeve so not to touch the cold steel on a winters Saturday.
The Jungle grew in popularity in the sixties and seventies as the place to go and on a big night the singing was a never to be forgotten feeling of oneness and pride. Above us only Archie or Arthur perched precariously almost through the roof every time Celtic scored. Swaying room only, ‘the walk on’ was adopted and perfected.
When Fergus McCann saved Celtic and gave us a modern stadium he had a plan to seat 60,000 Celtic fans and that oneness is only complete when Celtic regularly made the North Stand the new jungle tremble. Being run as a customer based ‘business’ and opening half of Celtic Park on the anticipation of perceived demand influences the Celtic support and leads to apathy, which leads to more apathy. Celtic are a football club and the support should be able to walk in off the streets, there are plenty spare seats.
From the League Cup to the Scottish Cup and now to Europe our supporters are being told, don’t bother coming, as we are about to save some money on stewarding, catering and other costs. IMHO this is a very poor marketing strategy for the Celtic support, and a classic example of literal downsizing.
Build it and they will come CSC.
For anyone wanting to attend the Maestro game tomorrow, there will be cash turnstiles open in the Lisbon Lions Stand from 12:30. KO is 2pm.
Bsr,
If the demand is high enough they will open up the other areas surely?
Bourne
I completely agree but I think that it’s the police rather than Celtic who have the issue with cash turnstiles at competitive games.
Sandman
12:36 on 6 September, 2014
Monaghan1900
09:55 on 6 September, 2014
FFin’ ideas men are going to pull them through:
“Have been watching Wall Street and was wondering if this would work .
#####
Can’t help thinking he might have been better off watching The Producers.
SoE
MP is a trophy asset.
I think it could be democratised quite easily.
Two possible scenarios.
Plenty of moneyed punters in the area to build a sports club off it.
Part football part egg chasing.
Other one is a regional performance centre for a publically funded body.
Will Glasgow out grow Scotstoun?
cigalasporfavor
12:17 on 6 September, 2014
First post chaps,on the first anniversary of my first time lurking.
With regards to keeping our new signings hungry,could I suggest taking them to the Metropolitan restaurant in Merchant Square for their meals.
I took two of my boys and the wife,s uncle in there before the Maribor game.
We all ordered pulled pork and mashed potatoes.
10 minutes later the waitress returned and told us the mash had run out.
However,we could choose between boiled,crushed or roasted potatoes.Or chips.
When I realised that she wasn’t,t kidding I asked politely if there was a health and safety issue with the potatoe peeler?
She asked us politely to leave.
Is this normal for a city centre restaurant or is this particular one of a different “persuasion”.?
Anyway w.a.t.p. oops sorry HH…….(almost blew it,first time)
_________
From the tail end of the last blog….hope your not a hun ;))
It’s too easy to stay away from the game now and still see it.
Legally live games. Illegal ones. Hooky streams.
When I was wee you got the cup finals and that was aboot it.
cigalasporfavor
Welcome to CQN.
JOBO.
thanks for explanation.i live in England a lot simpler down here.
BRTH.can I donate via phone please.
Geordie – that’s true but oddly enough the crowds were often not much bigger than now during the 80’s for example. Don’t know when you.grew up but I’m told by.older heads that 60 k crowds for ordinary league games were not the norm.
I recall title run ins in the early/ mid 80’s – no bother getting in, rangers end empty, celtic end half full.
Just some rambling thoughts….
Cigalaaporfavor – you.must be a blue nose. Every good tim knows you canny make may from the same tatties that you make chips, boiled me and crushed tatties.
Outed yerself there philistine….
May =mash
Affordable oot
Cigalasporfavor
Let me recommend Esca, a great wee Italian beside the Tron theatre. Thoroughly enjoyable and great staff.