Warning from Blue Knights comes home to roost

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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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2,690 Comments

  1. the new promotion rules for the championship were adopted for one reason and one reason only.

     

    to help sevco.

     

    sevco can finish fourth and still win promotion.

     

    everything in scottish football is organised to help the hun.

  2. weet weet weet(GBWO) on

    zico-maltese bhoy

     

     

    How you pal

     

     

    Are you and the mrs doing the tour

     

     

    Take care mate

     

     

    HH

  3. Lennon n Mc....Mjallby on

    I actually cant wait to hear huns being reminded of their deceased status when were gubbin’ them at Randall and Hopkirk Park.

     

     

    Would prefer never to see them again mind.

  4. mike in toronto

     

     

    Mark Murphy did a Nat King Cole lp if I remember correctly…

     

     

    He must be over 80 now, I saw him in London early 90’s and he was good age then..

  5. Corkcelt- tis a lovely country.

     

    My maw just back from a wee visit and always brings me Galtee cheese and Emerald sweeties :-)

     

     

    That scene with Liam Neeson where the boy is shot for treason is pretty harrowing.

     

     

    But you have to know your history.

  6. dixiedeans

     

     

    17:02 on 6 September, 2014

     

    I was at Love St.Got bit and head butted off of a horse queing up outside.It was won of my willa wont days,but as it turns out its always I cannot no day,What a fkn day that was

     

     

    —–/

     

     

    Why was the horse queuing outside?!?

     

     

    My best mate’s a copper. His older brother was daft and Celtic daft. Liked a drink. Too much. Got nicked a few times.

     

     

    Best was when a polis horse stood on his foot at CP so he butted the horse!

     

     

    HH jamesgang

  7. bournesouprecipe on

    maxbhoy

     

     

    Maybe none, rules are rules…….. “but common sense might prevail”

     

     

    UnionBears

  8. Some brilliant goals in here up to the point where the Hun died……

     

     

    Henrik’s chip 6-2 was the best I think…….Naka’s not far behind it though.

     

     

    ► 26:39► 26:39

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0USZNOAQc

     

    21 Aug 2012 – Uploaded by Celtic FC 1888

     

    Every Celtic goal against Rangers between 1997 and 2012, including ones that were wrongly …

  9. mike in toronto on

    starry …. I haven’t heard it . For some reason, MM never hit me the way some other singers did… but now you have got me thinking I have to go back and listen to some of his stuff …

     

     

    NKC died the year I was born, so obviously I never saw him live… but saw his brother Freddy play at a little jazz club once … if you closed your eyes, you would have thought it was Nat.

  10. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    maxbhoy

     

     

    17:17 on 6 September, 2014

     

     

    It would need to be 25, since they keep saying they are the same club, and 15 would confirm they are not ….15 OR 25 would shaft them anyway :)

  11. bournesouprecipe on

    ‘why was the horse queuing outside?’

     

     

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  12. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on

    Dallas Dallas

     

     

     

    No The removal McGinley’s were cousins some way down the line from our lot.

     

     

    My Grandfather ( Steptoe ) had a grocers on Kilbowie Road right opposite Singers factory.

     

     

    Other relations were McCreadies and Frizes

     

     

     

    Can I just say thanks to everyone who has made a donation for the walk.

     

     

    As I said earlier I will be doing something different to raise some money for the hospice and am working on that at the moment.

     

     

    Thanks again

  13. cigalasporfavor on

    Sipsini and Hamiltontim. Thanks for the traditional welcome

     

     

    roberttressell 13:29. Do you mean philistine as described in the urban dictionary?–a conformist In everything they do.A person who is obsessed with sports,sex(among the high school and college set in particular)etc….

     

     

    Your really good,or am I an open book?

     

     

    junglejim. Thanks,I,ll try Esca next time.

  14. It’s a myth that Albert Kidd was / is a big Tim, simply not true. I was in his class at school, Bobby Glennie who captained Dundee was also in the same class and Dave Narey was in the year above us. Albert not once went to a Celtic game with the other big Tims, not once do I recall him ever taking about Celtic.

     

    Nice thought, but trust me he wasn’t a Celt.

  15. Terry mac……

     

     

    Haven’t been in the Pot Still for at least 25 years…..

     

     

    Was a cracking little pub back then.

     

     

    When did the Waterson family ( used to own the Burns’ Howff too) sell it off?…….I presume they did sell it?

     

     

    I think Paul Waterson went on to chair the Licensing Board at on point.

  16. Benjybhoy…..

     

     

    Albert Kidd……

     

     

    I bow to your superior knowledge of someone you went to school with , but I heard it mentioned by lots of different people that he was a huge Celtic fan that’s all……..Obviously was a myth then.

  17. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Terry mac

     

    I like the bon accords but haven’t been back since the oranges where in it in their crimplene suits after their bigot fest.

     

    think ill start using pot still

  18. BRTH

     

     

    Read back and seen your dad’s story, thoroughly enjoyed his account of travelling to his first game, particularly him passing time on the tram counting pawn shops, it’s amazing how things come full circle, as once again we now have a fairly sizeable collection of pawn/loan shops which were few and far between in the 70s to the 90s.

  19. bournesouprecipe on

    We could always make ole Albert an honorary Celt,….. always reminds be of wee Bobby Ball.

  20. weet weet weet(GBWO) on

    benjybhoy mul

     

     

    Bobby glennie

     

     

    Wiz ma pals cousin,good guy, went tits up

     

     

    HH

  21. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on

    I was in the Pot Still for a pint about a year ago.

     

     

    Still a great wee boozer.

     

     

    My father in law used to have the Mitre Bar in town and the State bar though he named it The His Nibs.

  22. weet weet weet

     

     

    How r u getting on my friend.Yes we r on our European tour.Hectic but enjoyable.We r in Munich at the moment.Spread the word the last two nights in Salzburg.Hope you are well.HH.

  23. ryecatcher

     

    17:20 on

     

    6 September, 2014

     

    Some brilliant goals in here up to the point where the Hun died……

     

     

    Henrik’s chip 6-2 was the best I think…….Naka’s not far behind it though.

     

    —————————————————

     

    Thanks for posting that link, 26+ minutes of wonderful memories. Henke`s was the best.

     

    Would be great if it was only memories, but they will be back at some point, in some guise or other. No matter how much shit they are in they will never be allowed to fade out. If I never ever had to see them again I`d be happy. Vote YO.

  24. Ive been thinking about Paisely many moons ago. As I was being abused by an equine hun and rider in front of a couple of 100 Tims I sort of had ma wheesht(which is no like me)didnt want to cause any bother I dont think that many who were there thought the diets would capitulate but as per usual the we turned up to watch the Celtic.

     

    Win lose or draw.

     

    Faithfull thru and thru.

  25. brogan rogan trevino and hogan supports oscar knox, mackenzie furniss and anyone else who fights neuroblastoma

     

     

    17:47 on 6 September, 2014

     

    I was in the Pot Still for a pint about a year ago.

     

     

    Still a great wee boozer.

     

     

    My father in law used to have the Mitre Bar in town and the State bar though he named it The His Nibs.

     

     

    ———

     

     

    Is that The State just off Sauchiehall St? Walter Smith had that for years.

  26. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on

    HT

     

     

    Yes Walter did have it along with what I knew as the Norsk and the one on Dumbarton Road.

     

     

    When the father in law had it would be the 80’s and as I say he called it His Nibs

  27. Hhmmm…..ErNAY not been on all day.

     

     

    Then I saw the news there and there’s a big comic convention at the SECC where attendees dress up as their heroes.

     

     

    Wonder who he went as???? ;-)

  28. Macjay

     

     

    Your earlier comment about the GB was typical. From a man who puts nothing into our club it was actually laughable.

  29. weet weet weet(GBWO) on

    zico-maltese bhoy

     

     

    Did I miss your night Ian

     

     

    Feck,if I did

     

     

    Take care mate

     

     

    HH