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.
[calameo code=000390171586f6fbaa2ba lang=en page=122 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
2,690 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
Friesdorfer
They only became Scottish banks when they lost, like Andy Murray or the Scottish Football or Rugby teams.
ernie lynch
12:15 on 8 September, 2014
Seems to matter to the no voters more than anyone else which based upon the make up of much of the no coalition I find really bizarre.
mayanman
12:02 on 8 September, 2014
Weeminger;
“We won’t be spending billions on an absolutely unnecessary nuclear deterrent”
The Referendum is on Independence only. The first Elected Scottish Government would determine the future of Trident. Are you keen to join NATO with their Nukes? Are you another NIMBY?
I told you last night that that only 3 of the 28 NATO members have nuclear weapons. Are you hard of hearing or do FACTS annoy you?
Historically Nationalism has been a bad thing IMO…
Ellbhoy
HS2 is hailed as being good for business. Get to the West Midlands from London 40 minutes quicker to seal the deal.
Tell you what is quicker than that – Skype and an e-mail
But winning a multi-million contract and getting any kick backs wont come from sending an e-mail.
You won’t hear any business man saying ‘Ye know what, I will be 40 minutes late, close a few food banks.’
The system stinks, Scots have had enough
Ernie’s on to a seat in the house of Lord’s if this all goes well. Ermin Vermin
So, that’s another sponger on the way that we will have to feed, clothe, house, and transport for the rest of our lives. I wish there was some way of ridding ourselves of this bunch of parasites. Hmmmm!
HH
End London rule. YES
Bawsman
12:19 on 8 September, 2014
‘I am a Republican socialist who prefers less borders rather than more.’
###
I’m not sure if I’m a republican socialist pedant, or a pedantic republican socialist, but I prefer fewer borders rather than more.
new article posted.
Y E S
kevjungle is a celtic fan who will be sold no ‘pup’ by no ‘bored’.
10:54 on 8 September, 2014
Get the feeling the clique on here think they are above certain people on the blog.
Gerrybhoy
missed your post last night, must’ve gone to bed.
Only 3 countries have NUKES then, hmm, then that’s ok then. Another NIMBY
The No.13 Shorts
12:22 on 8 September, 2014
Ernie’s on to a seat in the house of Lord’s if this all goes well. Ermin Vermin
Ernie is a leg end in his own lunchtime (based on his Pravda-like commemts so far).
Just watched and listened to the mainstream party politicos on Daily Politics. They just don’t get it. Scottish people who want to vote yes accused by Labour of being part of an “insurgency.” You couldn’t make it up. Their arrogance knows no bounds. We will be well shot of the lot of them.
Snake Plissken
12:13 on 8 September, 2014
‘I must not be genetically programmed to get it.’
##
Is lack of intelligence genetically programmed?
I don’t think it is.
Krugman is, as far as I can see, a well respected economist.
And, so far as I know, is entirely disinterested.
If he thinks people should fear what the nats are proposing then perhaps it’s worth a moment’s thought.
Maybe even subject the issue to a little critical analysis.
After all, if the plan is robust, it will survive consideration.
ernie lynch
12:15 on
8 September, 2014
The census of 2011 showed that 15.9% of the Scottish population identified themselves as Roman Catholic, lets not split hairs and call it 16%.
In the two SNP led Scottish Parliaments there have been a total of 11 different cabinet ministers. Now you could suggest that with 16% of 11 being 1.76 we should have had 1 or possibly even 2 Catholic cabinet ministers by now. If the party was reflective of the population. However you know as well as I do, that this is not a good way to calculate that kind of thing.
Hypothetically let’s say the next 3 appointees to the cabinet are all Catholic, that would mean 20% of cabinet ministers had been Catholic, does that then mean Catholics have been unfairly prominent?
sydneytim
Seems sensible enough ;)
gerrybhoy
1. The Scottish people will get exactly what they vote for in general elections in an independent Scotland. – Under the current system, they don’t.
2. Scotland can make independent decisions about it’s natural resources (Oil, Gas, Water & Wind power etc;). Under the current system it cannot.
3. Scotland will be able to rid itself of the stationing of weapons of mass destruction on it’s territory. Under the current system, it is unable to do that.
There is much more but you asked for three. Here they are.
———————————————————————————-
Number 1 seems to be the top reason for most but it’s not always the case that Scotland doesn’t always get the Government of their choice. Historically Scotland votes Labour at General elections and prior to this recent Coalition we had 12 years of Labour. So Scotland in essence got what it voted for. Really what you’re saying is you want Labour to permanently govern Scotland?
2) Our main natural resources Oil. Is no doubt vitally important but it’s also extremely volatile.
What we produce fluctuates greatly year on year and this will certainly have ramifications for our economy.
3) As we will have to agree to disagree as for me Trident is a necessary evil for our security
All the best!
justafan
I to have a vague memory of my old man not being happy with Evans
But I have no idea why
HH
hoopy-do
12:13 on 8 September, 2014
I liked your top 3 the best :)
HH!
An outdated institution that does not reside in Scotland, that dictates it’s wishes upon a populace that didn’t vote for it… Ever
You can call that the House of Commons & as an added bonus the House of Lords becomes a thing of the past too… imagine!
Do people think the English financially backed Just Say No or else (Better Together) Campaign want to keep Scotland due to our good looks and sparkling wit? Maybe we have something else that they want… any guesses what?
test