At a recent Rangers shareholder meeting a fan took to his feet and delivered an eloquent but ominous warning to the new US owners of the club. "Be very careful - as much as we're loyal, if this rot continues, the atmosphere in the crowd will lead to people not turning up and buying what you're selling us." As the fan handed back the microphone and sat back down, his message was met with loud applause from around 800 of his fellow shareholders. The exchange took place four days before those same supporters watched their side crash out of the Europa League with a draw 1-1 against Jagiellonia Bialystok at Ibrox.
The result was a grim reflection of the side's poor start to the season under new manager Derek McInnes. And as the former Hearts manager tries to figure out how to turn things around on the pitch, the board would be wise to remember the shareholder warning. If fans decide that they're not buying what the new consortium is selling them, the new owners will struggle to balance the books.
As Rangers struggle on the pitch, in the boardroom there will be an understanding that they need fan loyalty if they're going to fix it. In short, financially, with the product failing, the owners need to shore up customer confidence. As previous regimes of the club have found to their cost, that is easier said than done.
Confidence comes through winning and winning brings in the cash. What's going wrong for Rangers and McInnes? McInnes' nightmare start continues as Rangers exit Europa League Rangers seek striker & are 'playing with fire' in defence Given the financial landscape of Scottish football, the key revenue generators for the top clubs fall into two categories: European participation and player trading.
Over the past five years, and excluding matchday revenues, Rangers have taken in roughly £18m from European participation - in the last accounts, that equated to around 19% of overall turnover. Win bonuses and costs of competing have to be taken into account but to make that kind of money this year, they would have to win the Conference League. "For every pound you make in the Europa Conference League, you can make £2 in the Europa League and £7 in the Champions League," said Kieran Maguire from the Price of Football website.
"And of course in the Conference League you're only playing three home games as opposed to four in the Europa League, so there will be a loss of matchday income as well. "On the positive side, if you do qualify for the Europa Conference league stage, you should have a better chance of progressing further." Rangers, of course, must defeat Czech side Jablonec over two legs to secure league stage football and even consider progressing further. Assuming the Ibrox club do progress, they could still be looking at a shortfall of around £8m from European football compared to recent seasons.
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