SPL chairman have revealed that Armageddon has been avoided.
Led by Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster the prophets of doom were out in force predicting the end for football as we know it.
Having tried everything to provide Rangers with a place in the SPL Doncaster warned of the chaos as he prepared to negotiate broadcasting deals having talked down the quality of the product.
In terms of attendances Celtic have been the biggest losers following the demise of Rangers but Neil Lennon’s side are no longer financially handicapped as they attempt to reach the Champions League with this season’s European income likely to be in the region of £20m with SPL clubs also getting a payout for providing a Champions League competitor.
St Mirren and Kilmarnock were two of the clubs that feared the worst with the Ayrshire abstaining from the SPL vote and St Mirren publicly questioning the viability of a league without the team from Govan.
Kilmarnock’s opening game of the season was against Club 12 with chairman Michael Johnston first to suffer the loss of Rangers with Dundee visiting Rugby Park.
“We need more people to come to games and I don’t know what more Kenny (Shiels) can do to attract a crowd,” Johnstone told the Daily Record.
“We’ve compensated for the loss of Rangers by selling a teenager, Matthew Kennedy, to Everton and getting a sell-on fee when Connor Sammon went from Wigan to Derby County.
“Season tickets have gone up by 10 per cent after an aggressive marketing campaign that involved our manager actually hand delivering books to supporters at one stage.”
St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour has been attempting to sell the club for two years and admits that the Paisley side are largely unaffected by Rangers demise.
“It’s still the hard core who follow the team in Paisley,” Gilmour confirmed. “But I don’t think any of us really believed anything other than that would happen in any case.
“What happened with Rangers is now history and the rest of us have to move on. I’m not ecstatic over the present but I’m not despondent where the future is concerned.”
Despite the humiliation of losing 5-1 to Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final Hibs are enjoying an upturn on and off the pitch with a win at home to St Mirren taking Pat Fenlon’s side to the top of the SPL.
“The unprecedented events of the summer created high levels of uncertainty within Scottish football,” chairman Rod Petrie admitted. “The uncertainty was created by the actions of those people running one club but the financial impact has been felt by every club.
“In the final analysis we’ve sold an extra 1,000 season tickets. The challenge for the club is to get everyone back on board and attending matches.
“Home attendances are growing from the low level reached following two years of under-performance on the pitch.”
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What a basis for survival. It seems these people only had a car because two big brothers paid for it. Time to look at how to buy of your own. If you are all such brilliant business gurus then get your marketing and PR machines into gear and stop bitching and greetin’.
H H
Do none of these chairman see the opportunity for them to grab at least 2nd place, enjoy a lengthy cup run and give the fans a glimpse of success.
Instead some still see empty seats (Twice a season at most) says more about them that they would rather be unsuccessful but rake in a ££’s twice a season….they deserve all they get.
Get your own house in order, rely on no-one else to pay your bills. Actually get out and SELL the club to the hard core fans, schools instead of expecting others to bail your club out for poor housekeeping.