The directors of Sevco have been forced into an embarrassing climb-down over ticket pricing for the Premiership play-off qualifier against Qyeen of the South.
A week after stating that season ticket holders would get into the match free of charge the League One champions have announced that anyone going to the game a week on Sunday will be charged £5.
With 20% of the gate money going on VAT and the remainder, before expenses, being split between the home club and the SPFL it will take a crowd of 40,000 for the Ibrox side to break even.
Today’s statement read: “TICKETS for the SPFL Premiership quarter-final play-off match against Queen of the South at Ibrox on Sunday, May 17 are now on sale.
“The Club is pleased to announce that after careful consideration tickets for the above match are priced at £5 across the board.
“Several pricing structures, including allowing season-ticket holders free admission with other fans paying between £5 and £20, were studied but it is believed the most favourable option for the Club and its supporters is a flat price of £5.
“This means the Club can cover the costs of staging the match – between £70,000 and £80,000 – and at the same time comply with the SPFL rule, which demands a 50% levy from gate receipts after VAT (but not the Club’s costs) has been deducted. The cost to the Club of allowing season-ticket holders free admission would have been substantial after accounting for the levy that would be due to the SPFL.
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The media speculation mentioned was in relation to last week’s bold declaration that season ticket holders would be admitted free of charge.
On April 28 they stated: “THE Board of Rangers International Football Club has today informed the SPFL of their intention that Rangers season ticket holders will not be charged to attend the play off matches at Ibrox.
“These games are to be played between May 9 and May 31 and the Club believes supporters who bought tickets for the entire season should not be asked to pay more.
“It is fundamentally wrong to ask supporters to pay for season tickets and then, at the end of the campaign, expect them to pay again to watch what will now be the most important matches of that same season.”
Last week’s fundamentally wrong pricing is this week’s fiver, the winner of the tie will meet Hibs in the final qualifier with the winner of that tie playing the second bottom team in the Premiership for a place in next season’s top tier.
