Four days after Dave King was confirmed as a financial pariah with the Cold Shoulder Daily Record readers are being informed of the Ibrox club’s bold moves into the North American market.
That will be the same market where IMG high flyer Alastair Johnston has been using his contact book for the last 20 years to tap into the club’s global brand. In 2015 US-based Richard Gough was appointed as the club’s Global Ambassador.
Recently installed commercial chief James Bisgrove has jetted off to the States, telling Record readers:
“The plan is to build our international strategy around North America and India moving forward. The objective of the visit is to draw upon learnings and inspiration that can enhance and modernise the Ibrox stadium fan experience and discuss commercial partnership opportunities. We’re meeting a few clubs and with a few potential commercial partners to gauge the opportunities to build an audience there.
We have a fantastic fanbase in Scotland and it must continue to be the focus, but there are opportunities internationally and that has been the nature of my experience before.We’ll be mostly on the west coast and hopefully when we return we can be a little more concrete. I don’t want to pre-empt anything until we’ve had those conversations, but it’s a signal of the club’s intentions to build our international network and fan base.
A quick google search from any prospective business partner is likely to highlight two recent stand closures by UEFA due to racist actions from supporters as well as the scenes from Manchester in 2008.
Alongside King’s cold shoulder status an emergency loan from Close Brothers is likely to be a massive red flag to investors while January’s pay-out to Sports Direct is expected to leave finances in a very distressed state.
Predictably the Record story added:
Rangers are also planning further upgrades of their stadium and are currently in discussions about increasing the capacity of Ibrox, as exclusively revealed by Record Sport. There are also plans to transform Edmiston House into a retail centre, ticket office, events space and museum ahead of 2022, while the current Rangers megastore could become a sports bar.