James Bisgrove have described the restoration of Edmiston House as one of the most exciting projects in European football!
It’s over a decade since the building was last used but the Marketing whizz-kid is expecting it to turn over more than £1m a year in profit.
Bisgrove uses the same jargon and buzzwords as most in the marketing business with strategic partnerships, global reach and fan engagement.
In days of old Dave Murray would leave plans about super casinos, heliports, 6-star hotels and hover pitches but aspirations have been pegged back a little.
For reasons best known to themselves a museum seems to be highly coveted by Ibrox fans with Edmiston House apparently about to host a museum, concert arena, Fanzone and Conference venue.
If you take a step back from Rangers, that has to be one of the most exciting projects in European football. Our aim there is to create a destination really for supporters seven days a week, also a destination for Glasgow in terms of what we can do around conferences and events.
That for us is an opportunity for us to turn a derelict building, lets be honest, a bit of an eyesore at the moment, in and around the Ibrox footprint, into a revenue generating asset.
Within that are a number of pillars. We presented a plan to the board that projected a seven-figure profit per year from that building.
There are a lot of plans which need to fall into place to get to that, the club museum is one of the more exciting projects for us to put in place.
We have been looking at the Hearts museum, the Hampden museum but also looking further afield, the Santiago Bernabeu and the Camp Nou, for something that can bring supporters and also tourists, something really engaging but which can also provide a revenue stream for the club.
It will also have a multi functional, multi-faceted space on the ground floor that can serve as a fan zone on match days. We are looking at a capacity of between 1,500-2,000 supporters that can use that indoor outdoor space to have food and beverage, watch giant screens, entertainment and increase the dwell time at Ibrox.
If it is a 3 o clock kick off, that you have a reason to go at midday with friends and family, have a drink and watch the lunchtime kick off but also when Rangers are not playing at Ibrox, away games if we are playing away at AC Milan in the Champions League at the future, we can create a proper fan park experience.
Bisgrove may find that his plans are put on hold until the claim from Memorial Falls is settled.
