Mike Ashley & Rangers Football Club

It's sure looking that way!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29783348

Subtle eh?

 

Am I the only one thinking it's a non brainier for both Ashley and rangers. He provides the cash to get rangers back where they should be. Champions league. In return he gets advertisement of his shiity brand. Rangers get champions league footy at a snip of the price it would take nufc. Sweet. It costs Ashley hardly anything. Makes perfect commercial sense. Rangers will benefit hugely from this.

 

Same here bud, I was thinking this benefits everybody involved, unlike us which is a kind of one sided love-affair.

I very much doubt after nearly going bust numerous times, and playing in the five-a-side leagues in Scotland for a year or two, the average Gers fan will care when they get to the SPL, get into the champions league, but never ever progress as a club or team.

Shame they weren't available before we were

 

With Llambias at the Rangers helm it's looking nailed-on for an Ashley takeover.

It just means for sure that Ashley will be looking to (if he hasn't already) sell Newcastle United.

 

Exactly. Don't forget the Rangers brand is far reaching too. Its not just the CL exposure. Think of all the ex pats across the in the US or Austrailia. They have a huge global following, its a big score for Mike. He will benefit and so will they.

 

Could it not be that in 2 years time Rangers may be in champs lge and he is guaranteed big money if that is the case. Therefore, you, Newcastle may become a Rangers feeder club.

 

Even if we win the CL, which will never happen whilst we compete in Scotland, there is still more money in the English set up than there is in the CL.

If Rangers were to win the CL, they'd get something in the region of £40m tops. Meanwhile, Cardiff got £60m for getting relegated out of the PL.

The only reason left is that he re-brands Rangers/Ibrox etc with his SD logos and gets exposure in Europe for an assault on the European markets because he won't get any money out of Rangers especially compared to the cash NUFC generate through their involvement in the PL and the exposure that entails.

 

Even though it's a poor WUM attempt I'll answer as if it was a genuine question...No!

He can't own both. If he wants to own more than 10%of Rangers than he has to sell his controlling stake in us first. Until he does that then the SFA will not allow him to take control of Rangers.

Secondly, the appeal of Rangers will be the opportunity at European exposure for relatively little investment. For us to become a feeder club then you would need Rangers to be paying higher wages and transfer fees than we do - which would immediately bar Rangers from Europe under Financial Fair Play rules, and would take away the original appeal of Rangers being a low cost investment.

Getting back to more serious points, I think a lot of people are over-playing how much of a cert it would be for investment to turn into Champion's League football. Scotland only has one Champion's League spot, and that spot has to negotiate three qualifying rounds to reach the group stages (including the possibility of an unlucky draw putting them against some fairly decent national champions). Winning the Scottish League will be much much easier than winning the English league - but never ever a certainty.

History shows that if Ashley took over at Rangers then he will look to have Rangers operating within their financial means which will make it even harder to be sure of gaining that top spot and also being good enough to make the group stages. The income of Scottish clubs (in comparison to down here) is so small that even if Ashley did decide to act out of character and break the bank then he has limited scope on how much to spend without falling foul of financial fair play rules, and so being barred from Europe.

Champions League games also have fairly strict rules on stadium advertising. He would gain exposure, but nothing like he would at domestic games. Champions League cameras have a funny habit of managing to include the pitch side advertising (which UEFA controls) and yet managing to avoid club owned stadium advertising.

My alternative theory is that with Ashley already owning the club badge, club shops, club shirt rights and the naming rights for Ibrox, as well as having his loan secured against buildings and car-parks, then he is already effectively in financial control of the money-making and advertising side of Rangers - and all for a pittance. He doesn't need to own anymore of them to get what he wants. The only reason for him to gain more control is to force Rangers to get their house in order, become financially sound, and so provide a long-term prospect for national and international advertising. We already know its the advertising he's after - and he already has it. Once he appoints his own men on the board then he will start to see his policies happening - regardless of how much of the club he owns.

 

If he does buy Rangers... Will he take Pards with him?

 

No, we have a diddy in charge as it is, thanks.

Our record goalscorer is a rotten manager, sound familiar?

 

I have no idea what you're getting at there

 

I'd be more worried that your record goalscorer used to be a mackem!

 

This is a very astute comment.

 

Good to see you back posting fella. We've missed your insights.

 

Here's a thread on RangersMedia discussing your idea (tho think they came up with it themselves to be fair).

http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=275243&st=0

Some fairly realistic answers on there.

It's also interesting reading other threads on there about Ashley. Looks like the vast majority are pro-Ashley and saying that the various supporters groups calling for a boycott are very much in the minority.

 

And here's a thread discussing the best way forward for Mike and whether Sunderland might ever be of interest...

http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/280852-Southampton-8-vs-0-Sunderland

 

Rangers Media are in the minority within the Rangers forum community. These same guys backed all previous disastrous regimes that has turned our club into a soap opera.

Whereas before, there was a doubt as to the quality of persons in charge at Rangers as all you could view is the present, with Ashley, we have Toon fans to use as a benchmark to measure Ashley's credentials as a club owner, and there is a 99% majority of Toon fans dislike him and wish he was gone.

Rangers Media are ignorant and a collection of some of the stupidest Rangers fans in the world.

 

My favourite comment on the RangersMedia bit is "McCoist will be gutted Ben Arfa went to Hull, you know how he loves his fat strikers"

Cue copious amounts rage from the HBA fanboys

 

The only reason I've based anything on what they say is because they are the only Rangers forum I could find that allowed visitors to view. I think the others are only available if you are signed up cos of all the hassle there was over sectarian posts etc (as there was with Celtic).

Are they in the minority with the overall fanbase too, or just with the other forums? (genuinely don't know).

 

I find exclusive fans forums that belong to any particular football team to be very partisan and not really a general overview of the fanbase in general.

Most Rangers fans have been badly shaken by these past 6 years events and having a wealthy 'benefactor', on the face of it, would be welcome compared to what we've been through with administration, liquidation, booted out of the league after we were subjected to a criminal act when Craig Whyte bought the club for a pound and raped it.

In saying that, there has been numerous Rangers men who've tried and failed to actually "invest" in Rangers, just for their love of the club, and are continually knocked back by the faceless owners via their proxy rights. We've have Dave King, Paul Murray, Brian Kennedy and Jim McColl all willing to take control of the club but the current incumbents deny the club actual investment and instead take Ashley's loan which is secured against the Club's assets.

This is just a very brief summary of what has gone on these past years, there is obviously a lot more meat on the bones but you get the gist of it.