As I mentioned in an earlier edition of FF this season the club decided to
effectively abolish the Rangers Supporters Association this summer by
announcing, with no prior consultation, that they would have to have their
clubs register directly with the Ibrox ticket office.
Luckily, in recent years the club who have always been registered directly
with the Ticket Office have been organising themselves but the manner in
which the Supporters Association was treated does not bode well for the
future and is sadly indicative of the contempt with which the support is
held by very senior functionaries at Ibrox.
A few misguided twerps in some of the 'official' clubs were almost
ecstatic about the way in which the Association were treated because of
grudges they have harboured for years. Fools. They have gone for the
Association first - they will be coming after you shortly.
'Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you also.'
USING TICKETS AS A WEAPON
Next season will be worse. They plan to up the percentage of tickets
given on continuous credit to season ticket holders rather than supporters
clubs. But of course the club would rather have us fighting amongst
ourselves than asking hard questions about where stacks of briefs go for
the big games - Cup Finals and Celtic games in particular.
LACK OF FORESIGHT
We have a network of supporters clubs other teams would die for. Terry
Butcher was freaked by it - we had 500 clubs while
their short-term approach the club is killing off a vital cog in what
should be a machine to generate new supporters all over the country and
the world) in an effort to 'make things easier in the Ticket Office.¹
SO WHAT?, I'M NOT AN RSC MEMBER
You might be daft enough to think this doesn¹t bother you - or daft enough
to believe that by strangling the RSCs the club will increase your chance
of getting tickets if you travel by car. Nonsense.
Virtually everyone at some time in their career as a Bear uses an RSC - for travel in
you can¹t get a lift. What are you going to do if your circumstances
change and you can¹t afford a car one day - what will happen if your local
RSC has gone down the tubes? Come crying to FF? It¹ll be too late then.
Whilst the club functionaries continue on their merry way cutting the
throats of the RSCs they have the cheek to send out letters to club
secretaries asking us to become unpaid salesmen for various schemes to
sign up our members for shirts, credit cards, pay-per-view, Rangers Lotto,
etc.
THE TRAVEL CLUB
Will they be able to behave themselves with this one either? Again,
they¹ve made something like £80,000 charging for membership for away
travel. The first trip to
uncertainties but the cost of flying was decent enough. However, we know
from long experience that once they have finally choked the RSCs and
stopped them from running buses the prices will start to rise - rather
than running a decent service at a price which means all Bears would use
it - and hence make them more controllable abroad - you just know they¹ll
hike the prices when the opportunity arises and damn the consequences.
RANGERS CONVENTION?
As part of the 'deal' for the formation of the Supporters Alliance clubs
have been promised a Worldwide Convention where we can all meet the
players. This is not genuine - you can bet your bottom dollar they'll want
you to pay through the nose to meet the players, contrast this with NARSA
Conventions where amongst all the drink and enjoyment they do a lot of
Association business. Rangers are certain to utilise the American
football or basketball model which will see it run as a marketing ploy
rather than a genuine meet the fans. It¹s just another money-making
venture.
Instead we need to see the players at RSC functions every weekend - that
would be a start.