Supporters clubs act as unofficial ticket sales outlets, provide travel to bring people to Ibrox, act as a social hub to keep fans together (traveling and spending), they recruit and nurture new fans - in short, the 400/500 RSCs provide a free support system to Rangers which other clubs would love to have.
TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Sadly, over the last 20 years or so, the club has taken the RSCs for granted - the success of the Souness Revolution and Nine In A Row years created an internal culture where RSCs were often seen as too Bolshy for their own good and frankly a bit of a handful who could be taken for granted.
The first RSC I was a member of was the Partick Loyal - a superbly-run RSC of the old school. The highlight of the year used to be the Dinner Dance were an appearance by the manager and anything less than 11 players was considered a bit of a disappointment. Sadly, over the last 20 years the appearance of even one fringe player became an hugely unexpected bonus for any RSC function.
We were told that English players didn’t understand the supporters club culture like the Scots - it was all eyewash of course. The management wanted to keep players to themselves and corporate clients and never gave a thought to the long-term effects.
Over the years we’ve see a steady erosion of the rights of RSCs - the number of tickets made available to them both in real terms and as a percentage has been cut and cut. The rise in season ticket ownership an independent travel is often used as an excuse - but it shows a remarkable lack of foresight.
IF YOU WANT RIGHTS YOU’VE GOT TO EARN THEM
There are of course fans who are not and never will be members of or travel with an RSC - and they have every right to expect a chance of a ticket for big games. I’m not arguing against that - what I am saying is that the benefit to the club of RSCs regularly running buses does create a situation where it is both fair and prudent to both allocate a certain extra percentage of tickets to RSC so that it gives them that little edge to ensure they can run buses to all the games.
The computerisation of the RSC database a few years ago means that the club knows exactly who is in an RSC - they can’t be listed as a member of two - and who holds a season ticket - that helps ensure fairness.
But as well as tickets it is the social side of RSCs with which the club needs to help - not to reward pests but to use the power the club has to reward people for their work and give them a boost by ensuring their functions are properly supported and serviced - with visits from players and so on.
It’s all for the greater good in the long term.
I also feel the club has taken things too much for granted and been too parochial. We should be pro-actively helping the formation of clubs and setting standards. If you form a Barcelona FC “penya” and register it at the Camp Nou they expect you to demonstrate what you’ve done over the season for charitable or other good works. For Rangers our network of RSCs could and should be encouraged to expand into areas within Scotland where at the moment we appear weak on the ground but do indeed have a great latent support.
We have a great resource in the thousands of Bears who put in time, money and effort to run RSCs - let’s give them a better helping hand in future.