How much did our demotion hurt us?

[Virtuoso 27,180]

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How Much Did Our Demotion Hurt Us?

Written by: 1972

Wednesday, 4th May 2016

When I compared aspects of support and attitudes in Scottish football to our English brothers yesterday, the reference to the infamous 5 way agreement sparked anger once again at a shameful episode in the recent history of Scottish Football.

Of course, we at VB have covered the 5 way agreement before, and the shameful conduct of SFA Chief Stewart Regan during “negotiations”.

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/stewart-regans-succulent-lamb.html

No one to date has effectively captured exactly what that decision to demote us has cost the club over the last 4 years, and I’m no mathematician, but I hope you’ll excuse me laying out some of the impacts as I see it.

At a time when Scottish Football should have pulled together for the greater good, those consumed by hatred and jealousy tried to damage our club beyond repair, regardless of the possible consequences for the game, or even for their own clubs.

The club is still here, it’s back in the top division, and it’s thanks to us as supporters, and the timely intervention of Dave King and the 3 bears, aswell as a fantastic football management team, that we are in a better position than we could have been, however, we do still remain at a disadvantage in August, due to 4 years of diminished earnings caused by the demotion of our club to the bottom tier.

So, what have we lost?

-As mentioned yesterday, the SPL 2011 prize money was withheld – (£2.1M)

-Loss of Euro Competition. Even counting for early exits, a minimum earning over 4 seasons in qualification rounds could have been in the region of (£4M). Had we had Champions League qualification, we would have earned up to (£40M)

-Value to sponsors. Our marketability to sponsors has been impacted heavily, with our current main sponsorship deals falling far short of our normal Premiership status would attract. Given our higher attendances and higher audience figures, we would normally be attracting similar figures to Celtic, if not higher. Celtic’s current main sponsorships with New Balance, Magners and Dafabet dwarf our deals with 32Red, Puma and Sports Direct, with next season’s delta likely to be in the region of £8M. The delta over the last 4 years with previous sponsors I estimate at approximately (£19M)

-Ticketing Prices. Rangers prices dropped by approximately a third and have remained 20% lower than Premiership prices this season. I estimate that, even with the fluctuation in attendances, this has cost the club approximately (£8M)

-Combined SPL/tv money. The TV deal was re-negotiated during our absence from the Premier league with a sponsor finally attracted in 2015, so the Premier League winners earn 2.8M, with second place earning approximately £2M. Rangers earnings were approximately £700k against possible earnings of £8-11M (7.3-10.3M)

-Loss of 2012 squad – With Rangers cast in to the wilderness in the summer of 2012, and later demoted to the 3rd division, many international players of value left the club, with said players advised by the SPFA to secure their futures elsewhere. The prospect of 3rd division football (or no football at all, given our status was not granted until 3 days before the season started) didn’t appeal, and we lost a conservative estimate of (£25M) worth of players

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear we have lost anywhere between £65M and £104M during this period away from the top flight, as well as 4 possible Premier league titles that have gone to our biggest rivals across the city.

So, it’s crystal clear that we have not just been punished, but we have been punished on an unimaginable scale, during a period that the club was possibly a victim of fraud not once but twice.

Those across the city, and within the SPFL that still agitate for further punishment for Rangers, have overstepped the mark by a considerable distance, and my view is that they should consider themselves more than fortunate that they have caused such damage to the club, and enabled a platform to be built for Celtic to dominate in our absence.

They could and should have put light years between the clubs, but that’s for Celtic’s management to ponder over.

For our part, my view is that we should be reminding the SPFL when they pursue a £250k fine, that we have a legitimate claim for loss of earnings of up to £104M.

Seems Fair?

 

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/article.php?i=106&a=how-much-did-our-demotion-hurt-us?

[Guest]

It cost us everything listed and so much more.

Im a much more bitter fan than I was before, used to have a wee soft spot for teams like Morton and Hearts, now i pretty much hate every team in Scotland, esp SPL teams.

Its certainly effected my attitude towards the national game, I used to want a more competitive league, with Scottish Football maybe one day getting the type of money to allow Scottish teams to compete in Europe, now, as long as Rangers are ok, the rest of scottish football can die for all I care.

Its affected other fans too, but instead of seeing the error of their ways they are bitter at the fact they made the wrong decision, and instead of blaming their own fans or boards they blame us.

Get it right up the lot of them.

[cascadeshrimp 1,451]

Brilliant read,

We've also lost out in terms of monetary value of the squad i.e Lee Wallace would be worth a lot more with 4 years of Scotland caps behind him(no laughing at the back),Dean Shiels may have played more for Northern Ireland and Barry Mackay might have been capped etc

i hope we have also lost that "old firm" tag.

We never want our club associated with that sickness across the city. 

[Shuggy 1,308]

I've always wondered what we would have done if the SFL clubs voted "No" to letting us into SFL3. English leagues?

 

[one55 1,510]

also don't forget our reputation. there was something the other day with Warburton saying that some players he spoke to were reluctant to join us because of admin/demotion. people out there think we're still going through those kind of problems and that we're a shell of our former selves. getting back into the premiership is the first step in fixing that. our game against that lot in the semi final will have done a lot to show that we're on our way back. a season back in the premiership will improve our reputation more. returning to european football is crucial for us. we need to let people know that we are now a premiership team again and that we can compete in europe. 

5 minutes ago, Shuggy said:

I've always wondered what we would have done if the SFL clubs voted "No" to letting us into SFL3. English leagues?

i thought they said they wouldn't have took us? anyway, it's something i'd much rather not think about.

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

It started what will eventually lead to the death of Scottish football as we used to know it, killed by its own hatred  

Where we go from there is anyone's guess, hopefully a European league. 

[Escobar 13,676]

Not as much as it will hurt Dundee Hibs

Sorry, I'm still laughin'!

[Thermopylae 15,286]

We have come back invigorated and that will last a long time 

[WishartsAshes 1,137]

It has to be remembered that most, if not all, of that money would have been spent as quickly as we earned it and possibly before we earned it in some cases. So while that money was lost to us then, we would not have had that money today anyway.

Having said that, we are still not making and spending as much money today as we could if we had not been treated so harshly.

In financial terms, we can right off those losses.

The bigger problem, now that we're back in the top division, is the damage that's been done to the game as a whole. We're returning to a league that's in a far worse condition than when we left it. The problems within Scottish football will not be resolved simply by the return of Rangers. It's a sobering thought that we're back among the short-sighted hatefilled rats (minus 2, of course) that sought to destroy us with scant regard to the damage they were doing to themselves and the national game.

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

Bluntly, the monetary cost although interesting doesn't really mean much to me. It's the less tangible things like inability to get another 4 titles and add to our 54 as well as not being able to compete in Europe.

 

 

[The Famous Rangers 7]

The biggest thing it's cost us is our dignity

[cushynumber 25,178]

5 minutes ago, The Famous Rangers said:

The biggest thing it's cost us is our dignity

dont worry i've got a ship called that.

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, The Famous Rangers said:

The biggest thing it's cost us is our dignity

We lost our dignity aye?

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

1 hour ago, Jack The Flipper said:

Bluntly, the monetary cost although interesting doesn't really mean much to me. It's the less tangible things like inability to get another 4 titles and add to our 54 as well as not being able to compete in Europe.

 

 

 

[mearns loyal 2,711]

I shudder to think how much of that lost revenue would have been spunked on player transfers and contracts by our previous management who would have continued the buy our way to trophies philosophy. It would have been like giving a toddler a cup full of petrol and a box of matches to play with...

[Copland bear 7,966]

After all the battles over the past 4 years every game at Ibrox will be like a cup final now we are back.

 

I hate the lot of them including the national team who I used to go watch when I was younger. 

 

Rangers are the only club who will be seeing my money with my 2 books as for away games they can shove their tickets up their arses.  

[The Famous Rangers 7]

14 minutes ago, Willis said:

We lost our dignity aye?

We became the laughing stock of the laughing stock league of the world (Scottish football) and have had our history and past achievements questioned by many so yes

[peter huistra 1,740]

we gained more than we lost in my opinion , we seen the true colors of our competitors and the sheer hatred they had for our club . 

[Corky True Legend 2,682]

And we galvanised our support to pull together again, whether at home or abroad. No other club in Scotland, probably the world, could have pulled in the attendances in the 4th tier as we did.

[Prso's headband 35,338]

20 minutes ago, The Famous Rangers said:

We became the laughing stock of the laughing stock league of the world (Scottish football) and have had our history and past achievements questioned by many so yes

Wit? The laughing lasted about 3 month till St Mirren Hibs Hearts got demoted, the tv deal stopped, the sponsor stopped until we got to a meaningful semi, then they realised what they'd done. 

Past achievements questioned by small minded fenian cunts who liked to try to draw the boot till we outplayed their tarrier team 3 weeks ago. No questions about that now is there

[The Famous Rangers 7]

1 minute ago, Prso's headband said:

Wit? The laughing lasted about 3 month till St Mirren Hibs Hearts got demoted, the tv deal stopped, the sponsor stopped until we got to a meaningful semi, then they realised what they'd done. 

Past achievements questioned by small minded fenian cunts who liked to try to draw the boot till we outplayed their tarrier team 3 weeks ago. No questions about that now is there

We've had the pish ripped right out us for the best part of 4 years, and if you think it's just the taigs that question us your sadly mistaken

[Howsitgoing 4,281]

Currently were a team on the up, playing attractive football which is bringing us trophys. Undoubtably Rangers will be back to its rightful place as the top team in Scottish football, I just believe that the way it has happened has allowed this to happen quicker than it would of if we stayed in. Predominantly because the rest of Scottish (supposedly) top football teams have weakened whilst we have progressed. 

[plumbGER 24,518]

26 minutes ago, The Famous Rangers said:

We became the laughing stock of the laughing stock league of the world (Scottish football) and have had our history and past achievements questioned by many so yes

Hi Rangers Rab,you could have at least used a new avatar haha

[minstral 5,375]

The great thing is we held our heads up high, despite all the hatred towards our club and fans. They have stolen our money, and tried to steal our titles, which they failed to do. They also tried to crush our club into dust and failed, we are still here and always will be, and as we say, The Cry Was No Surrender. which we never did.

[The Famous Rangers 7]

Just now, plumbGER said:

Hi Rangers Rab,you could have at least used a new avatar haha

What