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Interview with Bisgrove


eskbankloyal

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First thoughts when I saw Tottenham, USA and Rangers was NFL games at Ibrox the I saw Robertson was involved which means we'd  probably get CFL shite. 

 

Seriously guy has some good ideas, let's see if he can capitalise on the Rangers/SG  brand and follow thru.  #55 Would help.

 

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Don't give them hits:

 

 

 

James Bisgrove's international Rangers mission revealed as commercial boss bids to expand US brand

The former UEFA executive will meet with sports teams across the pond as the club attempts to branch out around the globe.

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By

Gary Ralston

23:15, 14 OCT 2019

Rangers commercial boss James Bisgrove has jetted to the United States as the Ibrox club bid to expand its business brand.

Former UEFA executive Bisgrove will spend this week meeting with leading sports teams as he aims to forge commercial partnerships and boost the Ibrox fan experience.

Disgraced ex-director Imran Ahmad and chief executive Charles Green were ridiculed seven years ago when they claimed the club were in talks with the Dallas Cowboys over a tie-up.

The Texans denied ever holding discussions, but this time a visit to an NFL franchise is part of the itinerary.

Bisgrove will also meet with organisations from the MLS and its feeder league, the USL

Rangers are bidding to expand their business reach in North America after recently concluding a two-year-deal with leading Indian club Bengaluru FC.

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Bisgrove also wants to study best in practice stadium designs and function as part of the ongoing modernisation of Ibrox as Rangers prepare to mark their 150th anniversary in 2022.

He said: “The plan is to build our international strategy around North America and India moving forward.

“The objective of the visit is to draw upon learnings and inspiration that can enhance and modernise the Ibrox stadium fan experience and discuss commercial partnership opportunities.

“We’re meeting a few clubs and with a few potential commercial partners to gauge the opportunities to build an audience there.

“We have a fantastic fanbase in Scotland and it must continue to be the focus, but there are opportunities internationally and that has been the nature of my experience before.

Rangers Managing Director Stewart Robertson and Mandar Tamhane of Bengaluru FC announce a new partnership between the two clubs (Image: SNS Group)

“We’ll be mostly on the west coast and hopefully when we return we can be a little more concrete.

“I don’t want to pre-empt anything until we’ve had those conversations, but it’s a signal of the club’s intentions to build our international network and fan base.

“We can look at the Bengaluru FC partnership as a model. It’s predicated on football, with soccer schools and academies, but it also has a commercial element that allows us to engage with audiences there.

 

“One of the great assets is the strength of the Rangers brand and when you align that with the strength of manager Steven Gerrard’s brand, you have some fantastic ingredients to resonate the club in international markets.

“The potential is in unlocking those opportunities. We see a real opportunity in India, with 1.3 billion people and the popularity of football growing all the time.

“I don’t think any other European club has really moved into India and cracked it, whereas China is saturated.

The club hope to draw on Steven Gerrard's international profile (Image: DAILY RECORD)

“The other market we have identified is North America. I’m a great believer you have to go out there and meet individuals on the ground to put those plans in place.”

The Rangers board have spent £5 million on Ibrox in recent seasons after years of under-investment and new look electronic sponsorship boards will be introduced early in the new year.

Bisgrove added: “We’re putting in a new LED system around the first tier, similar to those in operation at venues such as Tottenham and Twickenham. It will look great from a sponsorship platform perspective and something top tier sponsors will want to engage with.”

Bisgrove joined Rangers four months ago as commercial and marketing director from Team, the marketing arm of UEFA that oversees the commercial aspects of the Champions League and Europa League. He has previously worked with Emirates, Betfair and Royal Bank of Scotland.

 

Rangers are also planning further upgrades of their stadium and are currently in discussions about increasing the capacity of Ibrox, as exclusively revealed by Record Sport.

There are also plans to transform Edmiston House into a retail centre, ticket office, events space and museum ahead of 2022, while the current Rangers megastore could become a sports bar.

Bisgrove added: “We want to draw on the best of class when we are looking at the type of investment that may come to life here in terms of the Ibrox infrastructure.

“The visit to the US will also give us the opportunity to look at brand new stadia and how they use modern technology - everything from hospitality and beer pourage to interactive museums.

“We really see an opportunity to elevate the fan experience and increase the dwell time of people when they come to the stadium.”

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The USA thing smacks of Dallas Cowboys debacle but there is a large & growing interest in football, Americans love all things Red, White & Blue so you never know.

In think the more important part of the article is the ongoing developments of Ibrox.

I love the idea of upper level LED display, shame it can't wrap around the stadium, maybe one day.

Mega store into Sports bar sounds great but I still don't see how it works as outside of match days it becomes dead space unless it's available for rent.

There's obviously some real appetite to develop Edminston House into sonething really practical. I'm assuming event space will be hall rental kind of thing, maybe another Donald Findlay party evening.

I hope the club can do something about the approach to the stadium from the subway as that's the busiest route & needs a facelift.

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28 minutes ago, Ace said:

The USA thing smacks of Dallas Cowboys debacle but there is a large & growing interest in football, Americans love all things Red, White & Blue so you never know.

In think the more important part of the article is the ongoing developments of Ibrox.

I love the idea of upper level LED display, shame it can't wrap around the stadium, maybe one day.

Mega store into Sports bar sounds great but I still don't see how it works as outside of match days it becomes dead space unless it's available for rent.

There's obviously some real appetite to develop Edminston House into sonething really practical. I'm assuming event space will be hall rental kind of thing, maybe another Donald Findlay party evening.

I hope the club can do something about the approach to the stadium from the subway as that's the busiest route & needs a facelift.

I know what you mean about business being slow on match days. But if I was in the town with mates and we knew the Rangers Sports bar was just 10 mins away on the Subway I’m sure we would all head out for a a few pints. You also have the Edmiston House area being developed which also brings in more people and they need somewhere to grab some food and a drink. 

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10 hours ago, Courtyard Bear said:

Take it this the guy you were talking about mate??

Sounds like he knows his game, hopefully he gets free reign to put his plans in place. 

It is, aye.

it’s obviously a bit of a PR puff piece but it does give a little insight into some of the things that are going on 

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Global marketing has always been a weak aspect in our recent history in my opinion. We know that we have a global fan base but that hasn’t translated into significant overseas investment, especially during our recent troubles. If you look at how the EPL has brought in massive cash, part of it is the TV package but also much of it is due to how the EPL is marketed to a global audience. Everything we can do to make people on the other side of the world want to invest or want to watch us can only be a good thing. 

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As someone who follows the MLS we can learn a lot from the way it’s ran. What was basically an amateur league 10 years ago has quickly turned around. I follow Orlando city who are absolute dugshite right now but after going to one of their games the match day experience was superb. You then have teams like Atlanta Utd who after only existing for 2-3 years managed to win the cup and league, have 50,000 season ticket holders and sell out every game with someone outstanding players.These teams know how to market themselves and every season the standard of play is improving 

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