By Mark Dingwall
We were on our travels and very lucky to see a little of what goes on behind the scenes at Rapid Vienna.
The New Rapid Vienna stadium includes a club shop – considering our merchandising troubles I thought it would be good to have wee wander around and see what sort of goodies visiting Bears can bring home.
Obviously, the preponderance of green is a problem! However, they’ve got some great items and considering that Rangers once used to lead the way in terms of quantity and quality in the UK retail football sales it was interesting to compare their offer with what Sports Direct are currently punting in the Ibrox Megastore.
As an aside – an old pal who used to work in Frasers tells me her former colleagues were dismayed to discover a delivery of Lonsdale gear into the Glasgow store last week. Changed days.
Merchandising was once the jewel in the Rangers commercial crown – bringing in between three and four million in profit each year before Murray and Bain started outsourcing and selling the family silver. That retail team and corporate memory gone forever. Another black mark in the big book for that dynamic duo.
A wee video tour is on The Gers TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqU-NT3pvDg&t=72s
