copy and paste is essential for Record articles. do not give them the hits.
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
(Image: Daily Record - Tony Nicoletti)
Rangers are bidding to expand their business reach in North America after recently concluding a two-year-deal with leading Indian club Bengaluru FC.
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.
READ MORE
“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.
READ MORE
“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.
(Image: SNS)
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.”