Rangers Commission Feasibility Studies Over Ibrox Expansion Proposals (Evening Times)

xd182

xd182

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STEWART ROBERTSON has confirmed Rangers are drawing up proposals for a redevelopment of Ibrox that could see an increase in the capacity of the stadium.

The Light Blues board have invested significant sums to bring their iconic home back up to standard in recent times following years of neglect by previous regimes.

Robertson was asked about future works at the RIFC plc Annual General Meeting on Tuesday and said: “We have looked at various options over the last six months or so and that (moving the corner screens) is one of them. It is probably the most expensive option because of the amount of steelwork and support work that we would need to do with the existing stands.

“However, we are looking at a couple of feasibility projects at the moment and one of those would involve lowering the pitch. The feasibility study there is to check where the water table is and see how far down it goes. We will have the results of that in a couple of months and we are also looking at potentially extending the Govan Stand by three rows as well.

“To go back to the point I made earlier, it is supply and demand. It is getting the balance between works that are feasible and make sense within the budgets we have got and expanding a new tier of the stand.”

Rangers were involved in a row with Glasgow City Council over the redevelopment of the Ibrox Complex into a fan zone last year. The Charity Foundation have now secured a 25-year lease on the ground and Managing Director Robertson is pleased with progress.

He said: “It will also give us additional facilities for the Soccer Schools, the Girls’ Academy and we are looking to rely the pitch there to give them a good facility to train on. Relations with the council are getting better, they have definitely moved on massively in the last 15 months and that is relations with the officers of the Council.

“They have been good with us, I have to say, since we had that stand-off last August.”
 
ibroxbound said:
Certainly is still a no go in the complex facing the stadium.
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Despite that Robertson kisses their arses?
"Relations with the council are getting better, they have definitely moved on massively in the last 15 months and that is relations with the officers of the Council.

“They have been good with us, I have to say, since we had that stand-off last August.”

Good with us because we gave them money?
 
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I think the Copland would be the ideal stand to redevelop .

plenty of space around it and we could rework it to have the overhang and the bar 72 option and substantially increase capacity .

cost dependent we could follow suit with the broomloan .
 
More fans for the away schemes and CCCS..........

Wonder how much it would add with the 3 rows of the Govan. Doesn't sound a lot but you never know, roughly the size of the Bar 72 seats?

Removing the screens probably needs done, it's the only way to substantially increase the capacity imo. Steel work will be an issue but then we would need to price these areas as restricted view, possibly. Would depend on how much load bearing steel there is. Wonder how many restricted season tickets would need sold over how many years to make back the initial price for that work.

Good to see the club looking into it. I don't think lowering the pitch will work any. The c-value (sightline value) would be affected, as mentioned above, seeing the dig outs and linesman on the main stand side from some parts of the club deck is near impossible.
 
Commentator said:
Despite that Robertson kisses their arses?
"Relations with the council are getting better, they have definitely moved on massively in the last 15 months and that is relations with the officers of the Council.

“They have been good with us, I have to say, since we had that stand-off last August.”
Good with us because we gave them money?
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It’s telling though that he explicitly mentions relations being good with the officers of the council. That is the council staff, not the councillors.
 
Commentator said:
Despite that Robertson kisses their arses?
"Relations with the council are getting better, they have definitely moved on massively in the last 15 months and that is relations with the officers of the Council.

“They have been good with us, I have to say, since we had that stand-off last August.”
Good with us because we gave them money?
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I think the part you haven’t highlighted is the most important - with officers if the council. Not the elected councillors
 
What's clear is the fact that Rangers need to expand Ibrox in order to have a better chance of competing. My money would be on additional rows being added to the Govan, and then some sort of remodelling of the corners. Sightlines would probably mean that lowering the pitch isn't really an option.
 
bert said:
Ideal plan would be demolish the govan/copland and broomloan stands and start again
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Ideal being if we had unlimited money.

Unfortunately no major developments would bring a return on the investment. Whilst it would be nicer to have more seats if these seats don't make money back, what's the point?
 
I dint think removing the screens would be a good idea. There are lots of seats within Ibrox that don’t have a great view of certain areas of the pitch and the screens are very handy for them. Way way back I used to sit in a seat in the west enclosure where the view of the Broomloan end was poor so the screens were vital.
 
Think of your average season (league only) you’ll have what? 19 matches?

In theory If they have around 10k more than us at the majority of these matches, say around £30 a ticket and you’re looking at 300k difference per home game, £5,700,000 per season.
I know the figures are rough, but that’s a massive chunk of money.
 
Danny_1872 said:
Third tier on the Govan stand with any luck.
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This would seem the most obvious place where the stadium could be expanded. In my mind I'd like the club to explore the possibility of retaining the lower tiers of the three newer stands but making the upper tiers on those stands bigger; with the added incentive of doing something with the facades of those three stands also.
 
I get the feeling the corners would be too expensive from what he says. A bit ironic that the stadium our design was based on managed to do it years ago.

Another three rows on the Govan - where? Under Bar 72?

Lowering the pitch - would there need to be some kind of sealing work undertaken re the water table? I suppose that would allow extra rows at the front of all four stands?
 
bert said:
Ideal plan would be demolish the govan/copland and broomloan stands and start again
Click to expand...

And where do we put 15,000 season ticket holders in the meantime? And, if not, what do we do without circa £6m season ticket money? And that's on top of financing two new stands at £xm?

This isn't Football Manager where you just click a button and the stadium is redeveloped. There are real world impacts here.
 
Calvinist said:
I think the Copland would be the ideal stand to redevelop .

plenty of space around it and we could rework it to have the overhang and the bar 72 option and substantially increase capacity .

cost dependent we could follow suit with the broomloan .
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A bar 72 overhang solution for Copland and broomloan would I reckon only provide 6 or 700 new seats.
 
a_weir said:
Ideal being if we had unlimited money.

Unfortunately no major developments would bring a return on the investment. Whilst it would be nicer to have more seats if these seats don't make money back, what's the point?
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As you say, cost and return on investment is critical to the club at the moment. All options should be considered when it comes to increasing capacity and generating revenue, with demand for tickets outstripping supply at the moment.

One option that could be considered (I know this probably won't sit well with many who lost out with a similar scheme in the Club Deck), is partly fund increase in capacity via some form of debenture scheme. With so many on the waiting list for season tickets at the moment, myself included, it may be an option worth considering and interest could canvassed amongst those on the waiting list to assess interest in such a scheme and it's feasability.
 
Calvinist said:
I think the Copland would be the ideal stand to redevelop .
plenty of space around it and we could rework it to have the overhang and the bar 72 option and substantially increase capacity .

cost dependent we could follow suit with the broomloan .
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We can't as you can see here...

SJ Stand has an overhang.
gn145.png


Copland and Broomloan hasn't.
gn144.png
 
The idea of rebuilding the stands would be hideously expensive. I'd suggest also that taking out the screens and putting seats in would be beyond our means in all honesty. The former would cost hundreds of millions and the latter tens of millions. The 'payback' period would run to several decades. I don't see either happening.

We might get some tinkering at the edges for a couple of thousand seats, be that pitch lowering (I would be surprised if that is feasible either due to sight lines) or re-configuring the existing seating in some way (the most probable option).

I suspect those expecting anything major simply don't understand the costs involved. The only way it becomes remotely feasible is with some sort of sponsorship as per Arsenal's Emirates Stadium - and I think, right now, we'd struggle to attract that sort of a deal.
 
Get some skyhooks and attach them to the clouds and these can easily be fixed with cables to floating stands on all 4 sides, this would double the capacity and be a first in a new generation of stadium design. I believe this has been done in Japan on a smaller scale
 
JW1988 said:
Think of your average season (league only) you’ll have what? 19 matches?

In theory If they have around 10k more than us at the majority of these matches, say around £30 a ticket and you’re looking at 300k difference per home game, £5,700,000 per season.
I know the figures are rough, but that’s a massive chunk of money.
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Would cost (if you look at what Man U did in similar fashion over a decade ago) 15 times that return. I dunno if anyone is going to accept that sort of outlay for a return that doesn't happen for the best part of two decades.
 
allygaitken said:
Get some skyhooks and attach them to the clouds and these can easily be fixed with cables to floating stands on all 4 sides, this would double the capacity and be a first in a new generation of stadium design. I believe this has been done in Japan on a smaller scale
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I think the weight of the SNPs economic plan for an iScotland is heavier than the load those sky hooks can carry.
 
Lurgan Loyal said:
How much could the capacity rise by removing the big screens?
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5000, I think?

So if we're looking at say £400 after VAT per year revenue from each seat, that's £2m a year.

So any works would have to be less than £10m to make a profit within 5 years.
 
Taki said:
And where do we put 15,000 season ticket holders in the meantime? And, if not, what do we do without circa £6m season ticket money? And that's on top of financing two new stands at £xm?

This isn't Football Manager where you just click a button and the stadium is redeveloped. There are real world impacts here.
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If the three stands are demolished then naturally its a few years away from Ibrox. I know its a shithole but but would be following Construction Programme Celtic used when they redeveloped for not alot of cash

Quick google suggests thier costs where £40Mill in 1998 which is around £60Mill today. Extra 10,000 seats brings in extra £5Mill per season plus Bar72 situations enhanced hospitality/match day experience all adding to revenue.
 
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bert said:
If the three stands are demolished then naturally its a few years away from Ibrox. I know its a shithole but but would be following Construction Programme Celtic used when they redeveloped for not alot of cash

Quick google suggests thier costs where £40Mill in 1998 which is around £60Mill today. Extra 10,000 seats brings in extra £5Mill per season plus Bar72 situations enhanced hospitality/match day experience all adding to revenue.
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On the other hand, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium cost £390m (they had to borrow £260m seemingly) and Tottenham's Stadium cost £1000m.:eek: Wembley was almost £1000m as well.

We wouldn't want a Meccano-set build.

It's not happening.
 
Valley Bluenose said:
On the other hand, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium cost £390m and Tottenham's Stadium cost £1000m.:eek:

We wouldn't want a Meccano-set build.
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Exactly, our near 40 year old stands likely have a similar life span left as the Tattiedome.

Built on the cheap by Barr Construction (largely - someone else did the inital works) for the cheap.
 
Valley Bluenose said:
On the other hand, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium cost £390m and Tottenham's Stadium cost £1000m.:eek:

We wouldn't want a Meccano-set build.
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Fully accept that - but it is an example of one option. The stands are 40 years old and wont last forever without massive upkeep costs every season
 
Any renovation will be small scale compared to what a lot on here expect. It won’t meet demand and if we win 55 that demand will only get higher. Do the pools’ contributions to stadium upgrades now fall under stadium expansion?
 
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