Rangers mount new challenge over merchandise.

[Cutty/Young]

Apparently the matching thing isn't that uncommon in football contracts, at least the link someone posted the other day seemed to suggest that.

https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/a...ghts-from-the-sports-direct-v-rangers-fc-case

Matching Rights

With such sums at stake, suppliers will insist that protections and assurances are in place. As such, most kit licence agreements will usually contain provisions that grant them a preference, or “first right”, to negotiate a renewal of their deal either through a period of exclusivity in which to negotiate an extension or by way of a right of first refusal, otherwise known as a “matching right”, which will entitle them to match any bid that the club receives from a third party. The provision of an exclusivity period is fairly straightforward and non-contentious, the parties simply decide how long the period should last and whether any conditions need to be met to trigger it.

It seems that SD have shafted the club with how onerous the particular contract is though.

Surely if matching a bid does nothing apart from matching the other bid and offers the same terms as the other why on earth would we go with Ashley.

I reckon at one stage the club looked at the distrubution level Ashley had across the UK and took that into account,but we were fucked over by Green and Somers with a deal that suited Ashley rather than Rangers financially.

Any deal should be in the best interests first and foremost for the club and with Ashley being involved it is damaging our club financially,I really don't know why our solicitors are not pushing this through the courts that customers of the club don't wish to deal through Ashleys company and thus has a huge bearing on the club losing money because of his involvement.

The original deal done by Somers and Green wasn't also done in the best interests of Rangers shareholders,something that has to be done in acting on behalf of shareholders,the club nor shareholders certainly didn't come first when they done the deal with Ashley.

 

[Greebo]

Surely if matching a bid does nothing apart from matching the other bid and offers the same terms as the other why on earth would we go with Ashley.

I reckon at one stage the club looked at the distrubution level Ashley had across the UK and took that into account,but we were fucked over by Green and Somers with a deal that suited Ashley rather than Rangers financially.

Any deal should be in the best interests first and foremost for the club and with Ashley being involved it is damaging our club financially,I really don't know why our solicitors are not pushing this through the courts that customers of the club don't wish to deal through Ashleys company and thus has a huge bearing on the club losing money because of his involvement.

The original deal done by Somers and Green wasn't also done in the best interests of Rangers shareholders,something that has to be done in acting on behalf of shareholders,the club nor shareholders certainly didn't come first when they done the deal with Ashley.

The original deal was by way of a joint venture, Rangers Retail Limited. It was set up by Charles Green and was strongly in favour of SD. As I understand it that was a perfectly legitimate contract which both parties signed up to under no duress. Like it or lump it, that happened. If I remember correctly it happened before the company became a PLC.

Dave King was left with that to deal with and I think he did the best he could under almost impossible circumstances. That cost £3m and it is where the club is just now. Clearly with all of the Court case they are trying their best to fix that as well but it isn't going to be easy.

 

[Arkanoid]

I wonder if it is our side who are tying up SDI in litigation until the contract is up next Summer? Just came to me based on us appealing the latest ruling and no real end game, or award cost in sight.
Perhaps any award cost to fatty is being calculated as lower than what we would lose with SD selling and nobody buying our kit, with what Elite/Hummel bring to the coffers. It also allows us time to get more money in the bank with hopefully another successful season and Europa League qualification.
Might be fanciful to think the board have any upper hand or control over these proceedings but if Hummel and elite continue to support us for long term gain, whatever the outcome it surely won't break us

 

[Cutty/Young]

If club 1872 or lionbrand could do it on a greater scale, just thinking of ways round about to stop ashley there and then

Lionbrand don't make what they sell,someone else makes it and they buy it.

If it was so simple then tell me why Rangers don't do it themselves ? Just to put it into perspective,we can't even run a few food stalls inside the stadium and instead that's run by an outside company,more than likely to do with the cost of overheads,maintenance and wages.

So you can imagine the overheads involved by manufacturing on a huge scale our strips,training gear and all other merch,that's why it won't happen,costs of setting all that up would be huge along with all the people involved which could run into hundreds on the payrole.

Pretty sure we tried a similar thing years ago with Diadora and didn't last long because of the expense.

 

[omegaman]

One thing that stands out for me is that the Elite deal means Rangers get 20% of all sales with a minimum of £350k a year. With strips at £60ea, it means we get £12 for every strip sold, and we are guaranteed the equivalent of 29,166 strip sales each year. It’s not the best deal in the world, but it’s better than the scenario we were in before, and no doubt Elite factored in the hassle when the deal was negotiated. Once we get rid of Ashley for good, things will be a lot more!

And yet previously we were told that the re-negotiated deal with the Fat Man gave us a 75/25 split for all merch sold in the Rangers store and a 50/50 split for everything sold in Sports Direct.

Why then have we seemingly found ourselves in an even worse deal with Elite?

 

[Cutty/Young]

The original deal was by way of a joint venture, Rangers Retail Limited. It was set up by Charles Green and was strongly in favour of SD. As I understand it that was a perfectly legitimate contract which both parties signed up to under no duress. Like it or lump it, that happened. If I remember correctly it happened before the company became a PLC.

Dave King was left with that to deal with and I think he did the best he could under almost impossible circumstances. That cost £3m and it is where the club is just now. Clearly with all of the Court case they are trying their best to fix that as well but it isn't going to be easy.

If it was strongly in favour of SD then clearly that wasn't in the best interest of shareholders or the club and the club suffered for years financially due to no one buying anything because of Ashley's involvement.

Didn't King and the other board members agree to a deal with Ashley not that long ago in relation to the retail deal ?

 

[Greebo]

If it was strongly in favour of SD then clearly that wasn't in the best interest of shareholders or the club and the club suffered for years financially due to no one buying anything because of Ashley's involvement.

Didn't King and the other board members agree to a deal with Ashley not that long ago in relation to the retail deal ?

As I said, if I remember correctly the original deal was in place prior to the company becoming a PLC. The major shareholders were Green and Ashley. I have always felt it was set up that way because Green desperately needed investors and Ashley put a load of money in to his company. Which was a private company at the time. It will be in the prospectus.

 

[Boldvale]

Even if the fat c**t spends five million on the mega store not one penny from me it's now a wart stuck on the side of Ibrox I wish it could be cut out

No matter the outcome and statements from Rangers, Ashley will never receive another penny from me. This has went too far to be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. My own self respect would prevent me from ever spending another penny in his shitholes of stores. To cut too the chase, drop dead ya fat bastard.

 

[Greebo]

This is from the PLC prospectus.

"In August 2012 Rangers Retail was formed as a joint venture with major
sports retailer SportsDirect.com with the aim of developing the Club’s retail,
merchandising, apparel and product licensing business. The partnership
enables the Club to utilise the huge buying power and resources of
SportsDirect.com. This new structure means the Club has a controlling
interest in its retail operation and can now give supporters the opportunity
to buy direct from the Club and in doing so continue to invest in its future."

The con has been going on for a long time.

 

[ibroxbound]

If club 1872 or lionbrand could do it on a greater scale, just thinking of ways round about to stop ashley there and then

They wouldn't have the means to fight any injunctions that Ashley would throw at them