Long time lurker on FollowFollow.
Id like to add my views on the stadium expansion. Id personally like to keep the pitch the same level as it is, if necessary, drop it by 1 meter, this will give enough for 2 rows, and add 1,500 to the capacity. This can be done whilst the team still play in the stadium, like what Man City did in the Ethiad when they expanded it a few years back. It will take a season to do, and the cost is only £5m or so. BUT this depends on the water table and the Clyde.
As for the removal of the TV screens, this is the long term goal. This would give 5,000 per corner in my opinion. Id like to remove the roof off of the 3 sides of the stadium and make them all the same cantilever style as above, however make the roof with screens above them, large enough for VAR decisions on them. The removal of the roof can be done whilst the team play in the stadium, this whole project would take 2 years. Whilst i was at it, id look at a study for the expansion of The Argyle Suite to wrap around the whole stadium at the level it presently is at, if it cannot be done, leave The Argyle Suite the same, but try and include them in the corners only, but make them multi purpose where they can be made into a TV studio. Reason for the multi purpose element, we need to get the stadium into being used for a Europa League or Champions League Final.
The one other thing id look at is a remote entry for the away section, where there is a series of tunnels, leading to where they come in from their away bus parking. This would significantly make the policing easier and more simple. This would be a selling point to the planners. Id also like to demolish the Edmonton Suite at the rear of the Copland Road and replace that place with a new Rangers store and a ticket office. It would also be the start, or possibly end of the Ibrox Stadium Tour accessible via another tunnel.
As for finances, in todays market, id set aside £75m, maybe even £80m, it could even cost a eye watering £100m if someone was milking it somewhere. As for the business model, we need to look at a new business model, cap season tickets at 55,000, of a total capacity of maybe 62,000. If season ticket prices where an average of £450 per season for that figure, it would be just short £25m, and with the 7,000 tickets available for each league game, you would get another maybe £3m for that. Include a European campaign, that's a easy £10m in ticket sales. If we paid the debt of that off over 10 years, say £8m a year, it could be achievable to pay it off in that time. We wouldn't want naming rights, as Liverpool didn't take naming rights, they just got successful and paid their £85m main stand expansion off in 3 years in Premier League terms. And we wouldn't have to move out of Ibrox, if we could get a reversal of fixtures from the SPFL until the September international break on the completion of the stadium.
The problems would be egress to the stadium, as the Subway wouldn't cope, we would need a Ibrox Rail Station. This would be a hard sell to Network Rail, but id offer to pay towards this development, for a basic station this would cost £3.6m on 2016 figures. Today, this would be maybe another £6m cost, and if we went half on this, it may help. Also the purchase of 4-5 properties would stand in my plans, this would be a significant cost. Also the lack of a proper fan area wouldn't be great.
Ive always dreamt that if i had the money, and i mean Elon Musk levels of cash, id buy the bloody club and get our ship in order, and do a £550m expansion and modernisation of the stadium, whilst giving Steven a health wedge of cash to stay competitive on the park.
I have optimism that what ever way is chosen, getting even 54,000 into the stadium will help.