Rangers chief James Bisgrove is confident football can withstand the cost of living crisis as he looks to grow the club further off the park after figures showed commercial revenue had been boosted by an eye-watering 250 per cent in a four-year period from 2018 while matchday revenge had almost doubled in the last five years.
The Ibrox club have recently thrown their doors open to the new Edmiston House and Bisgrove insists he is targeting other non-matchday areas. Bisgrove admits it’s about striking a balance between “optimising revenue generation, especially on match days, with taking advantage of supporters’ loyalty to the club” at a time of financial strain.
But, in an interview with football finance website Off The Pitch, he said: “My sense is that football is one of the more resilient industries to the wider economic pressures and cost of living crisis.” Rangers posted a profit of £27.6 million in last year’s annual accounts and record turnover over £86.8m.
The Scottish Premiership side have doubled their matchday income to £44m since 2017 and, in the most staggering figure, Bisgrove said: “The annual growth from £8m commercial revenue at the end of 2018 to just under £29m in 2022, across a consistent set of revenue pillars, further represents Rangers' return to financial health and profitability. At the board level, we recognise commercial revenue as one of the four core pillars of our club strategy and business performance; alongside player trading, match-day revenues, primarily ticketing, and European prize money.”
Rangers, boosted by reaching last season's Europa League final, have opened the Blue Sky Lounge corporate hospitality suite at Ibrox Stadium which is also opened as a restaurant on non-matchdays. Bisgrove added: “Hospitality on match days have sold out for all five fixtures since we’ve opened and we’ve accumulated a waiting list for seasonal hospitality places in Blue Sky Lounge, so the reaction from our corporate clients has been fantastic.
“We want to develop opportunities 300 days+ for non-match days, for example, the new Blue-Sky Lounge restaurant, our new sports bar development and, principally, Edmiston House, which will contain the club museum and a live events space."
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