Allow me to explain my thinking.
We currently have the following: A talented and relatively youthful squad, (if you miss out Davie Weir), entry straight into the Champions League group stage, and - if the hype is true - a solid set of youngsters finally coming through the Murray Park conveyor belt. Add to that a world renowned 5 star stadium, and a history of success not to be rivalled by anyone worldwide.
But Rangers are missing out on so much as a club off the park.
Success on the pitch is sustained via the workings of the club off the park, with financial decisions made every day likely to impact on the wage structure, transfer budget and ability to keep top players. However, for me and many other bears, Rangers simply do not do enough off the park. The club can call on such a vast collection of supporters (figures estimated at 200,000 down in Manchester only just touch the base in terms of our fan base) and yet we struggle to find quality official merchandise. Some of us cannot purchase goods like pendants or scarfs to offer to overseas friends as gifts. Some of us with shirt sizes smaller than XXL cannot purchase replica tops after January. Some of us won't buy polo shirts or other club merchandise because, quite simply, they look tacky and are poor in quality.
The club does little to acknowledge the good work of the various fan organisations. In my opinion, groups like the Blue Order, Club Deck Loyal and others, do so much to encourage more fan backing, to increase atmosphere at games and to spur on the side to victory, in a time of bans for songs and Gestapo-like policing and stewarding. Why not highlight the good work these individuals do, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the club as a whole?
The third area of concern for me is the website. The content is basic at best, and more work could be done on the youth teams – an item raised by regular FFers who attend these matches and offered this service to those in charge only to be rudely turned down. By comparison, the Chelsea website offers the average supporter so much quality content. A regular series of YouTube videos accessible to all featuring their playing staff and management, a fan forum for supporters to contribute to, and a whole host of polls, quizzes and competitions, that make the website the first website Chelsea fans will look to visit online, rather than looking for a fan run forum site like we do. (And that’s not to discredit the fabulous work of the FF team.)
Solutions?
So Rangers, why not do the following. Why not propose a survey for visitors to rangers.co.uk, whereby you can ask fans what they want in their club website? Why not ask the fans what sort of merchandise they are looking for? Why not seek fan input on match day entertainment and music choices?
Rangers need to realise that continued success on the park relies heavily on success off the park, and the fan base, albeit large in size, is still somewhat low in morale with regard to how the club is run and how the fans are treated. Why not seek to improve and find out from the fans what they want from the Club. The best way to serve your customers is to know what their desires and wants are and to try and provide for these; at the moment it seems to this bear that the gap between what the average Rangers supporter would like to see off the park and what the Club offer couldn’t be much further apart. If the Club make strides to improve off the park, this will result in continued and growing success on the park, something we all desire.