Hampden has been a far from happy rented home for theRangers and you could be forgiven for thinking that their reluctant landlords will be glad to see the back of them, the sooner the better.
The attack on the St Johnstone (female) SLO who was knocked to the ground and a drum, to be used by the small group of away fans, stolen. It was all caught in camera and the culprits have received indefinite bans from the latest Ibrox club. That shameful incident was well publicised in the mainstream media and of course on social media.
The empty spaces at Hampden
The empty spaces at Hampden have also been a talking point, remember there are season tickets sold so the club is not losing that revenue from fans not bothering to show up, but the look is one of ‘walking away’ something they always said they’d never do.
There are two other factors that haven’t been discussed as much and the comments below shine some light on them. The first is how much theRangers are actually paying for the rental of Hampden and the second, leading on from that is the damage that their supporters are causing at Hampden and the costs that will be directed back to Ibrox from the SFA, making the rental costs even more expensive.
In these comments below there are eye witness reports from their own supporters talking about widespread vandalise at Hampden being caused by theRangers supporters, although none of this has reached the media.
They vandalised the toilets at Celtic Park
You will remember that on their first match at Celtic Park after their latest club made the journey from the old Third Division to the Scottish Premiership, the toilets at Celtic Park at the away end were completely wrecked.
It seems that Hampden is now experiencing similar vandalism from theRangers support, which is only going to add to the cost that theRangers Board will be paying to the SFA.
Here are the relevant comments that cover the two points mentioned above, and these are direct quotes from their biggest forum…
“Does anyone know how much rent were being charged at Hampdump?”
“No idea about rent but I can tell you, straight from our security guy’s mouth, it’s costing us a fortune for removing stickers and graffiti, and addressing vandalism issues in the toilets and around the stadium. Some idiots within our support just can’t help being idiots – to the detriment of our club’s and our fans’ reputation”.
“Really intrigued to see the full damage of this. The money will involved will be significant – not just the rental but loss of other income streams. The accounts will be ugly on the back of this one.”
“There was a sticker on my seat on Saturday so not surprised it’s more widespread.”
“Noticed a sink ripped off the wall in the west stand toilets after the game!”
“I’m guessing the clean up will be added on top of that then.”
“What an embarrassment what is wrong with some of our support that they can’t use a toilet without wrecking the place?”
“Too many who don’t give a toss about anthing or anyone. Vandals don’t get the fact it costs the club in reputation and financial ways.”
“I don’t think the rental cost will be significant. Queens Park will probably play more games at Hampden than we will thos season. Do you believe they will be paying a significant amount for that. The amount per game will be the same as both clubs will be hiring the stadium from the SFA. So I haven’t heard Queens Park moaning about the rental costs. Also the club will have been able to make sure we weren’t being incorrectly charged due to the fact the SFA had already agreed to hire the stadium to QP.”
“If people on here think we are paying the same rent as QP, then you are deluding yourself.”
“Toilets at the Celtic end has been flooded for the two home games.”
“Anyone caught doing stuff like this should be banned from Ibrox and fined the costs of repair.”
“The seats in the Celtic end are covered in green Brigade/Celtic stickers.”
“Presumably we’re not paying for that.”
“It’s even our own stadium they deface. Them stupid stickers plastered everywhere.”
“Do you think SFA charge Taylor Swift the same to hire as QP?”
“All sorts of wrong in this post. Set price for stadium rental, don’t be ridiculous. Staffing levels for Hampden / SFA are taken into consideration for every separate event. And Rangers were not involved in any of the pitch works.”
“Queen’s Park’s right to use Hampden was all wrapped up in them selling the stadium to the SFA. They were negotiating from a much stronger position than us being between a rock and a hard place when we were negotiating. Add to this the fact that Queen’s Park utilise the pitch and a very small proportion of the stadium on matchday compared with us looking to use the whole stadium, there is zero chance the agreements are the same.”
“Surely we will be staffing the games. We are renting the stadium not the SFA staff. Rangers were apparently involved in making sure the pitch was ready. Our groundstaff were involved.”
“We have staff costs at Ibrox on matchdays. We don’t have them at home so the cost just would transfer to Hampden. The QP use of Hampden wasn’t attached to the sale. If it was why did they recently have to go back to the SFA for a deal to use Hampden this year.”
“Don’t know where to begin with this mate. Hampden/SFA have full time staff with knowledge of the Stadium and event staff for security and catering. You think we just said to them, “it’s awright just geez the keys and we’ll bring our own staff”.”
“OK if not then it’s not any staffing cost over what we would be using at Ibrox is it. It’s the same catering and security and turnstile operators. We aren’t paying out the Ibrox matchday staff and Hampden’s.”
“No idea if it’s deliberate or not but Stewards seem to be suggesting stuff was put in the toilets to block them up.”
“We are paying a set fee for everything at Hampden. Our costings are similar to what the SFA pay for Internationals or DF for concerts. This includes catering, electricity, stewards, security etc. The cost’s are significantly more than QP pay.”
(btw, swearing removed in many of these comments).
