GERS CAN GO GLOBAL WITH STEVIE
Former NARSA president sees superstar manager as chance for Ibrox side to rake in cash
WHEN Steven Gerrard was unveiled as Rangers manager, chairman Dave King spoke about the Liverpool legend ticking many of the boxes the Ibrox board were looking to be checked.
In terms of his stature, his reputation and his insight into the game, the 37-year-old passed with flying colours but, as King acknowledged, his lack of experience in the dugout ensures he doesn’t earn full marks just yet.
It is what Gerrard does on the field that will be of most concern to those in the directors’ box and in the stands. Only one group will look to reap the rewards off the park, though.
The appointment of the former England midfielder caught the imagination of the Light Blue legions and made headlines far beyond the Scottish game.
Gers fans will gather in Canada next week for the annual NARSA Convention, hosted this year by the Rangers Supporters Club of Calgary.
And NARSA past president Gary Gillan believes the North American market is one Rangers could look to tap into more and more now that Gerrard is at the helm.
“It feels to me like we are reaching a new dawn in the way that we are going about our business,” he told SportTimes.
“This is a statement that has been made by the club and I can’t imagine it will have been made for anything other than the best of strategic reasons as we move forward.
“The club aren’t just bringing in a name and then not supporting him. They are saying ‘this is the profile we want and need going forward’.
“Liverpool and LA Galaxy are massive names over here so we have an opportunity here to sit down and say ‘how do we use the existing network and t hen enhance that as we move forward?’
“There is no other manager I can think of that would have raised an eyebrow anywhere off the UK shores. Maybe there would be a footnote that said ‘Rangers have got a new manager and it is X’.
“You saw the way the fans turned up on the day of the press conference and there was a buzz of excitement about the place. People all over the world were thinking ‘this is interesting, I will look out for Rangers’.
“Then they think about going to a game, about buying jerseys and then, maybe, investors will say ‘I have watched this guy grow up, I am a fan of this guy, I wonder if this club need any help?’. It is about embracing that and using it.”
Punters across the pond may be out of sight for most of the season but they are never out of mind for those at Ibrox.
Representatives from Rangers will once again make the trip to meet and greet supporters and members from organisations the length and breadth of North America.
And Gillan, the president of the Calgary RSC, is keen to strengthen the ties across the Atlantic to ensure far-away fans can play their part at their club.
He said: “When the new board came in we started to establish a relationship there and we have had some reasonable dialogue.
“It is basically, how can we help you? In the early days, they didn’t really know because they had lots to sort out at their side so they had to let us know.
“Afterwards, as things got more settled with the bigger ticket items, we had an opportunity to say ‘we have a continent here, we have an engaged membership of 40ish clubs and some of those clubs will be very keen to help Rangers if it is going to be of material benefit to the club.
“Not everyone is going to want to do that, some just want to watch the games and that is absolutely fine.
“But I would like everything that we do from a NARSA perspective to have a direct or indirect benefit to the club.
“It is not just things like TV subscriptions. Myself and a couple of guys from LA and Chicago are having conversations with the Soccer Schools and saying ‘ we have some contacts on the floor here, we would like you to partner with other clubs’ and there are various things from a retail and merchandise perspective we can look at in terms of brand expansion.
“If Rangers can continue to engage with us, we can continue to fashion opportunities for the club to make more revenue, to have more brand awareness and hopefully be one of the few sports teams that kids growing up in North America are actually engaged with.
“The club are starting to get that and we are having more meaningful conversations about that going forward. That is my vision for NARSA, to have an influence in how the club are behaving from a worldwide platform.”
It is 10 years since the NARSA Convention was l ast held i n Calgary and the series of events this year will be attended by former Ibrox heroes such as Mark Hateley and Gordon Smith.
And Gillan is pleased to see the summer showpiece going from strength to strength ahead of the gathering in Alberta in the coming days.
He said: “Last year it was Las Vegas and there were 1,300 people but Calgary this year will be around 400. It is convenience and if it is a holiday destination – like Vegas, like Orlando – you are going to get more volume.
“We had a real purple patch when we went down the leagues in 2012. There was more of a steely defiance to the fanbase, we were worried about where the club was going and it was that ‘we don’t do walking away’ mindset. To be honest, we really didn’t take advantage of that and we kind of rode the wave a bit.
“The convention is the mainstay of our identity worldwide as an organisation and, like any organisation, it has to be fed and nurtured as we move into a new stage and with a new manager.
“We have t o modernise ourselves as an organisation, think differently as an organisation and think ‘what do we want to be known as’ as we move forward.
“Are we just party planners, or are we something else? I firmly believe that we are something else, that we are a mainstay as part of the worldwide community. We have got tremendous opportunity to enhance and expand that as we move forward.”