A DOUBLE GORDON’S
Owner Ron is planning big squad spend
HIBS plan to double their first-team budget by 2023 after Ron Gordon unveiled his vision for the club ahead of last night’s AGM.
The American owner took control at Easter Road in July but has now gone into more detail on how he plans to go about making his mark on the club.
How that impacts on the pitch will top the fans’ agenda and Gordon revealed a significant increase in money available to spend on the first team is planned. That began in January when Stephane Omeonga, Marc McNulty, Greg Docherty and Paul McGinn arrived.
But Hibs are still operating with the fifth-highest playing budget behind Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen and city rivals Hearts, although the aim is to eventually move up to third or fourth.
To help achieve that, the objective is to double their overall turnover by 2025.
Gordon said: “We already bumped it a bit this January, we went beyond what our border was. Our goal over the next three years is to double our budget that we have right now.
“There are no guarantees in football, just because you have the most money does not mean you’re going to win.
“It does give us the possibility that we can be more competitive on a consistent basis.
“It goes back to the whole idea of growing the business side, if we can increase our revenues, which if you look at Scottish football right now we’re fifth from a turnover perspective and I’d like us to be fourth, third.
“We have a long way to go because Aberdeen has a substantially higher number budget and turnover, the same thing with Hearts. We need to move up that ladder.
“A lot of the funds going to be generated operationally are going to go into the football programme. It’s a very ambitious goal. Turnover this year will probably be at £10million, £10.8m was last year with European income.”
One area Gordon believes Scottish clubs are penalised in is the ban on selling alcohol. He’s adamant clubs and fans should be given the opportunity to prove they can sell and sink a pint within the ground, given supporters in other countries can be trusted to do so.
He said: “They’re allowed to in England, the United States and pretty much everywhere else including the rugby here. It’s essentially a penalty on football. I don’t know what the best way to approach it is but it’s on my list to see how we can move that.
“The clubs have a responsibility to see how they can police that and themselves but they should be given a chance. But the last thing we want is bad behaviour, which unfortunately happens with alcohol.
“England had the ban before but have been able to grow out of it and I don’t see any reason why we can’t get the opportunity to grow out of it. I’d love it to be trialled. It’s a big revenue stream.
“If we could do more, that would be phenomenal. But we’d have to get the league behind it and the Government to give us a shot. I don’t know the mechanics but that would be good. In a healthy way it can be part of the experience.”