The American owners lifted the lid on plan to inject £16million into the Glasgow giants earlier this week
Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan
Simon Jordan has put Rangers’ American owners in the firing line after season ticket prices were raised as part of an £16m investment plan.
Andrew Cavenagh’s Stateside consortium – including 49ers Enterprises – are set to inject cash via a share issue that will involve the club’s other major investors. An open letter from the chairman stated that further funds could also be made available, depending on the outcome of the Premiership title race.
The masterplan will also ask the diehards to put in more money with adult season-ticket prices are increased by 6.5 percent. Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan has warned the chiefs that the move could backfire as he revealed his own experiences.
Asked by Jim White on talkSPORT if fans will accept a season ticket price hike to improve the squad, Jordan replied: “No, because they’ll tell you how to spend your money. I took great delight in raising season ticket price in fan meetings, when I was being told how I should spend my money; Being told by them my shortcomings, or where the team hadn’t been strong enough, or what investment was required.
“I would say to the fans with great glee ‘I am going to raise your season ticket prices them, because if it’s your club like you have just told me, you won’t mind spending more money on your club’. When the fans started to cluck I would say ‘it’s not your club now, it’s my club’. So. it’s a trade off.
“What the fans will say ‘is that’s fantastic, as long as you deploy it wisely’. And wisely is subjective isn’t it because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
He then noted that some punters will be concerned at the price hike with as he declared the NFL giants investment wing – who also own Leeds United – have “deep pockets”, as he branded their early days in Glasgow a “clown college”.
Jordan went on: “Now, the fact that they have new ownership at Rangers, and the fact they have ownership that has deep pockets, and the first thing they have done in is come in and raise ticket prices might raise the eyebrows of certain fans because they have only been there five minutes, and they are commercialising it.
Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh(Image: Getty Images)
“Ideally, they might win the league and they might get away with their original rick, because they were a farce at the beginning.
“They recruited a manager that I defended against the mob, because I don’t like mob rule.
“They got it wrong. The had a chief executive that I didn’t think was capable of doing the job, the abdicated.
“These people that run Leeds, who have plenty of money, the 49ers, came into Rangers and their first impression was they are clown college.
“They have got themselves together, and now they are raising the season ticket prices.
“I have no problem with them raising the ticket prices if it brings an outcome for the Rangers fans that is better, but it is the commercial reality.”