RANGERS fans with learning disabilities will now be able to enjoy the Ibrox experience after a sensory room was officially opened.
Broxi’s Den, which is located in the corner of the stadium between the Sandy Jardine Stand and Broomloan Stand, can accommodate up to eight supporters and their carers on a match day.
The suite will help children and young adults with complex learning difficulties and sensory challenges such as autism to acclimatise to the noise and crowds of a packed Ibrox.
Broxi’s Den was used for the first time on Saturday as Pedro Caixinha’s side drew 1-1 with Motherwell in the Premiership and will be open once again for the visit of Partick Thistle later this month.
Supporters have helped raise tens of thousands of pounds to fund the development of the sensory room after a group of fans visited the Stadium of Light in Sunderland to learn from their experiences.
Nine-in-a-row legend John Brown attended the official opening on Monday afternoon and hopes it will have a real impact for families.
He said: “Ibrox Stadium is a fantastic arena to watch football and I applaud everyone at Rangers for developing this facility to allow supporters to attend games who may have previously been unable to do so.
“Broxi’s Den will also be used to support a range of community programmes and I am sure it will be a great addition to the matchday experience.”
Ibrox chiefs worked with the Rangers Disability Matters Group to create the unique space that will allow many supporters to visit the stadium for the first time.
Children aged between five and 12 will receive priority for afternoon games and young adults will have priority for evening matches.
Light Blues striker Kenny Miller was also on hand to lend his support and he said: “I was speaking to someone about a lad that he knows that hasn’t been able to bring his boy to the games.
“I am sure there are families that can’t imagine not coming to Ibrox on a Saturday and watching their team play.
“This facility gives those families an opportunity and it is a fantastic set-up.
“There are different rooms, different viewing points indoor and outdoor.
“It is a great facility. It is all thanks to the people that have put in a lot of time and effort to get it ready.
“It gives families an opportunity to bring their kids along and to have that environment during the game is great.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here