JAMES Bisgrove, Rangers’ commercial and marketing director, has insisted the Ibrox club will consult season ticket holders if they are prevented from attending matches next season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Steven Gerrard announced that Rangers had frozen season ticket prices for the 2020/21 campaign and extended the application deadline in a message that was posted on their official website on Thursday evening.
However, it is likely the new Ladbrokes Premiership and European campaigns will have to get underway behind closed doors later this year because of government restrictions on mass gatherings.
Bisgrove conceded that offering fans free online access to matches may not be adequate compensation if they are prohibited from filing through the turnstiles at the Govan ground and vowed to engage with them over the best course of action in that situation.
“It’s an unprecedented situation and we don’t know how it will unfold,” he said. “We’ll assess that when we get there. The virtual season ticket has been discussed across Europe and supporters will have their own view about whether that is an equivalent to being in the stadium.
“Of course, it’s not. So, we’ll have to take a view on our ability to provide live matches versus an in-stadia experience and if that will be a comparable product or if we’ll need to do something in addition to that.
“We’re keeping an open mind and contingency planning in any way that we need to do. The season ticket launch was hopefully representative of the situation supporters find themselves in - with frozen prices, extended deadline, flexible payment options and a lot of choice – hopefully shows the way we will engage with our support if these hypotheticals come about.”
Bisgrove continued: “The club’s first preference would be to complete the games in front of supporters. If we can’t do that our priority becomes how do we get the live streams to supporters.
“We want to get back to playing football but we are also cognisant of the wider world. The government measures and people’s health and safety have to come first. We’ll take that into account but are quite clear what we’d like to see within that.”
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