Ibrox closed until the Hogmanay game against Celtic?? There's much more to this story than meets the eye

07/03/2024 07:21 AM

The rumours surrounding the closure of Ibrox continue to fly around.

Rumours will always be just that, rumours, but somewhere amongst all of the rumours lies the real story.

At this moment in time, Ibrox is firefighting.

They’re trying to deal with the biggest fires first, then they’ll tackle the smaller blazes later.

The biggest fire right now is the lack of a venue.

Find somewhere to play, and then they can tackle the next fire.

And so it goes.

This morning, it looks like SFA president Mike Mulraney, and CEO Ian Maxwell are going to ride in to the rescue.

In an article by Keith Jackson in the Record, it looks like the SFA chiefs are about to “green light an emergency plan”.

Jackson is right on script in this one.

It’s clear he has been told to inform readers that it’s all James Bisgrove’s fault.

Handy when the guy you can blame is thousands of miles away, and can’t defend himself, isn’t it?

As with most stories from Ibrox, I can pretty much guarantee there was a very good reason for Bisgrove leaving, and it wasn’t a delayed steel shipment.

You don’t say this about a departing CEO, and then throw him under the bus for everything that has now gone wrong at Ibrox:

I would like to thank James for the work he has done at the club over the last five years as Commercial and Marketing Director, and latterly, as our CEO.

Our commercial revenues grew significantly under James' leadership, while in the last year, he was an integral part of the off-field restructuring the club has implemented.

The executive team James helped shape has firmly established itself and I fully expect its momentum to be uninterrupted.

We wish James every success with his new role.

Now all of a sudden, he’s the pantomime villain, and everything is his fault?

Here’s what Jackson was told to say about him:

The Ibrox club was plunged into a crisis last month when it emerged that blundering former CEO James Bisgrove had botched the planning of a summer renovation job on the Copland Road stand – before hastily jumping ship to a new job in Saudi Arabia. Bisgrove's betrayal has left chairman John Bennett facing a race against the clock to find an alternative venue to house the club's home games until such times as their own stadium can be reopened to the public.

Convenient, eh?

Bisgrove’s betrayal?

Well Bennett was hardly going to admit that he cocked up, was he?

So it was just as easy to blame the guy who fecked off to Saudi Arabia.

In any business, when you are the boss, the jefe, the head honcho, whatever you like to call it, the buck stops with you.

John Bennett is the head honcho at Ibrox, the buck stops with him.

Nobody else.

Blaming a guy who’s left the building is typically idiosyncratic, from a serially idiosyncratic club.

I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Bennett should have his hands in all pies in his position.

He should have known exactly what was going on with the “steel shipment”, if that’s what the problem really is.

Anything less is an abrogation of his duties as Chairman of the club.

But as I said earlier in this article, it would appear the first part of this raging inferno at Ibrox is about to be put out.

A venue is almost secured, with Hampden now the most likely ground to be used.

So there’s huge thanks going to the heroes of the SFA.

That should placate all of those disgruntled bears somewhat.

Somewhat, being the operative word.

Because they are disgruntled, and they are talking quite a lot about what’s happening to their beloved stadium.

Yesterday, over on Celtic365, Joe McHugh revealed that it may be January and the Hogmanay game against Celtic before Ibrox re-opens again.

This was discussed on popular bear’s forum, follow follow.

Below is the interesting tit-bit of info:

It would appear that some wiser bears are beginning to realise that there is much more to this story than a delay in a shipment of steel.

Of course, to get the real story, or at least to see some proper investigative journalism, they would have to read the stuff that those pesky Celtic bloggers are writing.

We aren’t afraid to call it as we see it.

And we don’t have a party line that we need toe, like poor Keith Jackson and the SMSM, who must be on song at all times.

I wrote an article on the 21st of last month, detailing the hazards of asbestos, after well known “employee” and follow follow contributor Empire, stated that the hazardous material was the cause of the stadium closure, see below:

Since then, Empire has been openly extolling the virtues of honesty and truthfulness when it comes to what’s going on at his beloved Ibrox.

He is indeed a rare breed.

As a result, other bears are beginning to wake up to the fact that the “problem” is down to much more than just a delay in a steel shipment:

Now that a venue is almost secure, the Ibrox hierarchy can now figure out a way to inform supporters about what’s really going on.

Or isn’t, or could be, or might be, or something.

Like I said, fighting fires on a triage basis.

But here’s the reality.

Something very serious is very wrong.

If the stadium, as is rumoured, is going to be closed for 6 months, then there are serious health and safety concerns about something.

I had a retired building surveyor comment on the situation.

Interestingly, what he had to say should be very concerning to Ibrox supporters, to say the least.

Here is a key take-out from his comment:

If they have hit asbestos without it having already being identified or the possibility of it included in the specification, then the ongoing implications of that are a logistical and financial nightmare.

In particular if the contractor has actually been appointed. If this is not included in the specification it's not incumbent on the contractor to carry out these works ( he may not be qualified to do so anyway)
If they are asked to proceed, they can name their own price.

If they are asked to postpone works then their penalty clauses will kick in. Asbestos can be removed or encapsulated ..either way, as the man says, its an extremely costly business.

An extremely costly business.

And, as I discussed in my article on the 21st, it can take a long, long time, to remove it all.

You know, like half a year?

Now, I’m wondering if the issue is asbestos, how the hell James Bisgrove did not know it was there?

I mean, someone like him should know this kind of thing, shouldn’t he?

I guess once he was informed of it, he made a split second decision, and ran off to Saudi Arabia.

Indeed.

Now obviously, I’m only surmising here, you know?

But it’s kind of ironic that my surmising seems to add up, in a lot of ways, isn’t it?

So I’ll continue to surmise, and present this to you.

When have you ever, down through the years, through all of the stadium renovations around the UK, seen a club have to relocate to another stadium while one stand is renovated?

Apart from when a full stadium demolition occurs, as it did in late 1994 for Celtic.

Remember Old Trafford in 1995?

Celtic Park re-opened with two stands remaining to be constructed in 1995.

Anfield remained open for the rebuilding of Liverpool’s main stand in 2015/16.

So why can’t Ibrox start the season with the Copland Road end closed, and the other three stands open?

Now, this has been paid lip service in today’s article in the Record.

But I’m guessing Jackson said it to ensure all bases are covered in his party political broadcast.

There’s no doubting now that the Ibrox side will commence their season at Hampden Park.

But the reality is they cannot start their season at Ibrox because there is a major health and safety concern.

The kind of concern which does not allow for the public to attend matches there.

A concern that may keep the stadium closed for six months.

The financial implications in this situation could be huge.

With Hampden almost secured, logistical issues may not be so bad.

But how do Ibrox hospitality packages etc. tie in with Hampden hospitality packages?

Re-organising all these kinds of things will be a nightmare in itself.

You can also be sure the Ibrox side won’t be getting Hampden for free, so this will impede on the profits made on their own ticket sales.

I guess it depends on the generosity of the SFA.

Lots of smaller fires to be fought.

Eventually, what’s really going on at Ibrox will all come out in the wash.

But I can pretty much guarantee it isn’t a delay in a steel shipment, and James Bisgrove has been made an easy scapegoat in all of this.

That may be part of the problem, but it certainly isn’t the entirety of the problem.

Celtic could not hope for a better beginning to the season.

Who knows the financial impact this will have on the Ibrox side in the long term?

It’s impossible to quantify.

But there are many factors to it.

The biggest being the cost of rectifying whatever has gone wrong at the Copland Road end.

There is much, much more to this story than meets the eye.

Jelly and Ice cream anyone?

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