Safe standing is the newest cause celebre amongst the Ibrox support, and the latest case of them wanting something because we have it. I could spend all day going over the myriad ways in which that club defines itself by us and what we do, but this one makes me laugh.
Safe standing is a not a new idea, but the success of ours has led their fans to clamour for it like geese.
Let’s be blunt; their club has tried numerous times to build an atmosphere at Ibrox to match the one at Celtic Park, but it’s a little like being a good footballer; you’ve either got it or you ain’t. Their fans lack the passion of the Celtic support, because they have just one emotion. Even in triumph all they can think of is how it will affect morale amongst our fans … nothing they do is ever on its own terms or for its own sake.
They’ve never been a club wholly separate in the way we are; even Rangers defined itself by being part of “the Old Firm.”
They have no real identity.
The various factions in the Sevco support loathe each other.
Who would get to “control” the standing section if such a thing existed? Club 1872? Ha! A shareholders organisation trying to build atmosphere at games? The Union Bears, who could have been making noise all through the last few years but have barely mustered a fart? The Follow Followers? The Vanguard Scum?
It would be interesting, and amusing, to see who came out on top … Sevco’s smarter directors must quail at the prospect of their lunatic fringe with a section of the ground.
But more than anything else, Sevco is not going to find money in the mattress for the sole purpose of turning a small group of their supporters into the defenders of the faith. The Green Brigade had established itself as the beating heart of Celtic Park before the standing section was even conceived of, but with no equivalent at Ibrox their board will see this as being about whether or not they want to spend their club’s money frivolous bling.
And this is why it’s a non-starter.
The safe standing section at Parkhead is a huge enhancement to the ground, and it was ready-made for Green Brigade boys and their colourful displays. At Ibrox, there would be a bun-fight over who got to inhabit such a section, and the club would be ever wary of allowing the nutters to so prominently run the asylum.
But the real issue is that it would cost the club around £500,000 … which is money they can’t afford to spend on such an idea, even if the other problems with it could somehow be resolved. It is a luxury, and as “keeping up with Celtic” moves go it doesn’t register as being remotely important enough to shell out on.
Sevco has told it’s fans that it won’t be in place for next season; haha I’ll just bet it won’t.
Or for many subsequent seasons to come.
Club 1872 has acknowledged they have a long list of stadium upgrades to get through first, but they dismiss that as if it was not the job of a decade at a cost that would liquidate them first.
Clubs that want to be able to spend on this kind of thing put down solid foundations.
And we all know that over at Ibrox there are none.