Design & Development

Rangers reveal Ibrox upgrade plans

Featured image credit: Steve Daniels/CC BY-SA 2.0/Edited for size

Scottish Premiership football club Rangers has revealed plans that will expand capacity at Ibrox through a project focused on improving the stadium’s accessibility and facilities for disabled supporters.

The plans were disclosed at the Glasgow club’s annual general meeting, with last year’s AGM having seen deputy chairman John Bennett label the current provision for disabled fans as “unacceptable”.

A project team has since been assembled to carry out a detailed feasibility study, with work to focus on Ibrox’s Broomloan and Copland Road stands. The Scottish Sun newspaper said Rangers provided renderings of the proposed work, which would be dependent on the ability to raise further funds.

Under the club’s vision, additional accessibility spaces would be created at the back of the lower tiers of the two stands, along with the Sandy Jardine Stand. This would lead to a total of 162 wheelchair spaces around Ibrox, and Rangers detailed how it would look to offset the subsequent loss of 1,073 seats the work would create.

Indeed, through installing new seating within cantilevers in the Broomloan and Copland Road stands, Rangers plans to create 900 new spaces apiece for fans in the two stands. These would be created in the upper tiers of the stands, above where the new accessible spaces would be located, essentially resulting in a gain of 727 for Ibrox’s capacity.

“There is a significant capital investment required but one we believe will be fair and justifiable,” said Rangers director of football operations, Andrew Dickson, according to the BBC.

“It is yet another project that the board believes justifies our ongoing strategy of seeking strategic equity funding to invest in long-term revenue generating initiatives.”

In May 2021, Bennett revealed that plans to expand the capacity of Ibrox were in the works. The stadium, which opened in 1899, currently has a capacity of around 51,000.