Rangers is this season marking the 125th anniversary of one of the most iconic stadiums in European football, with the Scottish Premiership club reflecting on the success of a landmark project for inclusivity as well as planning ahead for the future of Ibrox.
Tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) league game against Dundee is set to be a focal point of celebrations, with a host of activations planned. The Glasgow club’s official museum, located inside the multi-purpose Edmiston House facility, will be open for supporters from 9am until 12.30pm GMT, with fans getting the chance to come and learn about Rangers’ history.
Heritage-themed activities
There will also be heritage-themed activities for supporters in the pre-match fanzone, with several photo opportunities for fans as well as pre-match entertainment. Prior to the 3pm kick off, there will be a display in the Sandy Jardine Stand and further activity taking place on the pitch.
The match will also see Rangers wear a heritage kit for the first time, with half time events including interviews with legends and a presentation to some of our youngest and oldest season ticket holders.
“We’ve created this to be a themed game, so we will have a lot of activations that celebrate the history, legacy and cultural impact of the stadium,” Rangers’ business growth director, Natalie Nairn, told TheStadiumBusiness.com.
“For example, we will have a pre-match show which will include a tifo card display in the Govan Stand. There will also be a lot of activity on the pitch, with special effects in play for the pre-match show.
“The players will be wearing a special heritage kit and at half time we’ll be activating, particularly around our legends because we really want them to talk about how special a stadium Ibrox was to them, what were their thoughts when they first saw the Main Stand, what was their favourite game, their impressions of their first Old Firm game and first European night.
“We’ve also got a lot of video content from fans talking about their favourite moments from the stadium because the one thing that always unites fans is how proud we are of our stadium. What’s also nice about Saturday is that we’re not just celebrating the stadium, we’re celebrating the evolution of the Ibrox Campus.
“We also have Edmiston House, which is a multi-purpose venue which hosts a new club museum, an event space, our fan zones, a retail space and a café. That’s always a really popular destination on matchday, but this Saturday in particular we’re looking at bringing some of the heritage and artifacts of the stadium to the fan zones, so supporters can get up close and personal with the history we’ll be talking about that day.”
Choosing the date
Ibrox has been Rangers’ home since its inauguration on December 30, 1899. While the club’s opening home fixture of 2025, the Old Firm clash against local rivals Celtic, is technically closer to this date than tomorrow’s game, Nairn explained the reason behind choosing the Dundee match.
She said: “We have a home game on January 2, which of course is a little closer to December 30, however Ibrox has witnessed many significant moments in its history, and sadly some of those moments are disasters, particularly the Ibrox disaster of 1971.
“That is commemorated on January 2 so it felt appropriate to not use that game to be in a celebratory mood. We wanted to keep those two events separate because January 2 is always a very sombre and respectful day for us.”
Sharing the story
Looking beyond Saturday, Rangers also has further anniversary plans for the remainder of the season, with the club keen to ensure all elements of its fanbase are involved.
Nairn said: “Our stadium tour programme is one of our most popular offerings, not just to our fans, but to tourists and visitors from all across the world. So for the remainder of the season we’ll have a lot of special stadium and museum tours, again bringing in club legends so they can tell their stories of the stadium.
“But one thing we’re also really keen to do is have our young fans connected to such an anniversary. Kids maybe don’t really understand 1899, or 125 years ago. That’s a really big concept so we want to break it down and make it really tangible for young fans too.
“We’re doing some more fun stadium and museum tours as well, featuring (club mascot) Broxi Bear, that will of course talk about the history and famous nights at Ibrox, but in a far more accessible and family-friendly way.”
Blazing a trail for fan access
As befits a stadium that is now 125 years old, Rangers has embarked on a number of projects in recent years to enhance the venue. In May 2023, Rangers confirmed plans to increase the capacity of Ibrox as part of a wider project to provide improved facilities for disabled fans at the stadium.
The first fruits of this scheme came to pass in September in the form of a revamped Copland Stand. “There’s been a real mixture of big projects and small ones,” Nairn said. “The biggest one came this summer as we undertook a major commitment to improve the matchday experience for our supporters who use wheelchairs.
“Within the Copland Stand we now have one of the most advanced areas for supporters with wheelchairs to watch the game from. We increased the capacity for disabled supporters, and we hugely increased the matchday experience for those fans.
“That’s something we’re really proud of and will continue to do. As part of that change, we also created a new singing section within the Copland Stand. We’re already very proud of the atmosphere Ibrox can create, particularly on big European nights and other major fixtures, but this is something that is part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring Ibrox remains at the forefront of creating amazing, and lasting, memories.
“It’s a continual evolution of Ibrox to be honest. Right now, we’re embarking on a WiFi project to improve that side of the matchday for fans, we’re improving our kiosks in association with our matchday partners. So there’s always that mixture of high-level projects, with smaller initiatives that are ongoing.”
A phased series of works was agreed by the club’s board, with the project aiming to provide Ibrox with the best disabled facilities of any stadium in Scotland and become one of the most accessible sports venues in Europe.
Regarding whether Ibrox can now be considered a standard-bearer for UK and European football stadia, Nairn said: “That’s correct and is something we’re hugely proud of. There was actually, on the first match that we opened up that area to fans, there was one chap who is a season ticket holder all his life and uses a wheelchair. He said that was the first time he was actually able to see the centre circle. That really demonstrates what an incredible upgrade this was. We’ve always been committed to fans who require additional accessibility needs, for example we were one of the first clubs in Scotland to offer a sensory room, Broxi’s Den.
“This is another step on our journey to ensure Ibrox and Rangers is accessible for everyone. The Copland Stand project has been a really fantastic addition to Ibrox and we would welcome anyone to come and have a look and understand how they could introduce it to their stadiums because we’ve certainly seen first-hand the benefits it can create for supporters.”
The Hampden experience
However, the Copland Stand venture was not without its challenges. In July, Rangers reached an agreement to play home matches at Hampden Park during the early part of the 2024-25 season as work continued on the redevelopment of the Copland Stand.
Rangers revealed in June that work at Ibrox had suffered a significant setback after a delay in a materials shipment from Asia. The multi-million-pound renovation project to overhaul the disabled facilities at the stadium commenced at the end of last season, and the club had initially hoped the work would be completed in time for the new campaign.
The Copland Stand project included the erection of a new cantilever with 1,000 extra seats. A number of new accessible viewing positions have been added to the rear of the Copland Front, increasing overall wheelchair-accessible spaces to more than 150.
Rangers initially returned to Ibrox for its Premier Sports Cup quarter-final tie against Dundee on September 21, albeit with the Copland Stand out of action, with the stadium fully reopening for the league fixture against Hibernian on September 29.
“It was definitely a challenging period and we’ve outlined many times our thanks to our supporters for their patience and perseverance as we navigated those challenges,” Nairn said.
“We moved to Hampden for those matches and it’s never a perfect solution. Our fans will always want to be at Ibrox, but they showed great resilience and patience and we really thank them for working with us during that time because it was a period where we working through a number of options, but our fans stood behind us.
“We took great numbers to Hampden and there was a lot of lessons learnt from that project as well, which we’ll certainly take into the future. I definitely think that with any major project there’s always supply chain challenges. I think those challenges were even more severe than we anticipated.
“As a club we hadn’t embarked on such a major project for a long time so there were things we had to work through, and we did. I think now, seeing how amazing that project was for fans, and how important and long-term the legacy will be it’s something we can all look back at and be proud of.”
The future of Ibrox
Ibrox has a current capacity of around 51,000, with more substantial expansion the subject of much debate. “It’s always something that’s in our mind because the demand is there,” Nairn said.
“We have such a fantastic and loyal season ticket base, but we have such a demand for tickets meaning it’s always something that’s going to be on the table. But in terms of the immediate future, there are no major plans scheduled at the moment.”
In June 2023, former chief executive James Bisgrove revealed that the club was assessing three “medium to long term” options to expand, while a 70,000-capacity Ibrox has also been touted. Nairn said: “None of those (three options) are being progressed at significant pace at the moment. So whilst they’re still there, it’s not something we’re going to progress immediately.”
The push and pull between major expansion of a historic home, or development of a new stadium, is always a key issue for any football club with ambitions of improving their standing. Nairn believes the latter option is unrealistic for Rangers.
She added: “I can’t imagine our fans would be too warm to the idea of a new stadium at a different location. Ibrox is very much a symbol of our history and traditions. It’s something our fans are very proud of.
“My personal view, without discussing this in any great detail, is that is something that would never be an option for Rangers, particularly in the near or medium term future. But in terms of expanding the stadium, in an appropriate and sensitive way to how the stadium should look, that will always be something we will be maintaining talks around.”
