Tom Johnstone, a member of the Rangers Fan Board, gives his reaction to today's outcome.
The past few days have seen a vogue for dusting off old sayings and applying them to the EGM. Churchill's 'not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning' has been revived more then once with the old favourite 'light at the end of the tunnel' being, well, the favourite. Notably no-one's seen fit to append Alex Law's 'expansion into a golden sunrise' to the light of EGM victory and the likely explanation for this is that for most Rangers fans, the dominant emotion, right now, is simply relief.
Yesterday, Dave King told us that we're going to have a tough couple of years. After the three years we've just endured, that's like warning someone who's being hauled off a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean that the lifeboat may be a little damp.
For the Rangers Fans' Board it's been, as the Chinese curse goes, interesting times. Whatever conceptions we had of the task before us back in September 2014 did not survive contact with the old board. Our vote of no confidence on January 28 probably hammered the first nail into the coffin of any further meaningful contact with the final nail accompanying the letter clumsily threatening us with legal action. We were very aware of cynicism regarding our role but, if nothing else, we can say we achieved solidarity with the rest of the fans as by the end the old board wasn't talking to us either.
So in these first post-EGM hours as we place our trust in the new board to rebuild the team and stadium, what falls to us, the fans?
Over time the lost years of 2012 - 2015 must be woven into the fabric of our history. We must never forget. For this was a close thing. If the EGM had been lost, how many season tickets would have been sold next season? How much further would attendances have fallen? And with the consequent loss of revenue, how many more £5m drawdowns would have been offered and obediently accepted by the old board until debt delivered every last vestige of Rangers, even Ibrox, irrevocably into Ashley's hands?
We must sell out Ibrox. Every game. The only blue visible in the crowd should be tops and scarves, not the blue plastic of an empty seat.
We must continue the momentum of fan ownership. The day came when Rangers needed a 5th pioneer. The efforts of Rangers First - who a few minutes ago broke the 13,000 barrier - and the Rangers Supporters Trust in providing an accessible and simple way for fans to secure shares and mobilise that shareholding must also be woven into the fabric of our history. Be the 5th.
And now is the time to join the fight on the narrative on Rangers and our fans that has intensified over the past few years. Whether through our own complacency or because we were wounded, we have allowed perceptions of Rangers to become nothing I recognise as being a fan of the quintessential British club and its values. Well we are no longer complacent and we are no longer wounded. No skirmish or battle in this war is too small for true Bears to stand up and unite and form an unbreakable blue line to drive this narrative out.
So we thank, as shall history, Dave King, the Three Bears, the members of Rangers First and the Rangers Supporters Trust and all those who voted against the old board. We are Rangers. Then. Now. Forever.
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