Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has praised the Glasgow Rangers board for their season ticket policy ahead of next season.

The Lowdown: Gers sell more than 44,000 season tickets

Earlier in May, the Gers confirmed they had sold more than 44,000 season tickets ahead of the 2021/22 campaign (rangers.co.uk), just weeks after they had revealed they would be freezing season ticket prices for the upcoming term (Glasgow Live).

The board said that the number of people to purchase the tickets was "beyond belief" considering that the Gers were unable to welcome a single fan to Ibrox during the 2020/21 season.

The Latest: Maguire praises board

Speaking to Football Insider, Maguire praised the Gers board for the number of season tickets they made available. He said:

"They would make more money by selling fewer season tickets.

"But what Rangers have done is reward the loyalty and passion of the fanbase by making as many season tickets as possible available.

"But if you compare them with, say, Liverpool, they have only 27,000 season tickets.

"I try to identify how much money a club is making per fan, per season and Liverpool are around £1500 to £1600 mark whereas Rangers make substantially less than that.

"If you have a huge fanbase as Rangers have, they could restrict season tickets to half the capacity of the ground and charge individual ticket prices for individual matches.

"So you’ve got to admire the board in a way because this is not the most lucrative approach.

"The advantage that it does bring is you get the money from season tickets a little bit early, so there are some benefits from a cash flow point of view.

"But from an overall perspective, they would actually be better off selling fewer season tickets."

The Verdict: Treat fans well

As Maguire explains, the Gers could have made a lot more income with fewer season tickets. The price per match for such tickets will be a lot lower than selling seats individually for every single match, and with the demand for a spot, they could probably have driven up the price quite high.

The cheapest season ticket for the Gers is £372 (statista.com), meaning the 55-time Scottish champions have brought in a minimum £16.4m. That is still a considerable amount of money and should go a long way for the club, especially as they could be competing in the Champions League group stages next autumn. They have shown that they can still keep the books healthy while respecting the fans along the way.

In other news, Rangers lose out to Mike Ashley again.