Is having Rangers in Division 2 a good thing for Scottish football?

On August 10^th 2013 the Scottish second division’s new season will kick off. This season the division gets to be the happy hunting ground for the former Glasgow giants, Rangers.

Like last season, Rangers will go into this season as hot favourites to run away with the league.

Having Rangers play in the second division gives the rest of the teams a huge boost in the pocket. Just like the third division last season, having one half of the old firm gives a financial boost to all of the clubs in the league. The average attendance in the third division jumped from 475 to 5598. A jump of similar size would be expected in this division as well, if not more with some of the large grounds in the second division.

The extra money coming in is a needed tonic for these smaller sides. More so with Scottish teams having more and more trouble keeping above water. Small sides get two visits per year that will fill their grounds.

The local communities also get a shot in the arm from the money coming in from those visits by the huge travelling support. It may seem strange to some fans outside of Scotland, but the reality is for a small town like Arbroath having 10,000 travelling fans showing up twice a year just means more money for the entire community.

In addition to the financial impact, there is also the simple fact that you now have a footballing giant in your League. It’s the timeless David and Goliath battle, but every single week!

At the end of last season Rangers ran away with the third division but for the first few months, they came up against some major opposition. Division two should be more of the same and Rangers will face sides pulling out all the stops to cause an upset.

With all of the positives around a season like this for the smaller sides, there is a tendency to brush over the negatives.

Top of them all, is the vast difference between one side and the others. This kills off the chances of automatic promotion right out the gate.

This means you also have one less opening for the play off slot, as one of the better sides who would have normally won, will now be fighting for that spot. There is also the grim possibility that Rangers will have it won by Christmas (for the most part). If this happens, you could certainly see the League’s fan base shutting off for the final run in.

Relegation is also becoming an issue. It seems unusual to say that with Rangers no doubt running off with the league.  However, the Glasgow giants will also have the chance to really put teams to the sword. For every East Fife side that parks the bus and gets beat by a single goal, there will be an Ayr side that has a bad day at Ibrox and ends up on the wrong side of 6 or 7 goal drubbing. These are the games that could easily shape the relegation battle when goal difference starts to play a major factor.

When the dust settles, the League may have lost some of its competitive edge. But, this may have been a worthy price to pay for the money that will flood in to the clubs and towns. All of the smaller sides in the league need that boost of income, and having a side that pulls in 50,000 for home games and travels with 10,000 fans makes that easy. In 2014 we’ll no doubt see Rangers give that boost to Division 1.

Indeed, until they get back into the SPL, the same debate will linger on the positives and negatives of Rangers playing in the lower leagues.

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