Marvin Bartley admits he couldn’t believe his eyes just after kick-off on Tuesday night between Rangers and Dynamo Kyiv.
The sides faced off in the Champions League third round qualifier second leg at Hampden Park to decide who would progress to face RB Salzburg in the play-off.
It was a massive night for Rangers with huge financial rewards on the line but in the end, a shocking refereeing call handed Kyiv the advantage to go on and win the game 2-0 and secure a 3-1 aggregate triumph.
It was the first European game of the season for Rangers at the national stadium having played there for the first time this campaign against Motherwell on Saturday.
Rangers are playing at Hampden due to construction delays at Ibrox as the club wait on a shipment to arrive from Asia to finish work on the Copland Road Stand.
It means Gers fans are being asked to make their way over to Hampden until the work in Govan has been completed and quite clearly, it’s not an ideal situation.
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Bartley astounded by empty Hampden seats
That’s because it was clear to see through the BBC Scotland cameras that the stadium was nowhere near filled with Rangers supporters despite the occasion.
And that is what left Bartley rubbing his eyes after being sent a picture of the vast swathes of empty seats in Mount Florida just after kick-off.
Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, the former Livingston and Hibs man told host Gordon Duncan: “I didn’t expect to see Hampden the way it was.
“I got sent a picture and I could not believe the game had actually kicked off and there were that many seats without people sitting on them.
“On a European night, a Champions League qualifier, I would never ever have thought I’d seen that. And for whatever reason, extra expenses etcetera, it could be down to that.
“But as you said. it’s proving to be an even bigger problem than just being away from Ibrox. Now the fans aren’t wanting to travel and rightly so if it is costing them more money – football is expensive as it is.
“On a midweek game trying to travel through there, the traffic was horrendous by all accounts as well, it’s just not a good look at all. And then you get knocked out for whatever reason.”
Rangers seriously getting hit in the pocket
The equation is quite simple. Rangers are of course paying for the use of Hampden until they can get back to playing at Ibrox again.
When that will be is anyone’s guess but the longer that goes on, the more money the club are set to lose week in week out.
And that will mainly be driven by the number of empty seats we could continue to see at Hampden for Rangers games, simply because people aren’t as willing to make the decision to travel over compared to watching the team at Ibrox.
It’s a double whammy for Rangers from a financial perspective and that’s without even going into the massive loss in revenue as a result of a failure to qualify for the Champions League.
