bendan

It's evening so easier than daytime. Could try Royal Terrace if London Rd doesn't have space. Or even Regent Rd. They are not as close as some possibilities but you shouldn't get held up by traffic getting away. LEZ is not being enforced yet in Edinburgh.

I haven't seen any mention on here of the SFA's proposed Conference League at tier 5 in Scottish football, supposedly to include 4 B teams who can't be promoted or relegated. I'd hope St Mirren will not be voting in favour of this, even though we're not likely to be affected in any way. The club should support a proper pyramid being developed. Any word of the clubs position?

It was a strange time. We had some great players and yet we were shite.

I disagree with this. Filling in the corners (and I don't think it should be with more capacity for spectators) would help to improve the atmosphere. The worst grounds in Scotland for atmosphere are the all-seater ones with open corners. Wouldn't cost much to put boards or screens up, might generate income, and would probably improve atmosphere. Why not try it? There's no rush, of course.

I had been thinking the same thing, but I found that Gmail was putting my SMISA emails in the 'promotions' folder, so I wasn't seeing them in my main box. One thing I think I haven't had, and I could well be wrong, is an acknowledgement of what I actually paid for when the payment came out. Not a big deal, but might be something to consider moving forward.

Over the long term I don't think the performance of the team on the park will be very different unless we become a 'bigger' club, and to me that means getting more people through the gate. That will only happen consistently over the long term if more people have an affinity for the club that can withstand all the ups and downs that will inevitably occur. To me the best long term way to achieve that is by trying to put roots into every corner of the local community and by consciously avoiding linking that with short term benefits to the first team.

That's personally what I'm hoping to see come from this. And I'd like to see as wide a variety of people involved in activities at the stadium (or activities elsewhere organised by the club) as possible. The club should touch the lives of everyone in the area in some way.

You are completely correct, of course, but the reality is that the fans would *feel* responsible for it. Even if this bid is successful, 10 years down the line it will still legally be 'the club' that is responsible for this, that and the next thing, but the fans will *feel* it is their responsibility, because they will own the club.

Craig Whyte borrowed against future club revenues to acquire Rangers. Charles Green paid himself (and others) a fortune to be an executive of a fourth tier club. The Glazers bought Man U and then saddled the club with the cost of the acquisition. We have no reason to suspect that financial institutions would behave with integrity in their dealings with a future owner of St Mirren. As for the second point, it would be the club that would be offering the ground as security, but it would clearly be the fans (or at least smisa) who would take responsibility for repaying the money.

Completely agree. A new owner can come in and borrow against the stadium, and maybe a whole lot more than 350k. He could do whatever he liked with the money, including paying himself back the money he spent buying the club. But somehow that wouldn't be as bad as the fans being responsible for the debt?

I'm in the same position - I'd imagine it must be OK to pay the whole founder's package up front, just a question of how to arrange it.

Yes, I could do that. It would seem that any kind of upfront payments would be a good thing, though, so I hope that is being considered. There's also the question of people who may be willing or able to pay more than the requested amount. I know it's clear it's one member one vote, but there would probably be some willing to donate a bit more.

Will there be an option to pay up front? I have a bit of cash now, but I could see my missus objecting to a DD a few years down the line when I might not be in the position I am now.

That's not true at all. The 5.1 billion is purely for the UK rights for 2016 to 2019. The overseas rights are on top of that, and they are not sold by Sky, though Sky can bid for them in overseas markets, if it wants. I've got no problem with the EPL getting as much as it can. They do a good job of selling their game. The thing that pisses me off is that if I want to see the SPFL I have to also pay for the EPL, and that obviously makes it much more expensive to watch Scottish football, yet the clubs up here don't capture that money. The amounts are so big now that it is actually a wider economic issue, not just a football one. We are, as a country, pumping a very large amount of money into English sport every year through the media. If our government had any real powers they would be trying to balance things up a bit through regulation, for example by prohibiting the forced bundling of Scottish and English football.