BLF

My notes from the AGM: Formalities: Accounts accepted, directors re-elected and auditors re-appointed Accounts: Directors loans have been repaid shortly after year end using the parachute payment – no interest was charged and there is not expected to be a repeat of the cash flow issues this year. Depreciation is calculated as a percentage of the build cost of the stadium, but maintenance in an on-going project rather than building up a reserve to offset this. Excluding depreciation the club broke even. Sale: There are expressions of interest all the time, there is 'nothing on the table of any interest at the moment'– the directors are ‘just looking for their money back’. Access: Currently awaiting a grant to enable higher level seating for disabled supporters. Club is currently in breach of equalities act, as vehicle access is restricted. Manager: This will be our 5th manager in 2 years, the Board are not in a rush, have to get the appointment right. Have had 30-40 applicants already, most with little or no experience. Alex Miller will take charge in the interim (working without a contract), but doesn’t want the job – club wont promote from within – looking for serious experience. Playing staff: There is some budget for players, but will mainly need to move players on to bring in new players, the board will not go into debt to improve the squad. Manager is entirely responsible for signings, he controls his budget – board don’t advise – if the manager wants scouts or additional coaches, it comes out of his budget. Currently no bids for any of our players. We have a 33% sell on clause for John McGinn. Players trained more under Ian Murray than any other manager the board had seen – players we happy with the training on a Sunday – this was introduced on the back of medical advice (warm down/recover). Commercial initiatives: Number of initiatives on-going, Car parking, Conferencing, Supporters’ bar but always keen to look at new ideas, this is why Thistle is being played on a Friday night and experimenting without segregation, also trialling early bird pricing. Other: Board generally in favour of League Cup changes, would like to see more football player in summer months without a complete switch to summer football. BBC alba deal is not good for championship clubs, only £3k per game screened, we should not have any further home games on Alba this season. Meeting closed at 6:45pm

Tesco never 'paid' £15m as I understand it, they allocated those funds to the project then spent the money themselves, better bargaining with Barr etc. Also the reason the directors didn't 'spend more' as such, was that the deal was for an SPL compliant stadium, nothing more, nothing less. Again - from memory - happy to be corrected!

iirc the deal was for something like £15m but it worked like this. £2.5m immediately to pay off the debt. £6-8m towards building the stadium the balance in a 'savings' account earning interest. The funds in this account were returned to Tesco at the end of the deal but the interest was St Mirren's to keep - this was spent fitting out Ralston and 'personalising' St Mirren Park. The reason it was set up like that was that Tesco agreed to 'underwrite' the costs of the stadium and the BoD wanted reassurances the stadium would not get half built and we run out of funds. (that's all according to memory, so I am happy to be corrected)

Never been a huge fan of Gow, but he might actually be the missing link in our midfield just now. A bit more physical and a bit more experienced than the others in there. If he's fit he'd be worth a go for a few games, until he inevitably gets injured again!!

I would doubt we'd see Jack Ross back at SMFC with the current board!

11 years.....but who's counting.

http://smisa.net/news-archive/180-smisa-statement-fan-ownership-gordon-scott There have been some important developments of late which the committee of the trust are keen to share with members and the wider support. Over the past few weeks we have been working with former St Mirren director Gordon Scott on plans to make a joint offer for the shares held by the selling consortium. As part of our research into that we conducted a survey of fans, which had about 600 responses, and we would like to thank everybody who took the time to fill it out. All in, 96% of fans backed the idea of fan ownership, and 94% backed the principle of a fan on the board, while 60% said they would be willing to make a financial contribution towards a scheme that would bring about either or both. Those results have encouraged us to go public on plans which if realised could ensure St Mirren stays in the hands of the people who care about it most...you. Members of the consortium have already indicated to the trust that they are happy to listen to what we put forward. We would stress things are at an early stage and there is a lot of work to be done before we would be in a position to make a formal offer to them. However we have the basis of a plan which - should an offer be accepted - would bring about meaningful fan representation over the short and medium term, and a transfer to majority fan ownership over the long term. The model we are looking into is as follows: - Gordon will put up most of the money, and SMiSA will fundraise the rest. The fundraising campaign will only start if we agree a deal in principle with the consortium; - if a deal is done, Gordon would become the majority shareholder and chairman of the club; - SMiSA would substantially increase its shareholding, and receive a place on the board, to be elected by the fans; - Both parties would have an agreement that would see SMiSA continue to fundraise over several years to raise the cash to buy Gordons majority shareholding at some point in the future The financial details are still to be decided but we envisage a £10-per-month membership scheme being the primary source of long-term ongoing funding, while other short-term income streams would be needed to fund the trusts contribution to the initial share purchase. The trust has a five-figure sum of money in the bank as it stands, however we would only commit this towards an offer for the shares if a majority of members were happy for us to do so. We see the benefits of the proposed model as being as follows: - the current board deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the job they have done over the years, but they have made it clear they would like to move on. This would allow them to do so while keeping the club in the hands of St Mirren supporters; - it would see control of St Mirren transfer to Gordon, a lifelong Saints fan with the business background and boardroom experience to take the club forward, while the fans would have a direct representative with influence over its day-to-day running; - the previous attempt at fan ownership suffered because it had to find all the money at once; this would be different as Gordons presence means an Ann Budge model where we would have years to raise the funds to buy him out and put a viable fan ownership structure in place; We are very keen to hear the thoughts of members and the wider support on these plans, and invite your feedback. Although we believe SMiSA is best placed to be the vehicle through which this process should happen, ultimately it belongs to everybody who cares about St Mirren. We have already begun the process of engaging with fan groups because we know what we are proposing will only work if the wider support is willing to back it. As it stands, the SMiSA committee is a small group and we would welcome the input of any fans who feel they have the expertise and skills to help us take it forward. As we say, things are at a very early stage and there are a lot of hurdles which would need to be cleared before any of this could become reality. It wont happen overnight, but we will do our best to keep members and the wider support updated whenever there are developments to be shared. However, we are excited by the possibilities of what this could mean for our club and hope you are too. The SMiSA committee

not that bothered tbh - we're getting a good bit of cash for this - plus its not like we are using it.....

Smisa is the 1877 Society Ltd and is a Co-operative and Community benefit society. AFAIK It's not connected with this project.

Where does the money to actually fit out the void come from, I would have thought you were talking about six figure sums to get the place fitted and operational, if you are only getting £15k from initial joining fees, is there an element of borrowing or is the club financing it? Not a criticism btw, just wondering?

Ok, so you don't know what that interest is on?

Seems a bit steep for what it is, but good luck to them.

I don't have access to the accounts Lord P, could you explain further for my benefit. What does it say specifically in the accounts, how much have we borrowed and from which directors, where is he interest rate stated?

he's not under contract though, so why would he come to training?

The logo certainly looks a lot better than it did last year - still just a bit big for me, but of course you have to make concessions and compromises when doing these things. Main point is the strip is really smart - well done JD and Fans Council.

sponsor logo still terrible - but a lot better than last year as the B&W is less garish than the luminous yellow, the top is really decent.

Typical EL wording would state: "We will pay the amount of damages for which you, or any of the additional persons insured, are liable at law and claim costs in respect of accidental bodily injury to any employed person caused during the period of insurance and arising out of and in the course of their employment by you in connection with the business."

That's my view also - unless people are suggesting Thommo deliberately injured McGinn, this is a workplace accident, our EL will insure us against it.

As far as I am aware McGinn didn't accept any payment.

That's not how Employers Liability would work. Unless you are implying that Thommo deliberately injured Mcginn...

I would expect the policy to have us covered. The Club is responsible for providing a safe working environment, suitable supervision and training on the use of the equipment - arguably one or more of these things wasn't enforced adequately by the club and so John has a case against them and the club will be insured for such an event. The only question is how much of the compo do the club recover from Thommo by way of disciplinary. ETA: EL is not the same as your car insurance.

Hi all - we've had a fantastic response to the survey so far, thank you to everyone who has contributed - If you haven't completed it yet, you have until the end of the week to do so. We would really like to get as much input as possible so if you are able to please share your thoughts!

Hi All. As we all know, a majority shareholding in St Mirren has been up for sale for almost six years now, and the future ownership of the club remains uncertain. In recent months, SMiSA has grown in strength - having doubled our membership in the past year to almost 200, and recruiting a number of new committee members. In recent weeks, the committee has started work to investigate funding models through which the fans could potentially achieve either ownership or meaningful representation in the running of the club. We would stress that things are at a very early stage - all we are doing at this stage is gathering information to shed some light on what is and isn't workable. Of course if at some point down the line anything was to be proposed which would involve committing SMiSA funds, this would be subject to the approval of members. With that in mind we are hoping you will fill out the following short survey, in the link below. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FWNJFJY There are two aims - one is to establish the level of backing for the principle of fan ownership, the other is to gauge support for some of the fundraising models open to us. Your answers will be important and we need as many fans as possible to give us their feedback - please share our posts on social media and help get the survey out there. Thanks in advance for your participation!

How do you know his personal financial position?

I know they had 'access' to more than the 52% but are you saying they have bought others out?