LargsBud

I'm glad of this as it means we aren't tied down to too many long term contracts on a pre-coronavirus budget. We will be able to adjust our finances accordingly for next season without as much trouble as other clubs. There isn't a chance of this season continuing so we don't need to worry about that.

The EPL has 6 European places and 3 relegation places. 9 positions to fight for, nearly half the league. Also nobody is saying every league doesn't have meaningless games but in our situation if you increase the number of teams you will increase the number of meaningless games. The leagues are fine at the moment. Tinkering about with the format isn't going to bring the crowds back and revolutionise Scottish football. The problems we have lie elsewhere.

What do you see the main benefits being of 3 leagues of 14?

My point was more about the other leagues than the Premier League. At the moment 4 teams in Scotland experience winning a league every year. With this new suggested format it would go down to 3. The old firm will still be winning the premier league no matter what

Anything that means fewer opportunities for teams to win league titles is a bad move IMO. Scottish football and the domestic trophies are already dominated by two teams one team. More teams should have the opportunity to win titles - not less. As I've said before, the three best seasons I've had supporting St Mirren have been the 3 we have won the 1st division. Nothing else comes close. Fewer leagues and fewer teams winning titles every year isn't a good thing.

With it looking unlikely any football is going to be played this year surely that brings finishing the season at some point back to the table. The main reason for not finishing the season was that it would have a knock on effect into next year and delay TV deals and European qualification etc for next season. If next season is essentially cancelled then we should be looking at finishing this season now. Maybe calling the leagues was premature after all.

A lot of the Juniors in the premier league get bigger attendances than most league 1 teams. Its exciting being a big fish in a small pond fighting for the title every year and playing in the junior cup every year. I worry that the novelty of the pyramid will wear off after a few years and the big junior clubs will just blend into the mediocrity of the Scottish lower leagues. As a Largs Thistle fan, I don't look at clubs like Montrose and Stenhousemuir and think "Oh I wish we could be like them". I've followed Largs Thistle through the years and we are a club similar to St Mirren in the juniors. Kind of a yo-yo team between the premier league and first division with a very decent chance of a cup run every now and again. We obviously have zero chance to getting to the senior Scottish cup final or semis so we wave goodbye to any real cup runs.

I'm not saying Talbot didn't want their games on. They had played 9 games less than Kilwinning. You can't seriously think thats all down to the cup. Kilwinning play cup games too. If you follow Rob Roy you should know that this is the same story with Talbot every year. They always lag far behind in games because their park is so bad. Its not just a one off. The point is though, having games played has got to count for something. Average points is the most farcical and amateur thing I've ever heard of. Just look round Europe and the rest of the world and see how other leagues are finished. I bet you don't see any of that average points nonsense anywhere else. Which says it all really.

I'm neither for nor against independence but why do you think COVID has killed it stone dead? 🤔

Two major problems with the way they've done that; 1. It attributes absolutely no responsibility to teams for getting games played - Talbot and certain other teams end up way behind on fixtures every year due to the poor quality of the pitch. They have a degree of responsibility to improve this and get the games on. Yes some of this is due to the cup competitions, but not anywhere near all of it. 2. They didn't state a cut off number of games that needed to be played to have counted in the average points method. By that logic you could have essentially played 1 won 1, 100% record and win the league. From all the ways it could have been done this is the most Mickey Mouse and embarrassing way. You either call it as it stands, vow to play it to a finish at some point or null and void the season. Either of these 3 options would have been reasonable. They have just made a total joke of themselves. I highly doubt we will see the average points method used anywhere else in world football. Embarrassing.

Its quite fitting that this was the SJFA's last act as an organisation. Total shambles and sums them up. I'm not 100% sold on the pyramid but one major bonus of it is getting rid of the SJFA.

Whats the point of a 14-10-10-10 league then? Its hardly any difference and doesn't get any of the so called benefits all the people who want a bigger league are looking for? This solution long term looks like it will please nobody all it will do is dilute the top league prize pot.

What are the benefits of expanding the league? I don't get why people think this is going to make anything better. The best seasons I've had supporting St Mirren have been the 3 seasons I've seen us win the first division. Nothing else comes close (not even the league cup season). Fewer bigger leagues means fans have fewer opportunities to see their team win titles and increases the number of meaningless games at the same time.

It would be very tough for us next season if its only extended for one year. With United coming up and you'd expect Hearts to get better. It would end up being us, Hamilton, Ross County, Inverness and Livi fighting it out for one guaranteed survival place.

Playing different teams is such a small benefit of extending the league. What difference to your enjoyment really does it make if it's St Johnstone for the 4th time or Dunfermiline for the 2nd time? Surely it's far more important that the game is competitive and means something?

Nobody is saying there are no meaningless games at the moment. The point is that a bigger league means more meaningless games. There's no doubt about that. The league is good at the moment as no matter where you are in it you are likely competing for something as it could be playoff, relegation, top 6, Europe or the title. The negatives of growing the league far outweigh the benefits for me.

Theres nothing wrong or surprising with Hearts looking after their own interest. Every club would do the same. In fact Budge as CEO of the company legally needs to do whats best for the company and the shareholders so theres no issue here. I can't see the other clubs also agreeing. I'm not a fan of doing league reconstruction so I hope it doesn't happen. It would dilute our prize pot and mean more meaningless games.

Its probably been discussed before but would we get anything form any future transfers he does?

I think the fairest solution is to just pick the season up from where it left off whenever we can get back to football again. We have 8 games to go. We just play them first then immediately start the new season. We can fit the extra 8 games in easily over the year by having extra mid week games and no winter break. Its obviously not a 100% perfect situation but nothing is. IMO this does the least damage. It would be very harsh relegating a team with 8 games to go.

The club rightly aren't putting out the begging hand to fans unless they absolutely need it. Asking fans to bail clubs out is something that should only be done very few times in a clubs history to ensure that when you really need it the fans come calling. We St Mirren fans have in the past bailed our club out its hour darkest hour and some point in the future may have to again. However at the moment when its not absolutely desperate life or death scenario for the club its right they don't ask just because other clubs seem to be doing it. Be proud that the club is financially responsible and in a decent state at the moment. Fans are going to have a lot of financial worries themselves now and more so in the future when this recession really hits.

If 50% had no symptoms and the other 50% had mild symptoms how did people die from it? Am I missing something?

If anybody wants a laugh go and read the first page of this thread and see the experts on here telling us it's all an overreaction.

Its a cultural thing. As a society we've never seen anything like this before and people can't get their head around the idea that this is actually happening and the government can't protect us. It's tailed off in China because the memories of SARS, swine flu and other epidemics that killed many people in China all happened in living memory. So culturally they know how to deal with stuff like this and immediately go into preservation mode when it starts to take off.

It's worrying the lack of urgency people have over it in this country. Largs prom was mobbed yesterday and there were fair rides and restaurants open and all sorts going on. We are only 2 weeks behind Italy going by the stats and we still aren't in full lockdown. In western countries our lives are so comfortable and people still can't fathom that something like this is actually happening.

It takes more than 2 weeks to start seeing the effects of a lock down. Look at what happened in China. The people dying today in Italy caught it more than 2 weeks ago (pre-lockdown). Some people even take up to 2 weeks before showing any symptoms. Then they spend multiple more weeks after that fighting it.