Kemp

I can´t believe after a post from the boss telling us all to behave we get the worst piece of trolling in the history of St Mirren websites Bad language you are after is it? I won´t take the bait. Can´t say I have noticed any religious bigotry on here, plenty of anti Old Firm stuff but that has nothing to do with religion. I don´t live in Scotland any more but I think people there are starting to get a bit precious about this, and well, pretty much everything these days. I´m glad the forum will be monitored a bit more strictly though. The usual suspects were ruining it again.

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Unlikely. EPL and Champions League games are on in every sports bar and hotel and millions of living rooms around the world every week, in Ghana, in Peru, in China, Japan, USA, Mongolia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia....I don't think I've been to any country in the world where people are not glued to Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool etc games. Anywhere further south than Carlisle and nobody would open their curtains if the bigots were playing in the back garden. Nobody in England wants them, nobody in Scotland wants them, few outside of the British Isles have even heard of them and I doubt Sky particularly care about them. Hopefully the new chairman of St Mirren will not have this ridiculous and self defeating fear of the bigot brothers.

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It was set low in order to ensure it was "over-subscribed" instantly. I'd say 300 is not 10% of the support - including Buddies spread around the world and those who dont attend every week due to family rather than financial reasons you are probably only looking at about 4% of people who take a very serious interest in St Mirren. I don't think anyone is signing up so we can have a supporters bar. It is the possibility to vote on issues which impact on the running of the club and the identity of the club which is exciting people. (to be honest, much as id love a bar at the ground, i find all the talk about the potential bar to be a bit cringeworthy!!)

Referring to my questions above, it is this type of post that worries me. Does nobody else have the sensation of this being rushed through? We are assured proper due diligence has been carried out. I'd really just like to see some more evidence of that. Again, I think a CIC running the club is an incredibly exciting idea. The amount of debt we are talking about is not.

I'm excited by the CIC proposals and would love to see this work out. However, I continue to have some major concerns, which mainly come from the 2m asking price for 52% of the club. From reading the twitter feed of the meeting (I live in Africa and it will be something of a tall order to attend one of the meetings!) the point was raised, and the answer given by RA is far from informative. The issue of the club "not being debt" by the CIC taking out loans is easy enough to understand, the idea that this does not put the club at risk is proving somewhat more difficult for me to get my head around. I have a healthy fear of free money given the present economic situation in Europe. To say the club "would be in the same position" if the CIC failed financially does not add up for me. Question 1: Surely the CIC could be forced in to a position of making a quick sale? Worst case scenario; 52% of the club could be sold to a Reg Brealy esque character? Question 2: Where does this figure of 2m come from if nobody has bid anything close to that amount? The 2m concerns me as I see it as incredibly large figure for the CIC to pay off over any reasonable length of time. My personal view is if the club is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay, surely a figure of 1m would be a fairer price for 52% of the club. Question 3: If RA and the leaders of the CIC are so confident that St Mirren can generate sufficent profit to pay off this loan, will the present commercial department of St Mirren be replaced due to their poor track record thus far in making St Mirren a profitable business? I honestly believe the CIC is going to pay over the odds in exchange for the public backing of SG and the present board.

Is it possible to have a breakdown of who the other 48% of the club belongs to? I imagine a large % of that must be made by individuals, the "other two" being the obvious examples. Also, can it be confirmed that none of that other 48% is owned by SG or any of the selling consortium. They are all selling ALL their shares? I think both of these issues are quite important for those of us still deciding if the 52% CIC model could work.

The knowledge that f**king leech won't show his face in the bar should boost membership somewhat. I don't see why the number of corporate members so far is being described as "not impressive". The whole thing has just been launched. The 300 individual and 12 corporate members seem very low numbers to me. I'm sure they could both be reached within a couple of weeks once the ball starts rolling.

Well you shouldn't answer a question with a question, but it is a figure I have seen quoted a number of times on the forums. I was asking in my original post if it is the case that the club is still in debt, are you able to state the amount of debt that the club is in?

120 quid a year is not a lot of money. It is one pint of lager less a week. The fatties from the FFIT club should be on board already. I'd be delighted to pay that to have a share and stake in the club. Where the complication for me lies, is the fact that the money is not going directly to St Mirren FC, and I am not receiving a share in St Mirren but in 10000 hours. And that the cash is being used simply to buy shares in the club. c*ltic fans mind me a shower of a paranoid numpties, but they did invest heavily when they had a chance to buy shares and rebuild their club. I'd love to see the people of Paisley do something similar for St Mirren. I still have doubts over whether this is the best way to go about it though. If we could buy the club for 500,000 quid, and invest another 1.5 million in the infrastructure for diversifying revenue streams and strengthening the youth development infrastructure, then it would be a lot easier to make my mind up. Back to my earlier question on what really is the correct asking price for St Mirren.

My main question at the moment is why does it cost 2m to buy 52% of the club. Is a business with 800,000 pounds of debt (and we do still have this debt I understand?) and with no viable business model that suggests it can ever make a profit, worth almost 4 million pounds? I'd happily invest in a community based ownership model if the money was going straight to the improvement of the club. I'm not so keen for it to be used to pay the present board of directors, and although I understand that they have every right to make their money back, I am unsure about this price. Does anyone have any information on what similar sized clubs have been sold for?

You are watching ICE HOCKEY? In a SHOPPING CENTRE? And the team is name after......A SHOPPING CENTRE? And people are supposed to identify with an "out of town mall" rather than their home town? I am speechless. Hope the new owners can get some passion back about the club and the town. It's sad to see so many drift away, but indeed also quite understandable.

Sid, you have entirely misunderstood the point everyone is making here. Calm down and go read it all again.

Sid, you have entirely misunderstood the point everyone is making here. Calm down and go read it all again.

A not unreasonable assumption point of view given how much we owe to Mr Gilmour, but a dangerous one none the less. In business, I don't look at what someone has done in the past, but what they deliver now, and what they intend to do in the present and future. The present board wants out. Is the deal they are taking going to be in the best interests of the club? Or is it just the fastest way out? This is an interesting thread - drivel from Animal and Sid aside - but the feeling I get from here is that our club is about to change ownership, and nobody here is armed with enough information to know whether it is a positive or negative move. I was completely ignorant about the style of deal that was being pushed through until I read this thread though, and I thank the original poster for at least brining it up. I for one am concerned from what I have read here. I am going to contact the club for clarification before commenting more, it would be good if we all did the same. The debate is certainly healthy however.

I trust Mr Gilmour has done a process of due diligence on the Maxi Group and the new directors, and also on the process of setting up a CIC. Otherwise his work of putting us on a sound financial footing would be undone in the stroke of a pen. I'm not best pleased we had to lose our stadium under his leadership while others such as Motherwell have got off scot free, but SG has always had the best interests of St Mirren at heart. That said, once again Sid just proves he only posts on here to incite other supporters. I'll take the bait. What a ridiculous suggestion that discussing the issue and demanding answers at what sounds like a critical point in the deal is harmful. Imagine we had done the same as Reg Brealey planned his takeover. An online Q&A would be most helpful. If this plan was to go ahead, and the club were to look to supporters for investment, it is likely that St Mirren fans living away from Paisley would invest the same as or more than those still based at home. How many of us are in the position to go to one of these SMiSA or shareholder only events? As others have said, the plans looked good on paper but could be a total failure in practice. Would the local population really be so motivated to put their money in to the club? I have my doubts. I also have major doubts about using a system that does not seem to have ever worked anywhere else. Or are we trying to become the next Barcelona? At present it looks like a couple of guys want to run a football club, without needing to put their own money in. I look forward to receiving more information on the issue.

Can you someone explain the whole story here from A to Z. I have no idea what you are all talking about. When is the new owner coming in? Are we certain who the new owner is going to be? Are talks more or less done? What is this thing about getting a 2million pound grant or loan? Has the new owner worked out a way to get 2m quid from the public sector to fund the club? Surely grounds for celebration if it is a grant, no? Can I set up Abercorn again and get a 2m quid grant then?

Laughing this hard is not a good way to start a hangover day.

Brilliant!

The world is a wonderful and varied place. There must be better ways for you to invest your time than this? Flower arranging? Golf? Leave the animals be.

Those photos a few pages ago of old and new Paisley certainly are depressing. HOW could ANYONE think that demolishing a historic building and putting up the f**king piazza could be a good idea? And that water tower can get to f**k too. Anyone know the individuals responsible for the decision to demolish? They should be tarred and feathered and.....naw actually, they should just be forced to spend some time in the shithole that is Paisley town centre.

Tend to forget that they took a previously well managed club in a good financial state spent money it didn´t have, sending it to ten years in the First Division, a bawhair away from going out of business and eventually costing it it´s stadium in exchange for a mini McDiarmid Park. Funny how people are bitter about all that, eh?

No, it hasn´t. I believe for a while it was about the only thing that kept us afloat. The board of the time have take most of the responsibility. Although I do wonder how much money Hay walked about with in his pocket. As Shull says, thanks to these clowns we almost went out of business and are now leaving Love Street to go play in a joke lego land stadium down the road.

No, it´s not. Clinic and British Sea Power are there for a start. Not bad for a free gig.