Wilbur

What would be the point of SPL chairmen voting in favour of the Rangers newco solely to retain sponsors at the cost of losing their own fanbase many of whom have already made it clear they will no longer attend games under those circumstances? Short-term thinking that will surely result in financial suicide.
What would be the point of sponsors threatening to impose exit clauses if the result would be a boycott of their products ?
Scaremongering by those who fear they have most to lose financially.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Rangers can't be punished. They are already f*cked !
The "Rangers" that was guilty of all sorts of misdemeanours for the past 15-20 years (some still to be confirmed / determined) do not exist as soon as they are liquidated.
The Rangers newco, should they be admitted to the SFL, are a completely different entity. Their fate (not a punishment) ought to be starting life in Division 3. It makes no sense to 'punish' the newco team with any additional penalties for the crimes of the 'oldco', whose punishment has been absolute i.e. liquidation, confined to history, dead as a dodo, they have ceased to be, etc, etc.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Rangers can't be punished. They are already f*cked !
The "Rangers" that was guilty of all sorts of misdemeanours for the past 15-20 years (some still to be confirmed / determined) do not exist as soon as they are liquidated.
The Rangers newco, should they be admitted to the SFL, are a completely different entity. Their fate (not a punishment) ought to be starting life in Division 3. It makes no sense to 'punish' the newco team with any additional penalties for the crimes of the 'oldco', whose punishment has been absolute i.e. liquidation, confined to history, dead as a dodo, they have ceased to be, etc, etc.

The Herald's photo archive of snaps of St Mirren fans must be threadbare. The saints kit being worn by fans in the photo accompanying the CIC article is the 1999/2000 CETCO top, the photo itself is probably one of those taken from the Town Hall during the promotion-winning celebrations. Slightly ironically, given that the article refers to SMISA's opposition to the CIC proposal, a young(er) Wullie Bell is prominent near the front of the crowd in the photo.

Fact 2 - At least 99% of B&WArmy Forum users will continue to be bored shitless by endless new threads flogging this dead horse.

Fact 2 - At least 99% of B&WArmy Forum users will continue to be bored shitless by endless new threads flogging this dead horse.

Fact 2 - At least 99% of B&WArmy Forum users will continue to be bored shitless by endless new threads flogging this dead horse.

Fact 2 - At least 99% of B&WArmy Forum users will continue to be bored shitless by endless new threads flogging this dead horse.

They've done a remarkable job taking QoS down to the foot of the table in such a short space of time.

New song for their supporters, "No We Surrender".

Joyful. Utter humiliation for those who follow follow them.

Joyful. Utter humiliation for those who follow follow them.

New song for their supporters, "No We Surrender".

New song for their supporters, "No We Surrender".

New song for their supporters, "No We Surrender".

New song for their supporters, "No We Surrender".

Would that be Budweiser Sausages Ltd ?

Would that be Budweiser Sausages Ltd ?

£2 million asking price for 88,287 shares, eh ?
I'd be more than happy to accept £22.65 per share for my 150 shares.

McB, I've read a stack of KF's crime books. Some of them are excellent (and a few are so-so). I've never actually heard any of his music, although I was almost tempted to go to King Tuts a couple of years ago when I discovered he was appearing in Glasgow.

eM yalP - zeaB naoJ
Next challenge, please.

It might be considerably longer than most but this 10000 Hours thread is no basically different to most that appear on this forum - a slagfest between aliases and off-topic posts that take the debate off at a tangent. Too much slabbering and not enough information.
After months of debate I still don't know whether I want the deal to succeed or fail. In essence the only thing that really matters to me, whatever people think about the pros & cons of the CIC, is whether or not it is ever going to happen. Delay follows delay follows delay. This deal was supposed to have been completed donkeys ago but still it hasn't happened. So what's the problem ? Is it just down to raising enough money to do the deal, in which case the strong implication would be that the CIC doesn't have the necessary support from the community and the hardcore St Mirren supporters ? If that is true then RA should just piss off and look elsewhere rather than continue to waste everybody's time. Or is there another reason rather than/as well as the lack of financial backing ?
The members of the selling consortium probably regret ever listening to RA. Their payday must seem as far away as it ever did. The supporters want to know about the future direction of St Mirren FC and this shambles needs to be resolved soon.

We have just offloaded our crocks, we don't need another one to waste a wage on.

We have just offloaded our crocks, we don't need another one to waste a wage on.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/st-mirren/meticulous-planning-for-a-brighter-future-case-study-st-mirren-1.1105687
Meticulous planning for a brighter future case study st mirren
Richard Atkinson
8 Jun 2011
CASE STUDY: ST MIRREN
THERE is something of the evangelist about Richard Atkinson. The 37-year-old company director is orchestrating the planned transformation of St Mirren from a traditionally run Scottish football club to an organisation with a much wider remit in the town of Paisley.
In many ways Atkinson, whose family own a haulage and construction company in Irvine, is attempting to turn back the clock, returning St Mirren to its supporters and community. It will be a distinctly Scottish model, but borrowing from the membership concept of clubs on continental Europe, including Schalke ’04 and, yes, Barcelona.
Whether the project is truly visionary or hopelessly idealistic remains to be seen. But what is not in doubt is that Atkinson has researched the scheme meticulously and that it is now close to becoming reality. The £2m to make it happen is almost in place, and it is up to the fans, and the wider community, to decide if they want to embrace it. The signs are that they do.
If it was merely Atkinson and fellow St Mirren director Chris Stewart who were attempting to manoeuvre the club towards a more purposeful future, it might have been considerably more difficult to persuade the fans of its merit. The presence of club legend Tony Fitzpatrick has lent the project a weightiness which Atkinson acknowledges has been invaluable.
\ It was important for the supporters trust, in particular, to believe in what we are doing
“We’ve been accused of wheeling out Tony for public relations, but he’s been involved in this for over a year,” Atkinson points out. “He has a massive standing with the support, whereas Chris and I have none whatsoever. It gave us a bit of credibility because it was important for the supporters trust, in particular, to believe in what we are doing.”
This, it has to be said, is no straightforward buy-out of the controlling 52% shareholding of the club held by a group of five directors, including St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour.
They have been trying to sell the club for almost two years, and Atkinson spotted an advertisement placed in the Financial Times. He did some research, put his proposition to the board (which he then joined along with Chris Stewart) and the intervening months have been spent putting the complex deal together.
Essentially the £2m required for the purchase will be provided by a number of social enterprise companies. It will be in the form of grants, soft loans and repayable debt. That will allow Atkinson and his group of advisers to form a Community Interest Company which will own the controlling 52% shareholding. The club itself will remain a limited company.
In order for the social enterprise companies to release this £2m, Atkinson needed to find at least 300 individuals (fans) prepared to pay £120 a year each, 12 companies at £10,000 a year, and a further 24 community venture companies in the Paisley area to pay £500 a year. These numbers have been found – there were more than 700 pledges from individuals – and the project looks set to get the green light.
It is envisaged that after 10 years of these payments, the debt owed to the social enterprise companies for the purchase of the 52% shareholding will have been paid off.
Long before then, St Mirren will have become a democratic, members club. That is expected to happen at the end of this year, following a transition period when Atkinson and his advisers will ensure that the project starts on the right lines. But from November, or December, the members (those who pay annual subscriptions) will have a huge say in the way in which St Mirren is run, including sanctioning the comings and goings of players.
“We’re trying to return St Mirren to what it was 100 years ago – individuals, businesses and community organisations all directly involved and helping the football club,” explains Atkinson. “We’re in a football stadium which sits in what is one of the most deprived areas in western Europe. It’s a £14m facility, yet it’s empty most of the time.
“Community Interest Companies exist to use assets and profits for the good of the communities they are based in. This CIC has been created to bring the community of Paisley together round the football club for the purposes of the greater good of the community and the club.
“We’ve always disliked calling this project the Barcelona model, or the Schalke model, because it’s not – although we have taken note of what they do there. Scotland is a country which has invented some of the most important things on the face of the earth, so I’m sure we are perfectly capable of coming up with a football model that everybody else refers to as the Scottish model.”
In some respects the aims outlined by Atkinson are more those of a church than a football club, and it is no surprise that he confirms himself to be a committed Christian. He even envisages a day when free membership of St Mirren might be conferred on every baby born in the town – get them young being the only realistic motto for a club which lives in the shadow of the Old Firm.
Yet for all this evangelism there is a hard-headedness to Atkinson also. The old model of football club ownership is falling down in Scotland and, if the professional game is to survive, new concepts must be embraced. “Football isn’t a business – it’s a passion,” he says. “Everybody has skills, talents and contacts, and we need to tap into the enthusiasm and ideas of the supporters.
“You listen to football phone-ins and everybody is complaining. I hate people who moan but aren’t prepared to do something about it. Whether what we’re proposing to do works remains to be seen, but when people pull together, it makes the prospects of succeeding that much greater.”