Stuart Dickson

Right, watched the video and Atkinson and Fitzpatrick are using words and language I like. Using facilities every day of the week - good shout. Using the kitchens - good shout. Training young people - good shout. But surely the most obvious thing is that a football club with football facilities should be targeting football clubs who can make use of the facilities, expertese and structures within the club in return the pitch let fees that would otherwise be paid to the council and to other groups outwith football. For example - I see that St Mirren are offering a first aid training course to local businesses. That's fine. A decent bit of money can be made doing that. But why not also offer a Sports Injuries course that is approved by the SFA and which allows amateur clubs to ensure their coaching staff meet the minimum requirements that allow them to play in affiliated leagues under the auspices of the SYFA? Is there a reason why the club doesn't consider letting out the 3g pitch at Ralston to clubs in the Renfrew and District Leagues? After all Atkinson alludes to the fact that this girls team of his initiated all this because they wanted access to the facilities in Ralston. If you can formalise direct Community relationships with football clubs - why limit it to Paisley or Renfrewshire? Surely from a football point of view you should be seeking to have at least one club in every league across the central belt if for no other reason other than it helps with the scouting of talent. Then there's other questions. If working with local community businesses is so important why did they dump the local company that handled their kit and merchandising sales in favour of a Lancashire based company? And whilst I can understand why a local catering company might part with £10k or £12k per annum to rent the kitchens and some space to feed their customers what is in it for the individuals who pay £10 per month per head? Is it really just access to a bar and the opportunity to book a function suite on the odd occassion you might have a party? Again would it not be better if it provided more attractive benefits like free admission for accompanied children to home matches? I'll watch on with sceptical interest, but one thing really does strike me - isn't it ironic that it's taking so much effort just to buy out the Chairman and some cronies who claimed that under their stewardship no-one would ever make a profit from the club....

Ofcourse I know nothing about anything - that's the point.

Right, so whats to say the exact same thing isn't happening here. Fans are being asked to pay £10 per month for "a say in the running of the club". One man, or a select few individuals, will be running the whole thing. And are you seriously telling me that members of the CIC won't be questioning where their money has gone when the manager tells the press there is no money for new signings. I know SMISA have successfully managed to encourage some fans to part with money to buy players t-shirts and towels in the past - is that what this business model is based on? I hope the plan is better developed than has been revealed so far because all I've read is that they want to get the same fans to part with a bit more money so that Gilmour et al can get their £2m and head off into the distance.

Football is the same no matter what level you are at. If you are on a committee at a juvenile club your job is to bring in the money to keep the club running, manage the money properly to ensure you get value for money when spending it, you ensure the ethos and reputation of the club is kept intact, and you back your coaches to enable them to do the job until a point comes where the ethos or reputation of the club is being threatened. At senior level it's just the same except the stakes are bigger. Now if a club is getting in new owners I'd like to think they had ideas on how to get new revenue streams coming into the club, and an idea of how to get greater value for money for every pound spent. I suppose if you can get a couple of hundred mugs to pay £10 per month for a piece of paper and a bit of thin air then you are doing your job - it's just I would think that the mug will soon get bored of it in the same way that happened at MyFootballClub. Initially they had 31,000 mugs, now they are down to just 4,000.

That's the thing though Drew, isn't it. It's not attractive enough. They may well get some people willing to part with £10 per month for a minor say in the running of the club but it hardly offers value for money in any way shape or form. I've said before they need to look at what they have and show how that can be of mutual financial benefit to groups within the community and to the club. Maybe Atkinson is alluding to it when he cites the example of the ladies football club he was helping out, but if that's the case surely the target group should be the committees at those clubs, rather than fans of the club.

So if I get this right, the idea of the CIC is that they want a few hundred people to pay a membership fee to the club which then covers the finance that's needed to buy out the existing board of directors. Fair enough so far but what do the few hundred people get in return? I hope it's more than a say in what brand of strips the club will use, and admission prices. I would have thought that if this was to be successful they would need to expand far out with the Paisley boundaries.

Ofcourse he's not. I mean FFS it's what three or four years since I made any sort of lengthy post, anywhere, on anything to do with St Mirren. Perhaps I should be flattered that I've obviously had such an impact on so many St Mirren fans but you'd think the message might have sunk in now - I really couldn't give a toss about St Mirren anymore. I only ventured on here last week when I heard Provans was being dumped for some ridiculous deal with JD Sports. My interest in this thread was the CIC proposal. The club I have helped out with over the last three years has gone from struggling to pay it's training lets and league fees to negotiating and submitting plans for shared ownership of two 4g pitches - and yes one will have a running track around it.... Funnilly enough we did it with the investment from local businesses. It's strange how St Mirren couldn't get the same.... Oh and I am significantly better than all of you f**kwits.

Yep I agree with Bill. My mate....yeah sure Chingford you've done that joke before ....lives in Paisley near the Observatory.... Anyway last time I walked up there....f**king hard work for a fat b*****d....there were two wasted old alccies lying in a puddle of pish. One was licking and drinking it (clearly trying to recycle the alcoholic content). The other opened his mouth and the first said "Away and lie in yer ain pish, St.Sid" Never seen anything so disgusting in my life, and had never heard that saying before, so yeah I think it originated in Paisley....

LOL Chingford and Pompy

LOL, Stu Showed that to my workmate from Bishopton..... He said "What the f**k is school" "Whits wrang wi Kappa" "El Dorado ? That's classy shit that...." "Anyway you wanting a smoke ?" "Where did I put that gay porno ?"

1. St.Mirren....nah, what team do you REALLY support ? 2. Boooooooooo......f**k off Coughlin !!!!! 3. Quality....look at the baby seat in that motor....come lets tan it.... 4. Gies a smoke 5. What do you mean yer stopping my bru money......b*****ds !!!

Billy Thomson and the Assistant from The Office Tommy Turner and either of the Chuckle Brothers John Coughlin and Chorlton from Chorlton and the Wheelies

Sid, no idea what you mean. Hate Germans, so I ain't going to be wearing Gerry helmets never mind flagellating them in any closet. As for being a gingy sympathiser.....so long as the burd is slim, tidy and doesn't smell, I really do fail to see why I should be fussy about the colour of her pubes. I don't class myself as a homophobe either, after all here I am communicating with you Strummer, I don't think I'll go to that much bother...but thanks all the same for trying. It's appreciated. I'm more interested though in either buying a good copy of the single "Dream to Sleep" or finding an MP3 that I can download. I've tried the record company and stuff but I've had no luck at all.

OK thanks guys. I'll get the easyjet ticket booked up.

That'd be cool Strummer... St.Sid are you a gingy ? Is this all wishful thinking on your part ? What is your problem with gingy's anyway ?

What is the best low cost airline then, in terms of comfort and reliability ? The four of us are going to a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London in February - Cirque De Soleil - and I'd normally go by BMI or BA, but looking at prices you are talking nearly twice what Ryanair would charge. I suppose at least with BMI and BA you get to fly to Heathrow or to London City, but is Stanstead more awkward to get to ?

Tom, how long you going to be in Belguim for ? Brussels is a beautiful city but the traffic is murder. It makes getting around London look like a jaunt in the countryside. I personally prefer Brugge. A gorgeous historic city. I think its only about 30 miles from Brussels and the trains over there are really cheap and fast and on time.....It might be a bit too wet and cold but you can't beat going on a tour of the canals there on a nice day. We f**ked up in Brussels though. We were staying in the north, and we just assumed that the whole of the country spoke French, so we ordered food in French, said please and thank you in French and thought we were brilliant. It was only after we got talking to a Belgian couple that we were told the folk in the North all speak Dutch and hate those that speak French....

Probably cheaper Tom. H2O should have been one hell of a band though. The stuff they were playing at Craigton that night sounded like a cross between U2 and Big Country but for one reason or another they went down the road of ballads instead. Dream to Sleep was excellent but the follow up single had a better B-side than it did the A-side. The B-side was called Leonard, a song based on some short story we studied at school called The Pedestrian. Got me through my O'Grade so it did. I think after that Iain Donaldson went solo and re-released Dream to Sleep but his solo version was piss poor in comparision.

My favourite would be a single by a Glasgow band called H2O. The song was Dream To Sleep. I remember my football training at Craigton Primary while they were rehearsing in a classroom in the building for a Kajagoogoo concert. Brilliant song, by my single cracked and I can't get a download anywhere. Anyway...... 1. Dream To Sleep - H20 2. Baggy Trousers - Madness 3. Ant Rap - Adam and The Ants 4. Blue Monday - New Order 5. Chance - Big Country

Ah you'se oldies know best.... I just find it hard to believe it could be any worse than Skol, or ofcourse Tennents...bleughh Tennents must be the only beer that tastes better with beer line cleaning fluid in it......

What was the beer that had that Caledonian song on it ? I remember the song but I can't remember the drink ? Was it that s***e ?

Reidy, underage drinking was rife in Hillington, but I'd have been 7 when this Ushers was poisoning you. I remember Dryburghs though, did't they sponsor that pre season tournament in Scotland.

Dennybairn....ah yer an alccy then

Tom, I'm constantly speechless.....but then I stick a sock, or something, in my wifes mouth and I can get a word in again

Ushers ? Never heard of it..... Dennybairn you must be one hell of alccy or a saddo to compare with CSX