St. Sid

Fras, suck ma gnarly bawbag. There is no CIC lobby ya paranoid fud. There is a lobby that would like dafties to hang fire until they have a reasonable level of understanding before getting entrenched one way or another. There is no railroading of this whatsoever, in fact the opposite is true. If the fans decide we don't want this then the status quo remains in place and the BoD go back to looking for a traditional buyer. I also reserve the right to decide the CIC is a lot of shite once I have all the facts in my possession. I will look at the various merits of the CIC setup and also take a look at the downside....one of which is the terrifying thought that some of the fandan supporters we have might actually gain some influence in the running of the club. Just imagine some blawbag like animal managing to fool everyone into thinking he has a clue about finances or running a business.

A very petulant post Fras. My post was about being quite positive about the chances of bigger sponsors and corporate members becoming attracted to the club, not to mention the social responsibility slant. It would seem that posters like you and somner want a blank canvas to slate the proposals that aren't even public yet with no answer. There is a big difference in wanting further information on how it will work and stating that it will fail. Where is your post decrying the personal abuse of Richard Atkinson? Exactly what has he done to merit that attack? I will make my own decisions on who and what I will defend and who and what I will support and if you don't like that get it right f'k'n up yi. You, somner and animal can post what you like - that's what unofficial forums are all about, but don't play the victim card when it comes right back at you.

I think this a key point. For eons St Mirren has been run by a BoD made up of small local businessmen. That wasn't a bad thing; however as we have all experienced to our frustration they have been been fairly limited in their ability to market St Mirren. Small business people attract small business people. I am trying to make this point without being disrespectful to the current BoD who have done remarkable things and continue to do remarkable things with the current undertaking. The BoDs of St Mirren certainly since the 70's / 80's have always been as mysterious and secretive as the ratf"king old grammarian society - many of the past Board members being part of that organisation. We have had a history of minority shareholders from a small business background and their business networks reflect their standing in the business world. A quick look at the business background of Richard Atkinson tells a story. ANyione with google can carry out some research on Richard or his family company. Somoen with the contacts of "animal" will of course know of Maxi Group already. We are hearing much from people how they have contacts with businesses that currently invest in St Mirren. Yet they have offered nothing by way of research into the people involved in the CIC program. They clearly prefer to deal in the easier tactic of made up speculation and rumour spinning negativity on every grain of information fed to them. Take a look at Maxi Group and the companies they engage with as a matter of course. Think about the network of contacts that a Director of a Group of Companies of which each member company are all larger than any St Mirren board members I have seen in the past 20-30 years (happy to be corrected on this). We have the £300-a-go player shirt sponsors and the auction dinner tie wearing w@nker types in place already and they are worthy of our praise just as a student or pensioner who spends their limited disposable income on a season ticket or the odd game when they can afford it also deserves our praise, we have the repeat local sponsors and the scumbag political parties investing our hard earned tax on the hoardings plus we have the great deal with Braehead. Already JD Sports are now involved at St Mirren. According to the press releases we have a number of obviously larger than normal companies getting involved with St Mirren at the "it'll never work according to some bawbags" £10,000 per annum corporate membership. Dafites are posting that none of these organisations will invest that amount in St Mirren. I reckon the opposite will be true as we have seen with JD Sports. You were all at the game yesterday - or where you? JD Sports already have their kudos with the St Mirren support through the shirt deal and yet our Commercial Director Richard Atkinson managed without any arm twisting to get them to invest in the "hall of Fame" initiative dreamt up by a rank and file supporter - something our previous commercial department may have knocked back. What was in that for JD Sports? If some of the self important fandans that post on here are to be believed JD Sports would never do that - what did they hope to gain? Do JD Sports really think supporters will run out and buy more tops or shop at their stores as a result? The real question should be, would Provans - again no disrespect and at the risk of making Big Fras cry - but could Provans have made that investment in the club and in the support - did we even ask them or give them the opportunity? Again Provans did great things for our club and the support and deserve our plaudits for it. Take a look at the people who are becoming involved in our club. They operate at a different level in terms of their business community and network than what has gone before. The second element to these people are the social responsibility element and their history and experience there. They will attract money from their corporate network. They will attract money from their social responsibility and funding network. They are also working their bawz off to ensure that the fans are right at the heart of the club and the decision making processes of the club. There is no issue in expressing caution, no issue in expressing concern....but at least try to appreciate that these guys and the current BoD might just be trying to deliver something very, very exciting not only for the long suffering hard core support, but also for our entire area and perhaps most importantly for the voluntary organisations in our area and the members of our community that they serve. For me this is simple: Corporate Network - money into the club, but also business leaders and their ingenuity coming into the club to leverage the St Mirren brand. Social Responsibility Network - access to previously untouchable sources of funding coming into the club, opportunities for the social responsibilities to benefit from St Mirren - very much a symbiotic relationship that for me sums up what being a St Mirren supporter is all about. Community Ownership - fans no longer sitting on the outside of the club, their ideas and talents being brought right to the heart of the decision making table. That for me is enough to listen with an open mind and a warm heart to the proposals. The fact that part of the deal is for community ownership with the fans leading the club is a massive bonus. Some of the petty sniping at the information available so far through the media, or worse just the rumoured or frankly made up pish is embarrassing to our support. It is difficult......we will try and put words into mouths....we will fret about areas of concern and may even get neurotic as we care about the situation so much. But lets try and keep a positive eye on the prize here - niggling doubts aside we must surely agree that if this is the real deal it could be absolutely massive for St Mirren.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-1O0pAw5A8

I'm starting to think that you are a Richard Atkinson alias trying to discredit the doubter arguments.

Odd post for you to make when you opening post on the thread was Your next posts were threats to a wee runt of the litter c"nctillor loving houston handbagger.

You are simply transferring your own limitations onto other people. I have worked for companies that have spent a lot more than £10,000 on a staff night out. The current BoD have done great things for the club and are on the verge or delivering an astonishing legacy. We are about to embark on a journey that will see us playing on a different level to what has gone before. The BoD put us into a strong position. It is time for us to exploit that strong position. Being a CIC will make St Mirren very big news and not just in Scotland. We will be a fantastic innovative brand with a great social message that many organisations will be very keen to associate themselves with.

There are already successful social event facilities at other clubs who don't even have in town stadiums. Sometimes you actuall through out the odd good idea StuDick, unfortunately there is a lot of shite spouted and the really sad thing is that you can't tell one from the other.

Click the link silly.

Its all good.

I know more than you think. Here's a list of the funding source available to footballing CICs: CIC Funding Sources for Football Clubs

animal take a look at some of the existing CICs out there.....one of my favourites is an unsecured loan of £220,000 to a Manchester outfit. They are a CIC set up to try and stem the tide of students truanting from college....what are they doing - they are providing the students with rewards for attending college such as football tickets and opportunities to meet their football heroes. There's a lot of money out there that CIC's can attract. There's almost quarter of a million pounds for a completely hair brained scheme with no assets. Google and you will find an absolute goldmine of similar funding that CICs attract. ....or you could just continue to slabber unadulterated angst.

The unsecured loan shop.

Think its been said before, but CIC's get their funding through submitting business plans, which are vigourously vetted as any loans are unsecured. Unsecured loans and the asset lock protection of our assets means zero risk to the club.

Ignore Stu...the D&G fermers Union have just successfully won an injunction stopping him going within 50m's of their farm animals without wearing a condom.... I still can't believe how daft some of the questions are that are being asked. It was explained eons ago how CIC's are funded and the information is readily available by googling. Are some posters being mischievous or is it just laziness expecting other posters to do all their research for them - Stu?

Good question Poz - are you in design like Colin & Justin? I have a question along similar lines: CICs by their nature dictate sounds financial management. With a shower of one flew over the greenhill road lunatics potentially taking over the asylum what safe guards are there to stop the dafties trying to sing Ronaldinho for a secong time and blowing the budget on gloryhunting madness al a Archibald, Victor & Co.

Nah, nothing negative about your posts Stu. It is funny to watch posters try and pick holes in what little information they have or worse simply make things up and neurotically escalate made up nonsense into wild accusations and allegations - or to put it another way, top class sports journalism. I highly recommend that posters try and tone down the emotional rants and petulant accusations as your making a right bawz of yourself as you will find out in the not too distant future. Some of the stuff being posted is genuinely cringeworthy. As an example, Stu has posted a number of hysterical times concerns about the number of corporate orgs that will get involved. The question should have been a single post - How many corporate orgs have signed up for the CIC and if we are short by how many? I think someone posted earlier that they would be surprised if the club announced the sale going ahead if the club hadn't already secured the required number of corporate players or pretty damn near it - certainly enough to move forward. It is a question that will definitely be asked at the upcoming meetings and that there will certainly be an answer to. Wild speculation that no corporate investors will be interested is frankly ridiculous and will only make a bawz of the posters suggesting it - especially Stu. There are other equally ridiculous posts being made, full of misplaced passion that would be better exploited by careful consideration of where we are in the process and how best to get the information required. The BoD will be very keen to get the right information to us at these meetings. It would help both the BoD and more importantly us if the questions could be produced without the accusatory tone and more importantly not being repeated ad nauseum. Let's try and be focussed in the questions we are raising and keep it concise and free of emotion and general bile. That way we will have the best chance of getting the right information at the meetings. My example question follows: - I am very interested in the CIC and how it protects the clubs assets. How will this be applied in this specific instance? No emotion in the question, no petty accusations or suggestions of any agenda on my part. A fair and reasoned question that will encourage the dissemination of the information I would like to have in my possession. This is a massively important process. The club is moving towards community ownership. We need to understand the situation not just at a high level, but also the detail. If you turn up at these meetings and rant the way you are in your posts we will learn f"k aw. If we prepare our questions in a sane and structured manner we will make the meetings as productive as possible. I suggest we prepare for the meetings on this thread by dropping the usual flaming style and treat the current situation with the gravitas it deserves - ya fannies. So lets post questions without all the c"ntybollox and we might just get somewhere.

He refers to the business as BFD Websites, which is a great opportunity for a "what does the b in Tommcb stand for" style abuse fest. BFD.....Baldy Fud Does Websites. I didn't think much of Chick's article on the CIC. I think the press would be better represented by someone from their business news section rather than numptybawz Chick - who is still toiling over how many teams will be in the proposed ten team SPL.

Spot on......alright BoD boo boys, other than saving the club from Brealy, eradicating the debt, building a new stadium, providing a top notch training facility, opening up the club the fan involvement, returning us to the SPL not once but twice and this time keeping us there, delivering two trips to hampden on the trot, securing the long term future of the club and putting in place a plan that will return St Mirren to the heart of its community....what have the robbing thieving scamming BoD ever done for us.

A lot of tension in this thread. Some of it posters raising good points for RA & Co to capture and address at the meeting. Some of it posters having a go at Div for trying to pour cold water on way off the mark wild allegations. Some of it posters greeting their face aff and threatening to storm out off in the huff. Then there's animal - he's just a nob. According to some this was never going to happen, RA would never get enough interest from the business community, RA would never be able to raise the required funding.....blah, blah, blah. That was a mile wild of the mark and yet the wild speculation about how we are going to get ripped off and it is all doomed to failure still rages on. Have a wee bit of days for a few days. Then armed with the facts you have been craving for so long and with an open mind consider what is being done. If you still have reservations about the plans at that point then there will still be the opportunity to vent your bile as fast as your discontented fingers can manage. But why post your bile at this juncture - are you hoping to garner support for your own irrational perspective based on rumour and made up nonsense. Park the agendas about attendances, etc, for a few days...along with conspiracy theories about the BoD. By all means ask questions - they will be welcomed as the BoD will appreciate an understanding of the concerns they need to address. However, leave out the accusations, the emotion and the general bawbaggery. Div certainly doesn't deserve it and as you will soon find out neither do the BoD. The tone of some of the hysterical posts is really letting some ordinarily very good posters down badly.

How can an anonymous alias be personally abused. You have no track, you have no facts, you have no clue.

Football has become disconnected from its supporters and the community in general. Fans no longer feel a part of the club they would once have felched Gary Blues wife for. Clubs have prioritised TV money over the rank and file, and then there's been the ridiculous ascendency of the OF over the last 20 odd years. The CIC proposals put the club right back into the heart of not only the support but the community. We will be Scotland's first hippy club....ah cannae wait. It is time to stop fretting over the finances and start thinking about what we want our club to be and what it can be in the community. The "One Town, One Team" is a great start point as a mission statement. In the not too distant future we will have the ability to define what St Mirren stands for, what we want it to acheive and how we can position the club right at the heart of our community. That feeling of being disconnected from the club and football is about to be blown away. We will be the club.

After your performance over the last few weeks I doubt you would be trusted to put the ticket on for a lottery syndicate never mind formulate a business plan. Hopefully you might actually bother your arse to attend one of the meetings and shut the f"k up and listen to your betters asking intelligent questions rather than just spouting any old pish that comes into your head - that's Faraway Saint's job. Tony was at the club quite a lot during the first FITT club and was accompanied by RA, so I reckon he has been involved from a very early stage. The concern about the remaining 48% of the shareholding is another red herring. All the shares in the club would still exist. The CIC cannot just right off shares that they don't own. I am delighted that the process has moved on to the next stage. I recommend that everyone attends the meetings rather than just relying on third party information as most fans (like animal) are a bit thick and highly irrational.