St. Sid

Who is "us" Kendo? Why does financial support of the club need to be an additional "donation" over and above what we already pay into the club - why does the donation need to be made through either 10000 Hours or SMiSA? Are you only a St Mirren supporter if you are a member of a supporters organisation. Should anyone that isn't a member stop supporting St Mirren?

Its exasperating somner9.......I remember scumgers going through all this bollox with multiple supporters associations point scoring off each other in radio phone ins with various agendas - some pro-Murray, some anti-Murray....some pro-Sectarian singing, some anti-sectarian singing. That was mildly amosing as the OF are prone to that sort of f"kwittery. Time to knock it all on the head and give supporters back their integrity. If 10000 Hours want to be representative of ALL fans and not just its "members".

What a bizarre attack on SMiSA and oddly enough one that can just as easily be applied to 10000 Hours. How many ST MIRREN supporters are on the SMFC BoD? 10000 Hours has had the support and finances that SMiSA couldn't even dream of for 3 years now. 10000 Hours had £750K of grants lined up and blew it. 10000 Hours appear to be trading on the commercial reputations of their "leaders" and yet failed beyond anyones expectations on raising commercial investment for the CIC. I'm not and never have been a member of SMiSA; however as far as I am aware they are an open organisation and will will work with any fan irrespective of whether they pay them money or not - they were kind enough to take on and distribute thousands of "Show Racism the Red Card" when I presented them to them - there was no shite about you must pay if you want a say in what we do, or if you want to put something forward that will help the club. There is no trick from SMiSA about having to pay them money to be involved in their attempts to support the club through an organised and constituted supporters body. I had a point & laugh at them on here about the towel / dressing gowns or whatever it was. There was no outrage about that from them - in fact I think it happened before I asked for their help the SRTRC....they actually took that project and have taken it on further than I had hoped. For me it was an opportunity to annoy Airdire fans - SMiSA have taken the positive message to Renfrewshire's schools. 10000 Hours waltzed onto the SMFC with a story that they could raise £2M from the St Mirren community that they would hand over to the consortium. The idea that 10000 Hours and the selling consortium are not working together is clownary. There is a conflict of interest. SMiSA are clearly independent of the takeover, and will ensure the funds are used if and when required for the financial health of our club. 10000 Hours may end up asking supporters to transfer the money from the "fighting fund" to the takeover bid. The two need to be kept completely separate. Your attack on SMiSA is evidence that the two organisations having a disjointed approach to raising funds for the club is to put it kindly - causing confusion to fans. Utter shambles.

No argument here at all div.....just questioning the need for two organisations setting up two different models for the same outcome. Double the effort and adding fuel to the idea that fans are split on the 10000 Hours takeover. Judging by the level of information on all the inter-association talks they must have lasted about 30 seconds. Is this further transparency? Are we now seeing conversations between fans organisations protected by commercial confidentiality from other fans? The situation is farcical, shambolic, ludicrous, shameful, embarrassing and needs sorting. Fans will be lost to the club as the situation is as goodwill sapping as the SPL / SFA / SFL situation.

Suggestions that there will be no vote taken on Friday. SHAMBLES!!!!!!!

You are getting yourself tied up in knots on this matter. The BoD now consists of the selling consortium and 10000 Hours key players. They are one and the same. You are giving money to the both parties involved in the same transaction - you more than anyone should be able to see the conflict in interests. It looks looks like it could be nothing more than another traunch of fundraising from rank and file fans whilst none of these jokars have put their hand in their own pocket to bail out the club. The often quoted example of REA's investment is the LOAN from a company he is a director of to manage a brief cashflow issue. Fans - mid worst economic crisis since WW2 are being pilfered again...meanwhile Maxi Group are boasting about an annual pre-tax profit rise to £3.4Million. It wasn't long ago that we were hearing rumours about GLS being able to make a £1M bid for the club.....are we going to see any of a fraction of these big numbers being properly donated (not as loans or strings attached donations) to the club? At what point will they do what they are asking supporters to do and sink some money into the club if and when it needs it most without strings attached. If they want to be supporters then let's see them make the same sacrafices for the club they are asking us to make. They are bleeding the support dry at a time when the club may need cashflow most. It's a shambles Stu and any cash we are collecting at the moment should be kept as far away from the takeover as possible. They promised not to take money out of peoples accounts until the deal was done. They should stand by that and throw their support behind the SMiSA effort. That would be the smart move if they are serious about wanting to get as many supporters on board as possible.

That would have been my preference for the excess rank and file direct debit forms they got too. However, without consulting the members they decided to use the excess to shore up the utter collapse of the Baldrick-style plan for corporate members. That was pretty desperate in my humble opinion. Now the selling consortium / 10000 Hours have been quite to go into competition with the traditional fundraisers for such crisis events. Not just a shambles - a desperate shambles.

Again you are leaning towards my point.....If the CIC takes another 6 months to table its offer then it will have £36K of capital ready to invest into the club and all it will need to do is convince the members to release the £36K to make the deal happen. Putting this money through 10000 Hours is too messy and a bit too handy for the interim board / selling consortium to snaffle. 10000 Hours said no money would be taken from fans until the deal was complete. They should stand by that promise. £36K sitting with SMiSA will be completely independent. If it is not required then from what I can see you just get the cash back.

And what if the consortium refuse to negotiate on the price for the takeover? Half arsed bollox yet again. The 10000 Hours scaremongering prior to the fans poll was in collusion with the selling consortium. The poll was designed by 10000 Hours and the selling consortium. Your money will be better placed with SMiSA who will have independence from the eventual bid for the club. Just as league reconstruction should be separate from the newco question.......fundraising for SMFC should be separate from the takeover. The build up of cash in a 10000 Hours firefighting acoount and 10000 Hours shortfall of funding is not a good mix and it would be better if a completely independent party managed the firefighting funds.

"if required".......SPL makes up financial armageddon to support its agenda. SMFC / 10000 Hours use the opportunity to push their own agenda.....fans are left wondering what the f"k is going on and offer to put their hands in their pockets. 10000 Hours takes the opportunity to start taking subscriptions ealry - just in case of course....nothing to do with them requiring more up front capital as the commercial / corporate bollox unsurprising fell on its arse. This will drag on for say five months and if all the members agree 10000 Hours will have amassed an additional £50K in capital to invest - making up 2 x 1877 club memberships. They'll ask their members if they can use this money to fund the takeover rather than it going to SMFC as the cash wasn't needed as all the scaremongering turned out to be bollox. By contrast it looks like SMiSA are ringfencing their donations and would hand it back to the donators should it not be required. Might be wrong, but I wouldn't put anything past 10000 Hours as they get increasingly desperate in their attempts for fund the takeover.

The paragraph you refer to doesn't read anywhere like a ringing endorsement of 10000 Hours plans. However, what goes on between 10000 Hours and SMiSA is between each groups members - I am not a member of either group. As an independent fan keen to support and help the club (if the much exaggerated crisis actually happens) I can't see why I can't just invest in the club directly as someone who has no desire to prove a mandate to control the club - just support it. And how much is REA and the interim BoD putting into the fighting fund....£100K, £200K....or are they just happy to provide the mechanism and administration whilst taking all the credit and control...again?

It is a shambles civilsaint. The entire sorry tale of 10000 Hours has been a shambles. This is just the latest example of it. This should have been an easy decision. Support SMiSA's efforts at fundraising and put all cash raised through SMiSA with no dependencies on when 10000 Hours finally decide to admit that the deal is dead. An act like that might have changed a lot of people's opinions on the organisation. Instead they have opted to play games again. Yet another shooty in opportunity to convince fans that they are about supporting the clubs interests rather than their own. I have absolutely no doubts about SMiSA on that score. Wouldn't it be great if the SMiSA fighting fund was launched with £100K worth of donations from the interim BoD (real ones not the kind where fans pay the donation back to you at a later date) - REA, Chris Stewart, Brian Caldwell, Tony F and GLS.......surely they can come up with that sum between them. Rank and file fans with donate to SMiSA / 10000 Hours unconditionally just as we've contributed to SMFC unconditionally in the past. Let's see if these people are fans or if they just fancy controlling a football club. £100K to SMiSA......Fans have committed to over £1.3Million over 10 years to 10000 Hours based on a few online FAQs. £100K to SMiSA would be a very welcome return gesture by those who wioll waltz into control of our club on the back of fans money.

Just don't see it Div. Why not just have a single organisation responsible for raising the funds - why the need for 10000 Hours to hold the cash? Why the dependency on whether the CIC goes ahead for the cash to be handed to the club? Its a shambles again. I'll be keeping my cash in my own account for the moment until the situation becomes clear. Another utter shambles.

Or why not just take the 10000 Hours brand off of the online collection mechanism and make it a SMiSA operation? Are we not all St Mirren fans? Why is a takeover bid competing with a Supporters Trust? I got fed up apologising for the stoopidity of 10000 Hours. They are absolutely clueless. SMiSA have been organising fund riasing events for the club for years now, they've been successful at it and are trusted - 10000 Hours should have offered them their unconditional support whether it be in the form of web payment facilities or assistance with fundraising through the hospitality suite at the club. Instead we have 10000 Hours launching their version of what SMiSA have announced making it a competition. Its a lot of f'k'n nonsense and just makes the support look bad. What happened to one town, one club......they can't even manage one club, one fundraising campaign.

SMiSA taking the "fighting fund" cash is the only sensible option here. They are entirely separate from the club and have no "vested interest". Their only intention is to help the club. Already we have seen 10000 Hours shift the goalposts on a number of occasions with regard to how the CIC would be funded and members' fees used. At this point it is difficult to make a donation as you have no idea what is actually going to happen with your cash or what it will end up being used for. The Div1 / Div 3 decision is outwith our control. We don't know what the shortfall will be. SMiSA will be able to take a genuinely independent view of how your money will be utilised. 10000 Hours is run by SMFC's Commercial Director, Club Secretary and General Manager. The club has appears to have used the same sales pitch on fans as the SPL and SFA have used on SFL clubs, which most supporters and SFL Directors appear very dubious of. Is this just another tired attempt to breenj even more cash from rank and file fans whilst wealthy individuals put very little into the club. At what point is REA, Chris Stewart or Brian Caldwell going to put their hand in their pocket and help to save St Mirren? So far the CIC is being funded almost entirely by rank and file supporters for very little if any real return. In a crisis supporters should be looking to their fellow supporters, and that is SMiSA.....not 10000 Hours. SMiSA are doing the right thing drafting plans for fundraising events should the worst come to the worst. However, if SMiSA intend handing any cash raised to 10000 Hours should the impending crisis not happen, then they won't be seeing any of my cash either - I am perfectly capable of presenting my own cash to the club directly.

Div, why not just do this through SMiSA who appear to have already launched a very similar "project"? Its just getting stupid now.

Found that old Alexander Brothers record. There's a song on it called "The Auld Paisley Shawl"...anybody know it?

Looks like the SFL Clubs are going to ask for a postponement of the vote on Friday. The shambles continues.

Sammo's a contender for a Scotland cap....can't see him dropping his form.

A bit disappointed in the responses to you BH9. This is a valid concern. We have already seen a bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul....the commercial / corporate members fell short so the "solution" appears to be not to worry as there's plenty rank & file members. That on top of the there already being a planned shortfall to be made up from whacky CIC projects. The lack of corporate and commercial buy-in to 10000 Hours is my biggest worry. If 10000 Hours aren't bringing commercial / corporate members into the mix then what is it they are actually offering? There's a significant sum of initial cash missing from the plan. We are told this will be managed by creating capital from the direct debits. The detail on that is as always sketchy. I would like to see everyone transfer their commitments to SMiSA and let 10000 Hours negotiate with them to get the direct debits transferred across if and when 10000 Hours actually produce the financial package that does not leave the club at risk. At the moment 10000 Hours is f"k all but fan pledges and a £500K loan.

We should take our lead from the Dung and others, and make a clear statement that St Mirren's view is that the newco needs to reapply to the 3rd division and that we aren't interested in any fudging of the rules or deals being done to accomodate the newco over other applicants to the SFL. Instead it looks like we are going to get two x meetings telling us why we need to back the newco. I hope the BoD and 10000 HOurs are funding these meetings out of their own pockets.

The articles all go on about Brian Lawson being a supporters for 30 years - but he's 54? Who does he really support?

I believe this may also be the case for other sponsors too. The pitch starting to come from the SPL clubs is that if the sposors / commercial partners walk away the SPL will owe them cash. Basically the SPL clubs have done a ticketus with the sponsorship money.

Now that's the sort of leadership we are looking for right now.

Speak for your spineless self JB....I have given VM notice of my intention to cancel as have many other football fans according to the 'well supporting contact centre chap who called me back about it. I would imagine SKY are getting even more notices to cancel. Just because you haven't done it doesn't mean other fans haven't. I did that before I renewed my season ticket.