Ayrshire Saints

I must be getting psychic in my old age - off to buy a lottery ticket !
Just so feckin predictable the whole thing. Just get them in Div 3 and lets get on with the new season FFS this is getting ludicrous now !!!

Gives the beeks 9 days to cobble together a league restructure that will prevent Newco FC having to go cap in hand to the SFL and stop them plummeting to Div 3. Watch this plan grow legs over the next week or so and before you know it the clubs will be voting on the restructuring of the leagues on 4 July rather than Newco's application to join the SPL. IMO if ANY of the clubs agree to a restructure NOW to result in Newco being back in the top division within 1 season it will be just as bad as voting them back in this season. Yes we need restructuring but it now has to be on OUR terms and not when it suits Newco FC.

Gives the beeks 9 days to cobble together a league restructure that will prevent Newco FC having to go cap in hand to the SFL and stop them plummeting to Div 3. Watch this plan grow legs over the next week or so and before you know it the clubs will be voting on the restructuring of the leagues on 4 July rather than Newco's application to join the SPL. IMO if ANY of the clubs agree to a restructure NOW to result in Newco being back in the top division within 1 season it will be just as bad as voting them back in this season. Yes we need restructuring but it now has to be on OUR terms and not when it suits Newco FC.

It really is clear now that Sky hold the future of Scottish football in their hands. There are good comments on here about how this came to be but the fact is like it or lump it that is where we are now.
So what will sky do now?
The truth deniers will not be in the SPL next season and the old firm (1M audience) will be no more.
So if you were in charge of the sky contract what would you do?.....terminate it and risk a massive backlash of Scotts not only cancelling football but the whole package?...(this scenario seems likely to me) or create some positive PR by saying we are the good guys and will honour the contract for next season.
This will give us time to talk to them about the new future of our game ....Change the set up and try to offer a better product in the future. Oh and yes Mordor will rise in some shape or form and Sky or another tv provider will at some point get the OF bloodlust once again.

Sid every SPL club bar 1 would be in administration if Sky pulled the plug out the blue - most sooner than we would be. This is not news to anyone who follows Scottish football. Perhaps it was news to you that every SPL club relies on the TV contract but to the vast majority of us it was common knowledge. Sky are undoubtedly going to play their cards close to their chest in all of this. They hold all the aces here and it's a cert that they will look to re-negotiate should / when the cheats are punished as they should be with a resounding NO vote to the Newco. I'm sure there would be financial carnage if they decided to walk away from Scottish football completely but that is highly unlikely given several clubs have already commited themselves to saying no to the Newco. I would have thought these clubs must have some inkling of how Sky are going to play it before nailing their colours to the mast so early.
You are scaremongering more than the joint statement was. Any company takeover is an uncertain time for employees and for you to start a thread emphasising that is of no help to anyone and is more likely to cause them further completely un called for fear and alarm. Stop it now ffs !

The alternative is what, exactly?
There is no point on pissing on the initiative unless you have a viable and preferable alternative to offer.
As you might recall from my earlier posts on the CiC, I've always been pretty sceptical about this, and was late in committing. I remain sceptical in many respects, but I'm willing to take a punt. Life consists of taking many punts, in my weary experience, as there are few absolutes or certainties (death and taxes, by all accounts, unless you're Jimmy Carr and Gary Barlow , of course....).
I'm no 10000Hours cheerleader, but I can't see any other options on the table just now. Of course, I could simply sit by and snipe from the sidelines, but I support radical change in the game in Scotland, and sniping from the sidelines doesn't strike me as the most constructive way in which to influence that change (however limited such influence might be). I wouldn't consider myself as naive, either. Everyone has an agenda, and personal motivation for pursuing a course of action, or making a decision. So I'll be maintaining my (constructively) critical stance.
*edit - typos*

The concers raised in the statement are perfectly understandable but why make these concerns public now ? These concerns were there in the lead up to yesterday's meeting so why was a statement to the effect that it was an unwise time to be making the bid not made and yesterday's meeting portponed. Had all the funding required to offer the full sum being demanded been in place yesterday surely the offer wouldn't have been made had these concerns been a worry at that time. This smacks of a delay to raise the cash on the 10K hrs side and a realisation that this is the only realistic concrete offer on the table from the current boards side. Surely there will be some middle ground compromise at the end of all this.

It's like voting in an election though - you vote but you need to accept the outcome whether the party you voted for win or not. Those choosing to sign up are not being arrogant in any way and we will only make a decision which will apply to everyone if enough people sign up. What exactly is the alternative - are there other concrete offers on the table. We can't continue in costant limbo (although it did us no real harm last season) it needs to be resolved and a sale is the only way to resolve it. I accept that not everyone feels this is the way forward but forward we must move with this. Companies develope and nothing is ever ideal at the outset but this can be shaped a bit more from the inside out so to speak but we need a vehicle to get this issue resolved once and for all. It might go tits up or it might be a roaring success but we will never know until we try. The alterative of a Whyte / Green type does not inspire me one little bit !

Sid by taking this stance I presume you feel it will go through without your backing ? If you feel strongly enough that you would be willing to bail the CiC out in the future as you seem to be saying then why not just opt in now. If you would bail these guys out then why not be in at the start in an attempt to get the thing off the ground in the first place. There will be very little opportunity for you to bail us out if the club is sold to foreign investors and ends up going tits up.
Im in and as I see it this is the only deal on the table that we can have any confidence in at all - we can moan about the way it's being financed or the influence it gives us until the cows come home but any other purchaser would give us no insight into any of these matters. This is at the very least an (almost completely) transparent option.

Sid by taking this stance I presume you feel it will go through without your backing ? If you feel strongly enough that you would be willing to bail the CiC out in the future as you seem to be saying then why not just opt in now. If you would bail these guys out then why not be in at the start in an attempt to get the thing off the ground in the first place. There will be very little opportunity for you to bail us out if the club is sold to foreign investors and ends up going tits up.
Im in and as I see it this is the only deal on the table that we can have any confidence in at all - we can moan about the way it's being financed or the influence it gives us until the cows come home but any other purchaser would give us no insight into any of these matters. This is at the very least an (almost completely) transparent option.

The 10000Hours bid, after a rollercoaster ride of two years of many ups and downs has just two days left.
Everyone will just need to decide if they are in or out.
If the numbers aren't sufficient the deal fails and we move on, we roll the dice and we take our chances with international owners who may or may not destroy the club.
That's not scaremongering, that's the reality of life as demonstrated in recent times and at various Scottish Clubs by Craig Whyte, Vladimir Romanov, Ron Dixon, Claude Anelka and Angelo Massone.
South of the border we have had the shambles at Portsmouth with foreign owners, the current meltdown with Venkys at Blackburn, the original botched takeover of Liverpool and the unhappy situation at Man Utd where the Glaziers put the club hundreds of millions into debt to buy the club.
These are all real examples of foreign ownership.
It's too late for the fans to say 10000 hours model isn't good enough, nobody else within the St.Mirren support has put forward a fans ownership model in the three years that they have had to do so. This is the only shot we are going to get at this.
The time for talking is nearly done.
For me personally, 10000Hours might not be perfect but it can refined from the inside out by sensible St.Mirren supporters.
The debt is a necessary part of the purchase, and will be a necessary part of ANY purchase by ANYONE. Spreading that debt across hundreds of individuals who all care about the club and without incurring borrowing against any club owned assets is a sensible approach in my opinion.
That's enough for me. I'm in, 500 others are also in to date and personally I hope it goes through.