reborn saint

It is often said on here that people are not doing enough research on the cic to make valid comments. Here is my final take on the situation we are currently in and the events that led us here. My information comes from being a supporter from the days of the Reg Brearly failed buyout, Attending the 2nd meeting and the net. SG saves the club from certain oblivion by buying the club for around £650,000 along with 4 other directors. The financial demands on the club from banks due to loans make it impossible to build a team of note and we struggle in the 1st div. We are almost releguated to div 2 and had reached the ultimate low point with the club running out of money with weeks to go to the end of the season. More borrowing and the appointment of Tom Hendry see up promoted. Season ends in a financial disaster as we are subsequently relegated the following season despite shelling out a massive increase in wages. SG makes plans to move stadium to clear debt and Gus McPherson leads us back to the spl. The ground move is completed and our debt is cleared. At this point i was looking to a brighter future for St Mirren and the reason was as follows: SG made it clear that the new stadium had far better resources to generate income from outside football with a mixture of business, public and communtity usage within the new stadium. Sadly that has not transpired but there are legitimate reasons why. St Mirren operate with an exremely low buget for an spl club and that includes the lowest amount of paid staff in the league. Falkirk generate £1M per annum from their stadium and there is no reason why we can't beat that with the right approach. They employ 4 full time staff to achieve this goal and we employ 1. Although there has been a bit of "how do we solve al our problems with a F****n bar" on here those who post this miss the point. The reason it IS so important is to create a facility that can be offered to the outside community AND meet ALL their needs for ANY event be it a wedding, party, buisness or training. If you don't have the facility to sell (as we currently don't) then we CAN'T sell it like Falkirk do. SG makes an important point about new ENERGYwhich is needed to take the club forward and that is just as important as anything.The current board are tired having being ravished by the many years keeping the club afloat (and i thank them for that). REA dosn't need St Mirren. He has a company which is 10 times our size. It has no debt and makes use of the very latest hi tech equipment including IT which frees up time for him to do other things (like a cic for St Mirren). His reputation (which is currently excelent) would be damaged by any wrongdoing or failure in this venture. Our total turnover of £3.4 million would be like a good sized contract for Maxi Group. He is in a good position to do things he is interested in like going to Romania and helping out people less well of than himself. The idea that REA somehow needs to extort money from our DD or is somehow going to strip our assets is quite simply stupid. We are a small fry company in comparison to Maxi and indeed the kibble who's turnover is £20M

Now that it's out guys whats the big deal. Takeover close to completion, £100,000 temp shortfall normaly covered by the Bod. SG to REA "This might complicate the fiancial side of the transaction" REA to SG "No problem as i own a company that is 10 times the size of St Mirren and we have no debt. I'll arrange a temp loan facility with the proper legal transparent documentation to make it clear all is above board. End of story, oh and thanks Richard.

As an add on I do think the post about the £100,000 was obviously well informed and a reasonable question from whoever posted it The main whingers don't seem to have this kind of structured questioning and i would not assosiate the question with a whinge. What i would really like to see on here are the guys who operate this site create REA with a cricket bat and every time he or the cic destroy an argument against (as they consistently have) show him smacking the ball for 6.

It is now time to stand on your own 2 feet with regards this proposal. I agree that a sign up meeting should be held for the many fans who have not been able to engauge in the debate online or attend the previous 2 meetings. For the rest of us just put up or shut up! There realy is no need for anyone on here who has posted a reasonable question to be wishing more clarification on any aspect of the deal as it has all been answered. If you are a morbid whinger who goes around in life seeing all as a con then please renew you season ticket and let the rest of us buy into the cic. An example of what i'm talking about is the response to an earlier question on one of the threads which questioned if REA had put a 6 figure sum into the club. If he had said yes then the whingers would come on and demand to know what profit he would gain. If he said no the whingers would come on and say he has made no commitment. He declined to comment which made the whingers even more, well whingy. After another post regarding a charge against St Mirren he came out and answered both questions with the fact he had allocated £100,000 to St MIrren from his company as a short term loan while the club was awaiting the same figure tax rebate. This has now been recieved by the club and the loan payed back. I back the previous post. "Get it filled in, get it posted and behave yourself!"

Imagine we are 1 year ahead of where we are now. The champions league final is to be screened in both the corporate function suite and the bar. You can book a table with a 5 course meal for £50 or just come along to the bar and enjoy a few pints in the best sports bar in paisley. Reckon we could generate at least £10000 profit from such an event. The league cup final sold 250 seats in the corporate facility when the club put on the event.

I can only suggest you look at the facts as they stand now. Richard Atkinson has spent 8 months on the board of St Mirren before bringing his preposal to the fore. In that time he has worked with both the funding bodies and the board to make sure it was possible to conclude a deal for a cic at the club. If at any time the board or he felt it was not possible they would have parted ways and St Mirren would be back up for sale. The message from REA is that 2 funding bodies have still to agree to the proposal. Given that 8 funding departments are involved and the amount of monies they have at there disposal will be for differing amounts it may well be possible that the final 2 have by far the most of the cash needed to conclude the deal. This could well be what you have heard (if it was a good source) and it would not surprise me if only £300,000 was currently agreed for the cic to take place. There may very well be some anxious members on the board as they have made it clear they want out and after having agreed a price and missed up to 4 deadlines for the sale you can understand their possition. The issue of direct debit mandates shows all of us that the buyout is on track as the last thing REA would need was to keep something like this going while only hoping it would go through. The terms and conditions which were laid on the table to these 2 funding bodies have obviously been met and the deal will conclude in June.

I can understand the annoyance of some members on here regarding the comments about numbers in the supporters bar. It may initialy sound a bit of a whinge and i agree it's not the MAIN resason why anyone should sign up for the cic. But if 700 people are allocated a cic membership with the right to attend the bar and sign another in can you not apprieciate that you might have some unhappy members if they can't gain access. I'm thinking this could happen at the begining when intrest in the facility is at its hight and the last thing i want to see in the papers or local news is disgruntled St Mirren fans giving negative plubicity. You all know there are some in the 700 who would do so. Personaly i just want to see this bid carry positive momentum with the whole of Paisley behind it.

Thanks to Yule though I can no longer look at the Kibble Kid as a young guy in a suit as I did in the second meeting. but rather as a gun slinger with horses ready for a quick gettaway if things get outta hand. So cheers Yule

Pozabaird and Stuat Dickson ....Your last posts were top notch and as we are now emailed there is no going back. This is the biggest event in the clubs history and will secure our future forever. There will be a sustainable increase in player budget from next year from 1.3 million (2nd lowest...very poor) to 2.2 million (top 6) All debt will be paid of in a max of 2 years. This information has not been given to me alone but to many, We are going to be a force to be reckoned with again and although next season is going to be a realy tough one if we can stay up 3rd is possible the season after.

As regards SMISA why do they still have their logo on the 10000hrs website?

I totaly understand your position and agree that for some saints fans buying into the cic might not be for them. I have friends who have been regular sth for many years and in the current financial climate adding £120 per year is not an option. This extra cost has to be made by fans who both believe in the cic and have the means to do so. There is a diffrence in not pledging to the cic and not suppoting it. I have listened to the sceptics and ignored the cynics and if anyone has a concern about the sustainability of the cic why dont you arrange a meeting with Richard as he is making himself MORE than availiabel.

Shrares without controling majority are worthless. c*ltic fans bought into Ferus Mcann's share issue in a far bigger way. Whether they wanted to support the club or had an idea of making money is imaterial, the shares are worth nothing.

As much as i am in favour of the cic and as a pledged member i have a concern. If the numbers keep rising as i'm sure they will, how will we all gain accesss to the supporters bar as i'm led to believe it can hold 600 standing, 400 theartre mode and 300 seated. Given that not all will use this facility but members can sign in 1 person i can invisage over 600 wishing access. Also if you wish to addd £15 onto STH in the future how do 2500 people get in?

The shareholding of the "forgotten 48%" is a myth. There are 900 share holders of whom only 9 have a significant amount of shares to be even considered. If they bought the shares with the idea of making money then they should sue their financial advisor. (go on the cic!)