No fans control and club loses revenue with CIC

[thewestender]

Having read Richard Atkinson’s information document, seen his presentation slides and read the live Tweet report from the public meeting last week, St Mirren fans should be aware of the following before deciding whether or not to give their money to the 10,000 Hours CIC company -

1. St Mirren fans and the local community will NOT be in ‘control of the destiny of the club’ as Mr Atkinson puts it. Despite all the PR spin and media hype, St Mirren fans will NOT be running the club.

At the public meeting and stated in the live Tweet of the meeting, Mr Atkinson said that an executive board of 10,000 Hours - made up of Mr Atkinson and ‘the guys who have created the CIC’ will retain control of St Mirren’s ‘budget’ and ‘significant contracts’.

This executive board is self-appointed, unelected, unaccountable and does not contain representatives of the fans paying £10 a month, community groups paying £500 a year or companies paying £10,000 a year.

The club’s budget, (how much is spent on the player pool) and who is offered a ‘significant contract’ (manager, coaches and players) are the two most important areas that are central to the success of any football club and whether St Mirren remains in the SPL or is taken to the lower divisions.

This small band of individuals on Mr Atkinson’s executive board - and not the members board of 10,000 Hours made up of fans’ representatives - will effectively control the club.

2. Under the CIC proposals, St Mirren Football Club will lose out on revenue that normally would have gone directly to the club for player budgets etc. Instead of going to the club, this money will be used to repay the loans taken out to pay off the directors who are selling their shares.

Mr Atkinson says in his information document that ‘it is 10000hours that is entering into any borrowing, and not the club directly.’ However, he goes on to admit ‘the funding to repay any debt will come from two main areas. Firstly, the enhanced trading of the assets of St Mirren FC an area all recognise as under-utilised, especially since the stadium move.

Mr Atkinson is admitting that extra revenue from ‘trading on the assets’ of the club will not go to the club but to pay off the CIC debt incurred to buy the shares of Gilmour and Co. While Mr Atkinson is claiming he doesn’t intend to use the stadium to secure the CIC’s debt, he is going to use revenue from St Mirren FC to pay off that debt.

This is confirmed in the Tweet report of the public meeting last week which says ‘Richard explaining that the club has many under-utilised assets. 10000Hours intends to use these assets to generate extra revenue.’

And revealing what is going to happen to this extra revenue from the club, Mr Atkinson says in his presentation ‘Most fans that are familiar with the new stadium in comparison to the old recognize that there are a number of underutilized assets. 10000hours will exploit these opportunities in order to pay off any debt element of the funding.’

In a nutshell, the fans are being asked to fund the 10,000 Hours purchase of the consortium’s majority shareholding along with over £1 million in loans. Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

And while all this is going on, the real power and influence in how the club is being run - control of the club’s budget, who the manager is and which players are signed – lies with Mr Atkinson and his friends on the executive committee with no input from fans or community.

[TsuMirren]

I'm going to put as much effort in to analysing the above as you have in to finding out about the CIC. Luckily though, I'm not going to represent that through the use of 635 words.

I'm just going to say you're wrong, you've not taken any real time to look at this and you've made so many false statements that I seriously have to question your motives.

[Colin M]

Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

From what we are being told, these commercial activities would not exist without a CIC. The extra money (membership) would not exist (as far as St Mirren are concerned) without the CIC.

These are points you should direct to Richard Atkinson for him to address. It would hardly be in his or the executive board's interest to act against the express wishes of the membership, IMO.

[steve_the_saint]

These were the types of "insightful" posts that were springing up about a month ago. Maybe you should do a bit of background reading and come back when you've been assured that NOTHING what you just said has any truth.

Oh and, WHO ARE YOU?

[Drew]

FFS

[aldo_j]

I'm going to put as much effort in to analysing the above as you have in to finding out about the CIC. Luckily though, I'm not going to represent that through the use of 635 words.

I'm just going to say you're wrong, you've not taken any real time to look at this and you've made so many false statements that I seriously have to question your motives.

Agree with you mate, some false rubbish and cobbled together part statements to suit the agenda of the OP.

If the OP has a better idea then let's hear it. Are you wanting the CIC to be scrapped and the club sold to Angelo Massone?

[Sonny]

I am a bit concerned that there are a few people very much against the CIC however this forum is not the place for this debate as the posters on here are not representing 10000hours. Maybe 10000hours should hold another Q&A without any presentations but let it be a debate between those that are very against the proposal and 10000hrs and clear up up misgivings.

[Reynard]

Having read Richard Atkinson’s information document, seen his presentation slides and read the live Tweet report from the public meeting last week, St Mirren fans should be aware of the following before deciding whether or not to give their money to the 10,000 Hours CIC company -

1. St Mirren fans and the local community will NOT be in ‘control of the destiny of the club’ as Mr Atkinson puts it. Despite all the PR spin and media hype, St Mirren fans will NOT be running the club.

At the public meeting and stated in the live Tweet of the meeting, Mr Atkinson said that an executive board of 10,000 Hours - made up of Mr Atkinson and ‘the guys who have created the CIC’ will retain control of St Mirren’s ‘budget’ and ‘significant contracts’.

This executive board is self-appointed, unelected, unaccountable and does not contain representatives of the fans paying £10 a month, community groups paying £500 a year or companies paying £10,000 a year.

The club’s budget, (how much is spent on the player pool) and who is offered a ‘significant contract’ (manager, coaches and players) are the two most important areas that are central to the success of any football club and whether St Mirren remains in the SPL or is taken to the lower divisions.

This small band of individuals on Mr Atkinson’s executive board - and not the members board of 10,000 Hours made up of fans’ representatives - will effectively control the club.

2. Under the CIC proposals, St Mirren Football Club will lose out on revenue that normally would have gone directly to the club for player budgets etc. Instead of going to the club, this money will be used to repay the loans taken out to pay off the directors who are selling their shares.

Mr Atkinson says in his information document that ‘it is 10000hours that is entering into any borrowing, and not the club directly.’ However, he goes on to admit ‘the funding to repay any debt will come from two main areas. Firstly, the enhanced trading of the assets of St Mirren FC an area all recognise as under-utilised, especially since the stadium move.

Mr Atkinson is admitting that extra revenue from ‘trading on the assets’ of the club will not go to the club but to pay off the CIC debt incurred to buy the shares of Gilmour and Co. While Mr Atkinson is claiming he doesn’t intend to use the stadium to secure the CIC’s debt, he is going to use revenue from St Mirren FC to pay off that debt.

This is confirmed in the Tweet report of the public meeting last week which says ‘Richard explaining that the club has many under-utilised assets. 10000Hours intends to use these assets to generate extra revenue.’

And revealing what is going to happen to this extra revenue from the club, Mr Atkinson says in his presentation ‘Most fans that are familiar with the new stadium in comparison to the old recognize that there are a number of underutilized assets. 10000hours will exploit these opportunities in order to pay off any debt element of the funding.’

In a nutshell, the fans are being asked to fund the 10,000 Hours purchase of the consortium’s majority shareholding along with over £1 million in loans. Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

And while all this is going on, the real power and influence in how the club is being run - control of the club’s budget, who the manager is and which players are signed – lies with Mr Atkinson and his friends on the executive committee with no input from fans or community.

You have read it without understanding it.

The motives behind your post are dodgy I think.

[St. Sid]

Having read Richard Atkinson’s information document, seen his presentation slides and read the live Tweet report from the public meeting last week, St Mirren fans should be aware of the following before deciding whether or not to give their money to the 10,000 Hours CIC company -

1. St Mirren fans and the local community will NOT be in ‘control of the destiny of the club’ as Mr Atkinson puts it. Despite all the PR spin and media hype, St Mirren fans will NOT be running the club.

At the public meeting and stated in the live Tweet of the meeting, Mr Atkinson said that an executive board of 10,000 Hours - made up of Mr Atkinson and ‘the guys who have created the CIC’ will retain control of St Mirren’s ‘budget’ and ‘significant contracts’.

This executive board is self-appointed, unelected, unaccountable and does not contain representatives of the fans paying £10 a month, community groups paying £500 a year or companies paying £10,000 a year.

The club’s budget, (how much is spent on the player pool) and who is offered a ‘significant contract’ (manager, coaches and players) are the two most important areas that are central to the success of any football club and whether St Mirren remains in the SPL or is taken to the lower divisions.

This small band of individuals on Mr Atkinson’s executive board - and not the members board of 10,000 Hours made up of fans’ representatives - will effectively control the club.

2. Under the CIC proposals, St Mirren Football Club will lose out on revenue that normally would have gone directly to the club for player budgets etc. Instead of going to the club, this money will be used to repay the loans taken out to pay off the directors who are selling their shares.

Mr Atkinson says in his information document that ‘it is 10000hours that is entering into any borrowing, and not the club directly.’ However, he goes on to admit ‘the funding to repay any debt will come from two main areas. Firstly, the enhanced trading of the assets of St Mirren FC an area all recognise as under-utilised, especially since the stadium move.

Mr Atkinson is admitting that extra revenue from ‘trading on the assets’ of the club will not go to the club but to pay off the CIC debt incurred to buy the shares of Gilmour and Co. While Mr Atkinson is claiming he doesn’t intend to use the stadium to secure the CIC’s debt, he is going to use revenue from St Mirren FC to pay off that debt.

This is confirmed in the Tweet report of the public meeting last week which says ‘Richard explaining that the club has many under-utilised assets. 10000Hours intends to use these assets to generate extra revenue.’

And revealing what is going to happen to this extra revenue from the club, Mr Atkinson says in his presentation ‘Most fans that are familiar with the new stadium in comparison to the old recognize that there are a number of underutilized assets. 10000hours will exploit these opportunities in order to pay off any debt element of the funding.’

In a nutshell, the fans are being asked to fund the 10,000 Hours purchase of the consortium’s majority shareholding along with over £1 million in loans. Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

And while all this is going on, the real power and influence in how the club is being run - control of the club’s budget, who the manager is and which players are signed – lies with Mr Atkinson and his friends on the executive committee with no input from fans or community.

Hiya Michelle

Shame you didn't attend last nights meeting or you would have heard RA make an open invitation for volunteers to join the CIC Exec Board. There were also a couple of new suggestions from the floor that they hadn't considered - they were readily accepted and RA mentioned that they could be written into the constitution when the members come to rattify it. Back to the drawing board for your pish scaremongering.

[bud77]

Having read Richard Atkinson’s information document, seen his presentation slides and read the live Tweet report from the public meeting last week, St Mirren fans should be aware of the following before deciding whether or not to give their money to the 10,000 Hours CIC company -

1. St Mirren fans and the local community will NOT be in ‘control of the destiny of the club’ as Mr Atkinson puts it. Despite all the PR spin and media hype, St Mirren fans will NOT be running the club.

At the public meeting and stated in the live Tweet of the meeting, Mr Atkinson said that an executive board of 10,000 Hours - made up of Mr Atkinson and ‘the guys who have created the CIC’ will retain control of St Mirren’s ‘budget’ and ‘significant contracts’.

This executive board is self-appointed, unelected, unaccountable and does not contain representatives of the fans paying £10 a month, community groups paying £500 a year or companies paying £10,000 a year.

The club’s budget, (how much is spent on the player pool) and who is offered a ‘significant contract’ (manager, coaches and players) are the two most important areas that are central to the success of any football club and whether St Mirren remains in the SPL or is taken to the lower divisions.

This small band of individuals on Mr Atkinson’s executive board - and not the members board of 10,000 Hours made up of fans’ representatives - will effectively control the club.

2. Under the CIC proposals, St Mirren Football Club will lose out on revenue that normally would have gone directly to the club for player budgets etc. Instead of going to the club, this money will be used to repay the loans taken out to pay off the directors who are selling their shares.

Mr Atkinson says in his information document that ‘it is 10000hours that is entering into any borrowing, and not the club directly.’ However, he goes on to admit ‘the funding to repay any debt will come from two main areas. Firstly, the enhanced trading of the assets of St Mirren FC an area all recognise as under-utilised, especially since the stadium move.

Mr Atkinson is admitting that extra revenue from ‘trading on the assets’ of the club will not go to the club but to pay off the CIC debt incurred to buy the shares of Gilmour and Co. While Mr Atkinson is claiming he doesn’t intend to use the stadium to secure the CIC’s debt, he is going to use revenue from St Mirren FC to pay off that debt.

This is confirmed in the Tweet report of the public meeting last week which says ‘Richard explaining that the club has many under-utilised assets. 10000Hours intends to use these assets to generate extra revenue.’

And revealing what is going to happen to this extra revenue from the club, Mr Atkinson says in his presentation ‘Most fans that are familiar with the new stadium in comparison to the old recognize that there are a number of underutilized assets. 10000hours will exploit these opportunities in order to pay off any debt element of the funding.’

In a nutshell, the fans are being asked to fund the 10,000 Hours purchase of the consortium’s majority shareholding along with over £1 million in loans. Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

And while all this is going on, the real power and influence in how the club is being run - control of the club’s budget, who the manager is and which players are signed – lies with Mr Atkinson and his friends on the executive committee with no input from fans or community.

1/ I would not trust a board made up of Saints fans to run a sensible budget, most of us would be tempted to squeeze as much into it as possible and then we coul dfind ourselves in the position that we haven't paid income tax because it's went to the team budget. The executive board will check the budget is sensible and fully costed before singing it off.

The significant contracts are large contracts where legal advise is more than likely needed. For instance you could have a large corporation put a sponsorship proposal to us and in the rush for the money the club board overlook a simple little statement along the lines of 'XYZ have the right to use the facilities at any time required'. Later on we have a match but XYZ say we want the facilities that day to film a new advert - again it's normally business practice to have certain contracts legaly checked and signed off.

2/ The club will not lose out on revenue, the current revenue the club have and any additional revenue gained by the club will stay with the club and cannot legally be obtained by the CIC. Any additional revenue gained through the CIC will be income for the CIC with a poroportion to the club for use of the facilities - so the club will in effect gain additional revenue. It has also been confirmed that none of the corporate members so far will use money the club would have nornally received to become members of the CIC. In other words any corporate member who currently sponsor the club or use coporate hospitality have any plans not to keep giving those funds to the club.

3/ The normal day to day operations will be run by the club board, any new players or change of manager will have to be costed and budgeted for, the CIC might veto them but only if the proposal will not work financially.

[Reynard]

I am a bit concerned that there are a few people very much against the CIC however this forum is not the place for this debate as the posters on here are not representing 10000hours. Maybe 10000hours should hold another Q&A without any presentations but let it be a debate between those that are very against the proposal and 10000hrs and clear up up misgivings.

I don't mind people being against this whole thing.

I do mind them refusing to take their concerns to the public meetings and letting the folk that might give them answers a chance to explain themselves.

Lets face it, there will be concerns about how the club operates regardless of the set up. If the consortium flogged their shares to some random who is to say THEY would have run the club the way we might like? I was a shareholder when Lewis Kane hit the gamble button and I had no say in the matter as we racked up a debt that had us in the poorhouse for near enough two decades.

We get all these folk coming on here with their concerns. Do they actually go to the public meetings and ask these questions there? Or are they just happy to gripe away on the sidelines?

There ARE questions to be asked. Some of the long winded posters have asked a few good questions on the thing. Some have been answered of course.

You get the impression that even if every single fear these people have about the CiC were allayed they would STILL be grumbling away on the sidelines.

Personally I waited to see what was said by Atkinson, and especially Gilmour as I wanted to hear what he thought of it. I like the idea of the CiC, its now up to us lot to either back it or decide we want a conventional owner to buy the club and run it as he sees fit.

I'm in.

[Colin M]

I don't mind people being against this whole thing.

I do mind them refusing to take their concerns to the public meetings and letting the folk that might give them answers a chance to explain themselves.

Lets face it, there will be concerns about how the club operates regardless of the set up. If the consortium flogged their shares to some random who is to say THEY would have run the club the way we might like? I was a shareholder when Lewis Kane hit the gamble button and I had no say in the matter as we racked up a debt that had us in the poorhouse for near enough two decades.

We get all these folk coming on here with their concerns. Do they actually go to the public meetings and ask these questions there? Or are they just happy to gripe away on the sidelines?

There ARE questions to be asked. Some of the long winded posters have asked a few good questions on the thing. Some have been answered of course.

You get the impression that even if every single fear these people have about the CiC were allayed they would STILL be grumbling away on the sidelines.

Personally I waited to see what was said by Atkinson, and especially Gilmour as I wanted to hear what he thought of it. I like the idea of the CiC, its now up to us lot to either back it or decide we want a conventional owner to buy the club and run it as he sees fit.

I'm in.

Green dot. I agree.

I feel sure Richard Atkinson would address any questions, fears or even direct accusations at the meetings. I'm sure he could be emailed as well. I am satisfied that he is entirely open about this idea, and open to suggestions.

[Colin M]

1/ I would not trust a board made up of Saints fans to run a sensible budget, most of us would be tempted to squeeze as much into it as possible and then we coul dfind ourselves in the position that we haven't paid income tax because it's went to the team budget.

I'm not so sure - plenty of them think we could have squeezed far more out of the consortium on the asking price. I think there will be plenty classic Paisley misers available only too happy to draw the purse strings tight

[pozbaird]

I'm not so sure - plenty of them think we could have squeezed far more out of the consortium on the asking price. I think there will be plenty classic Paisley misers available only too happy to draw the purse strings tight

It will be interesting to see who (from the individual members) actually puts themselves forward for election. Whoever does, and whoever is elected - prepare for a life of having every decision you make attacked, your knackers booted at every opportunity, and everything you do hammered on the forums.

Apart from it being a thankless task where your baws will be chewed at every turn, it'll be great fun.

Edited April 29, 2011 by pozbaird

[Guthro]

As Bud77 said, the "significant contracts" is nowt to do with the manager/players contracts and more to do with the likes of main sponsorship etc.

RA clearly said that the CIC could hire and fire the manager - as long as they could back up the budgets i.e. we can afford to pay off the managers contract and hire a new guy.

The OP really should have went along to the meetings rather than make up stuff and post it

I'm with Tony Fitz. Enough of the if's, buts and maybe's, let's get this on!!!

Edited April 29, 2011 by Guthro

[santaponsasaint]

Having read Richard Atkinson’s information document, seen his presentation slides and read the live Tweet report from the public meeting last week, St Mirren fans should be aware of the following before deciding whether or not to give their money to the 10,000 Hours CIC company -

1. St Mirren fans and the local community will NOT be in ‘control of the destiny of the club’ as Mr Atkinson puts it. Despite all the PR spin and media hype, St Mirren fans will NOT be running the club.

At the public meeting and stated in the live Tweet of the meeting, Mr Atkinson said that an executive board of 10,000 Hours - made up of Mr Atkinson and ‘the guys who have created the CIC’ will retain control of St Mirren’s ‘budget’ and ‘significant contracts’.

This executive board is self-appointed, unelected, unaccountable and does not contain representatives of the fans paying £10 a month, community groups paying £500 a year or companies paying £10,000 a year.

The club’s budget, (how much is spent on the player pool) and who is offered a ‘significant contract’ (manager, coaches and players) are the two most important areas that are central to the success of any football club and whether St Mirren remains in the SPL or is taken to the lower divisions.

This small band of individuals on Mr Atkinson’s executive board - and not the members board of 10,000 Hours made up of fans’ representatives - will effectively control the club.

2. Under the CIC proposals, St Mirren Football Club will lose out on revenue that normally would have gone directly to the club for player budgets etc. Instead of going to the club, this money will be used to repay the loans taken out to pay off the directors who are selling their shares.

Mr Atkinson says in his information document that ‘it is 10000hours that is entering into any borrowing, and not the club directly.’ However, he goes on to admit ‘the funding to repay any debt will come from two main areas. Firstly, the enhanced trading of the assets of St Mirren FC an area all recognise as under-utilised, especially since the stadium move.

Mr Atkinson is admitting that extra revenue from ‘trading on the assets’ of the club will not go to the club but to pay off the CIC debt incurred to buy the shares of Gilmour and Co. While Mr Atkinson is claiming he doesn’t intend to use the stadium to secure the CIC’s debt, he is going to use revenue from St Mirren FC to pay off that debt.

This is confirmed in the Tweet report of the public meeting last week which says ‘Richard explaining that the club has many under-utilised assets. 10000Hours intends to use these assets to generate extra revenue.’

And revealing what is going to happen to this extra revenue from the club, Mr Atkinson says in his presentation ‘Most fans that are familiar with the new stadium in comparison to the old recognize that there are a number of underutilized assets. 10000hours will exploit these opportunities in order to pay off any debt element of the funding.’

In a nutshell, the fans are being asked to fund the 10,000 Hours purchase of the consortium’s majority shareholding along with over £1 million in loans. Money that would normally benefit the club through its own commercial activities will instead go to pay off the debts taken on by the CIC to buy a majority shareholding.

And while all this is going on, the real power and influence in how the club is being run - control of the club’s budget, who the manager is and which players are signed – lies with Mr Atkinson and his friends on the executive committee with no input from fans or community.

A load of long winded pish, by a doom merchant with nothing better to do,

[Drew]

your baws will be chewed at every turn.

And the downside is....?

ETA:

I'm in!

Edited April 29, 2011 by Drew

[St. Sid]

It will be interesting to see who (from the individual mrmbers) actually puts themselves forward for election. Whoever does, and whoever is elected - prepare for a life of having every decision you make attacked, your knackers booted at every opportunity, and everything you do hammered on the forums.

Apart from it being a thankless task where your baws will be chewed at every turn, it'll be great fun.

That is going to be one of the biggest challenges for us - finding people prepared to put themselves forward who aren't sausage roll thief c"ntcillor types looking for a power trip to boost their small nob complexes.

Don't want to speak on their behalf; however guys like those from SMiSA have done a good job. I suspect they will be the first to tell you that it is a thankless task. However, they have stuck to it and will have learned a lot from their own experiences that could prove valuable. For me I would like to see a place on the initial Board or even on the CIC exec board given to at least one of those guys to steer us through the initial period. Worth stating I am not and never have been a member of SMiSA. They just seem a logical choice at the moment. The FOSMA mob I am not too sure about - don't know much about them or how their members are or who is on their Board. That is quite an acheivement in terms of secrecy for what I assume is supposed to be an open St Mirren membership club? I don't want that to appear like too heavy a criticism as I am sure they have done great work over the years - just never seen anything about who they are or how you join online or in the club program, etc. We need people on the Board who will communicate with the support - we don't need the closed shop that we have now where rumour and speculation are the environment we try to get a handle on club affairs from.

[TsuMirren]

It will be interesting to see who (from the individual members) actually puts themselves forward for election. Whoever does, and whoever is elected - prepare for a life of having every decision you make attacked, your knackers booted at every opportunity, and everything you do hammered on the forums.

Apart from it being a thankless task where your baws will be chewed at every turn, it'll be great fun.

That's the thing, this will be work and the detractors will be waiting in the wings on day one. For me, this wll be easier than my experiences down south...just hope you don't all get bored of me making occasional reference to it all.

[Guthro]

That's the thing, this will be work and the detractors will be waiting in the wings on day one. For me, this wll be easier than my experiences down south...just hope you don't all get bored of me making occasional reference to it all.

Occasional?

[BLF]

That is going to be one of the biggest challenges for us - finding people prepared to put themselves forward who aren't sausage roll thief c"ntcillor types looking for a power trip to boost their small nob complexes.

Absolutely - I mentioned this in the Q/A thread - as the BoD of both the CIC and the Club will be un-payed roles, it will be very difficult for anyone in full time employment to really commit to a role on either - this isnt different from the status quo, but it does present a problem in relation to 'fans in charge' ideology.

I'm not saying this is a brick wall but it is something that needs considered a bit more IMO.

[Drew]

Absolutely - I mentioned this in the Q/A thread - as the BoD of both the CIC and the Club will be un-payed roles, it will be very difficult for anyone in full time employment to really commit to a role on either - this isnt different from the status quo, but it does present a problem in relation to 'fans in charge' ideology.

I'm not saying this is a brick wall but it is something that needs considered a bit more IMO.

Has it not always been more a case of the fans will have a say, as opposed to "being in charge"?

I'm not 100% confident about the idea of fans being in charge. Let's be brutally honest here, the vast majority of us are well-meaning, but largely clueless buffoons who really shouldn't be left in charge of a barbecue, much less a football club.

By all means, supporters should have a genuine influence in how the club is run, but they shouldn't be in charge. That concept gives me the fear.

Edited April 29, 2011 by Drew

[Dibbles old paperboy]

The fans would have control of the club in the sense that we have opted in to the CIC method of buying the majority shareholding and see the potential for funding the club by working over the next 10 years to replay the loans (£1.3m) to buy the majority shareholding and using the CIC to grow the fanbase to increase the revenue the club earns... seems like a better way to fund the club (more fans paying more money - attending the games, using the stadium for birthday parties, wedding receptions etc, more people buying strips and merchandise) than hoping the new SPL will divide the spoils more fairly or TV will give us more money to televise St Mirren v Inverness 4 times a season.

If the fans buy in to the CIC in more substantial numbers than the 300 mentioned you would see the debt repaid sooner and also if you have 1000 fans paid up as part of the CIC the executive board will obviously want to keep them on side rather than thinking we were only responsible for a small percentage of teh numbers adding up to make the business model work.

[Dibbles old paperboy]

If one individual or a consortium bought the 52% majority shareholding they could control the club and run it as they saw fit without listening to the fans or the 48% of other shareholders. With the CIC model fans can have a say and have some voting rights and involvement.

[Stuart Dickson]

It will be interesting to see who (from the individual members) actually puts themselves forward for election. Whoever does, and whoever is elected - prepare for a life of having every decision you make attacked, your knackers booted at every opportunity, and everything you do hammered on the forums.

Apart from it being a thankless task where your baws will be chewed at every turn, it'll be great fun.

Totally agree with that Poz. It will be an absolutely thankless task for whoever wants to get involved and they are going to have to be extremely bloody minded and strong willed to ignore the abuse and the calls for an election every time the team lose badly. I see TSU has put himself forward....good luck to him....