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10000 Hours - Re-Loaded?


Lord Pityme

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Are the powers that Rea at 10000 hours about to make a move again for the club? Reading between the lines of communication (which in 10000 hours case are usually months apart) we have:

Rea all over the forum again...

His band of trolls back on the defensive....

Sevco got a brand new pig-bag of a Bod so he's surplus to requirements....

And todays date...

Coincidence..? You decide..!

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I for one would welcome a credible initiative if it was underwritten by someone like Ann Budge who puts in a clear plan along with the money and gets the fans onboard.

ETA, i wouldn't care if REA was on board or not, as long as there was some substance to the plan this (next) time.

Edited by beyond our ken
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Are the powers that Rea at 10000 hours about to make a move again for the club? Reading between the lines of communication (which in 10000 hours case are usually months apart) we have:

Rea all over the forum again...

His band of trolls back on the defensive....

Sevco got a brand new pig-bag of a Bod so he's surplus to requirements....

And todays date...

Coincidence..? You decide..!

In one hand you want to board out.

On another hand you don't.

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I for one would welcome a credible initiative if it was underwritten by someone like Ann Budge who puts in a clear plan along with the money and gets the fans onboard.

ETA, i wouldn't care if REA was on board or not, as long as there was some substance to the plan this (next) time.

Same to be honest. REA was trying to do something that hadn't been done before. Many in the Social Enterprise Sector were sceptical he could pull it off, yet he managed to get very close to succeeding. It was only the greed of the consortium, demanding an over the top price for a business they were claiming would be bankrupt within weeks if Rangers weren't kept in the SPL, that prevented St Mirren from being pioneers in an exciting new dawn in football.

I can't understand why there hasn't been at least one more attempt to revisit this whether it was by REA or by SMiSA. The basic blueprint was in place, as was a 1,000 strong group of people who were willing to pay money. It seems crazy that all that work be let slide now.

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Same to be honest. REA was trying to do something that hadn't been done before. Many in the Social Enterprise Sector were sceptical he could pull it off, yet he managed to get very close to succeeding. It was only the greed of the consortium, demanding an over the top price for a business they were claiming would be bankrupt within weeks if Rangers weren't kept in the SPL, that prevented St Mirren from being pioneers in an exciting new dawn in football.

I can't understand why there hasn't been at least one more attempt to revisit this whether it was by REA or by SMiSA. The basic blueprint was in place, as was a 1,000 strong group of people who were willing to pay money. It seems crazy that all that work be let slide now.

ah but its not ... watch this space ;)

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Same to be honest. REA was trying to do something that hadn't been done before. Many in the Social Enterprise Sector were sceptical he could pull it off, yet he managed to get very close to succeeding. It was only the greed of the consortium, demanding an over the top price for a business they were claiming would be bankrupt within weeks if Rangers weren't kept in the SPL, that prevented St Mirren from being pioneers in an exciting new dawn in football.

I can't understand why there hasn't been at least one more attempt to revisit this whether it was by REA or by SMiSA. The basic blueprint was in place, as was a 1,000 strong group of people who were willing to pay money. It seems crazy that all that work be let slide now.

The only thing that prevented it was he couldn't deliver any of the funding, grants, soft loans or investments he said were "in the bag" the price never changed except to come down, the fans exceeded the minimum pledge target.

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Forget about 10000 hours or the past, what about the future?

What would it take to try and get say 10 sensible true supporters of the club together who have the mental capacity to think sensibly, (I am being serious in my post!!), not have self interest to the fore and to have enough business nous, to get together and see if there is any kind of framework that can be structured that can be taken to the BoD's with a sensible business plan.

Until that appears, nothing will emerge............ no savior will come out of the ether and no investor with money will see us as a viable proposition!

The Board want money to allow them to exit. Whatever vehicle comes their way and offers a realistic way out, they will look at it and as far as I can see that may well be a fan based initiative, but one that has a viable, sensible business plan behind it from day one.

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Forget about 10000 hours or the past, what about the future?

What would it take to try and get say 10 sensible true supporters of the club together who have the mental capacity to think sensibly, (I am being serious in my post!!), not have self interest to the fore and to have enough business nous, to get together and see if there is any kind of framework that can be structured that can be taken to the BoD's with a sensible business plan.

Until that appears, nothing will emerge............ no savior will come out of the ether and no investor with money will see us as a viable proposition!

The Board want money to allow them to exit. Whatever vehicle comes their way and offers a realistic way out, they will look at it and as far as I can see that may well be a fan based initiative, but one that has a viable, sensible business plan behind it from day one.

THE FANS PLAYED THERE PART. IT WAS BUSINESSMEN THAT CAUSED THE 10000HRS BID TO FAIL. THEY DID NOT PLAY THEIR PART.

ETA: NICE APRIL FOOL M'LORD

Edited by Vambo57
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Irrespective of the in's and out's, one thing I'm pretty sure about...

If the deal had gone through and fans had been in charge of running the club this season, the almost ubelievable mistakes that the BOD made (Tommy Craig; not hiring a new manager; selling Kenny without a sutable replacement; Gary Teale) would not have happened.

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I don't think you should limit it to just 10 guys (or gals). If a couple of people were willing (and I'm not volunteering here) to gather suggestions and just weed out the really stupid ones (not try and work out whether the others are workable or not) and then post the resultant ideas (on here or elsewhere, as long as all fans know where), then others could agree or disagree (stating reasons why) with the suggestions and we could have input from all fans and possibly come up with a few workable ideas. Whether they be ideas to buy out the consortium or just to move the club forward is not important, as long as we do something. Obviously there are fans that have business experience and obviously more weight should be given to their opinions on "businessy" stuff. Likewise for other areas of expertise. The only other thing I would add is that anyone (and I include myself here) that starts or gets involved with with personal head to head arguments for any reason while discussing this stuff should be kicked off the discussion. Any support or put down of an idea should have supporting evidence or experience.

OK, that's possibly all stupid, but maybe not.

Your sentiments are correct however you have highlighted the very issue of why a fans consortium will fail. Too many fans will want a say on the day to day running of the club. The club is bad enough at being run like a bowling club without it being run by a bowling club committee.

All businesses need a strong management team and that team needs a leader.

For any fans bid to succeed it needs the impetuous of a group of people who have the time, desire, stubbornness to launch the plan and see it through to completion.

That group in my opinion should be restricted in numbers to business people capable of running, organising and managing a business with a turnover of at least £2m. They should have the sole interest in the club as their desire. The initial meetings should be to discuss a business plan with a robust contingency.

Secondly the group have to engage the fans to determine their desire to see this through.

Only then do they engage with the current shareholders and broker a potential deal and time frame for the deal.

If the deal cannot be brokered then walkaway and advise the fans why.

If the deal can be done then the difficulty is to engage with the fans to finance the deal

The deal from start to finish has to be a deal for St Mirren and not side interests.

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I don't think you should limit it to just 10 guys (or gals). If a couple of people were willing (and I'm not volunteering here) to gather suggestions and just weed out the really stupid ones (not try and work out whether the others are workable or not) and then post the resultant ideas (on here or elsewhere, as long as all fans know where), then others could agree or disagree (stating reasons why) with the suggestions and we could have input from all fans and possibly come up with a few workable ideas. Whether they be ideas to buy out the consortium or just to move the club forward is not important, as long as we do something. Obviously there are fans that have business experience and obviously more weight should be given to their opinions on "businessy" stuff. Likewise for other areas of expertise. The only other thing I would add is that anyone (and I include myself here) that starts or gets involved with with personal head to head arguments for any reason while discussing this stuff should be kicked off the discussion. Any support or put down of an idea should have supporting evidence or experience.

OK, that's possibly all stupid, but maybe not.

So lets get this straight , Mr Guy is a capital contributor and has some ideas he feels he would like to put forward.

Lord Pityme the judge of characters deems Mr Guy too stupid to put forward any ideas.

As such Mr Guy must be ejected from the room of judges head judge Mr Lord Potyme. After all he is making the rules.

Now run along Mr Guy and don't forget to continue you monthly standing order to help purchase the club

.

I will try and stay on the side of polite - You f**kin knob

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Your sentiments are correct however you have highlighted the very issue of why a fans consortium will fail. Too many fans will want a say on the day to day running of the club. The club is bad enough at being run like a bowling club without it being run by a bowling club committee.

All businesses need a strong management team and that team needs a leader.

For any fans bid to succeed it needs the impetuous of a group of people who have the time, desire, stubbornness to launch the plan and see it through to completion.

That group in my opinion should be restricted in numbers to business people capable of running, organising and managing a business with a turnover of at least £2m. They should have the sole interest in the club as their desire. The initial meetings should be to discuss a business plan with a robust contingency.

Secondly the group have to engage the fans to determine their desire to see this through.

Only then do they engage with the current shareholders and broker a potential deal and time frame for the deal.

If the deal cannot be brokered then walkaway and advise the fans why.

If the deal can be done then the difficulty is to engage with the fans to finance the deal

The deal from start to finish has to be a deal for St Mirren and not side interests.

Fan ownership is in many ways like people who own equity in any company. You've taken a punt but God forbid that gives you any say in the management or running of the company. You can go to the AGM and moan and cry your eyes out but you have no mandate to do anything other than that In a proprietary company. If you don't like what's happening you sell your shares and take a profit or loss. I really don't know what the situation would be with a fans consortium but they definitely won't be involved with the day to day management of the club and they certainly won't be anywhere near the team. That's for professionals.

Basically I agree with everything you have said but if we get the (unlikely) chance to buy the club, I hope the fans know what they're letting themselves in for and I hope their love of the club means that they will stick by them on the long term. It will involve long term commitment.

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The only thing that prevented it was he couldn't deliver any of the funding, grants, soft loans or investments he said were "in the bag" the price never changed except to come down, the fans exceeded the minimum pledge target.

I may be wrong and my memory might be failing, but wasn't there a £1m soft loan in place with the Big Issue?

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Your sentiments are correct however you have highlighted the very issue of why a fans consortium will fail. Too many fans will want a say on the day to day running of the club. The club is bad enough at being run like a bowling club without it being run by a bowling club committee.

All businesses need a strong management team and that team needs a leader.

For any fans bid to succeed it needs the impetuous of a group of people who have the time, desire, stubbornness to launch the plan and see it through to completion.

That group in my opinion should be restricted in numbers to business people capable of running, organising and managing a business with a turnover of at least £2m. They should have the sole interest in the club as their desire. The initial meetings should be to discuss a business plan with a robust contingency.

Secondly the group have to engage the fans to determine their desire to see this through.

Only then do they engage with the current shareholders and broker a potential deal and time frame for the deal.

If the deal cannot be brokered then walkaway and advise the fans why.

If the deal can be done then the difficulty is to engage with the fans to finance the deal

The deal from start to finish has to be a deal for St Mirren and not side interests.

Does Gilmour Sports turnover £2m per annum? I might well be well off the mark but I'd doubt it. Stewart Gilmour might well be seen as the villain of the piece right now but a few short years ago most St Mirren fans were lauding him as an absolute hero and claiming he was one of the best St Mirren Chairmen of all time. Even I can't argue with the master stroke he pulled off when selling Love Street.

I agree with you in many ways that the danger would be landing up with some small minded plodders who are just interested in keeping beer prices low in the corporate bar, but in my experience - and admittedly that is on amateur sports clubs committees - some of the most impressive people on it didn't have any experience at all of running a business, but they had a desired skill set for a function that needed doing. For example at the athletics club we had a guy on the committee who is the owner of a huge Scottish PR Company. He was great, but actually while he had a modest input the two best guys on the committee who really did push the club forward in terms of income and membership was an HR Manager and a Website Editor.

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Looks like autocorrect on a phone has went a bit OTT. And that's not a dig, I'm being serious. My phone does it all the time - it can take me longer to correct the autocorrect than it does to type the post. It's a pain in the derrière sometime.

Ah! So it's your phone that forgets what posts you have and haven't replied to! Aw well, that's ok then! 1eye.giflol.gif

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I suppose that when we get relegated (beyond if now, but respect those still clinging on) the fan driven investment pledged to 10000 hours may well be enough. That said, the proposed driving group would need to start working now and that's tough to do with so many uncertainties.

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