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Does The Club Need Fresh Investment?


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Has the present regime exhausted its efforts in trying to maximise revenue avenues for our club ? Should we be trying to trying to attract some new blood to the board ? Given the current state of affairs,  I'd be all for some new faces and financial input. 

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No, we need better management.

The recent transfer fees collected represent a significant investment in to a club of our size. Our inexperienced board and management team wasted it all. I'd imagine there is a danger any investment that comes in would go the same way.

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6 minutes ago, Kemp said:

No, we need better management.

The recent transfer fees collected represent a significant investment in to a club of our size. Our inexperienced board and management team wasted it all. I'd imagine there is a danger any investment that comes in would go the same way.

What if whoever (hypothetically) we attracted brought with them their own set of skills ? I currently dont trust our Chairman with cash either given the waste we've experienced recently,  but that doesn't mean that someone with fresh ideas wouldn't stand a better chance. 

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I thought this was all about becoming a fan owned club in which case fresh investment will be a thing of the past.  Nobody is going to  invest without some form of security, usually a stake in the club.  If anybody was to offer money now where would they get such security as the Chairman's stake is promised to SMISA is it not. 

On the current set up the only way to judge them will be the accounts published this and next November.  Until then every post that speculates about mismanagement of club affairs and finances is simply guesswork or vitriol. 

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Has the present regime exhausted its efforts in trying to maximise revenue avenues for our club ? Should we be trying to trying to attract some new blood to the board ? Given the current state of affairs,  I'd be all for some new faces and financial input. 
What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!
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4 minutes ago, BuddieinEK said:

What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!

Seems to be every Matchday now. :(

Edited by shull
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9 minutes ago, BuddieinEK said:

What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!

Last couple of visits to the hospitality have been very disappointing especially the food followed by the service. It will just be a matter of time before numbers fall. Very bad value for money.  As wrote above we wont know how bad things are until the accounts are published. The lack of players in so close to the league kick off is a worry. 

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Who on earth would want to invest in St Mirren? And why?

The club was for sale for almost 10 years and virtually no one was interested.

There aren’t a queue of rich benefactors waiting outside the ticket office wanting to give us money to get on the board.

Non starter.

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5 minutes ago, TopCat said:

Who on earth would want to invest in St Mirren? And why?

The club was for sale for almost 10 years and virtually no one was interested.

There aren’t a queue of rich benefactors waiting outside the ticket office wanting to give us money to get on the board.

Non starter.

Erm, the Argentinians? :rolleyes:

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29 minutes ago, BuddieinEK said:

What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!

The board to be fair have only been in charge for 3 years. Some may say that's plenty of time to out things into action, others differently.

I believe the club ARE exploring new ways of generating new income, it's just all cannot be a big reveal to the public until these things are in place. That's just my opinion though.

Hospitality isn't something I've done a lot of, though I haven't had any complaints with what you get for your money. Still one of the lowest costs in the league. I am sure if there is any question over standards, the club are probably doing their best to keep everything within budget without charging fans a huge increase due to now playing back in the top league.

Campbell and Tommy do a magnificent job for the resources at the club they have. A lot of clubs have a bigger backroom team behind them, though we are currently operating with very few people behind the scenes.

No ideas on funerals, though it is advertised in the commercial brochure and on the website. Would be interesting to see how the fakes generate interest from this.

To be fair, business club has been re-launched and has been going for the last 3-4 months. There are so many networking events out there. Once this one starts to gain exposure it will be one of the most popular ones in the area. I have already brought along a number of business owners who have since returned.

Agree on the youth side of things. I'm not sure how the club approaches this currently. When I was younger they used to dish out free tickets to schools. Could be some incentive attached to the free tickets for parents. Did you enjoy your free matchday experience? Why not sign up for an adult season ticket and get X amount of kids free season tickets Included.

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13 minutes ago, kevo_smfc said:

 

Agree on the youth side of things. I'm not sure how the club approaches this currently. When I was younger they used to dish out free tickets to schools. Could be some incentive attached to the free tickets for parents. Did you enjoy your free matchday experience? Why not sign up for an adult season ticket and get X amount of kids free season tickets Included.

To be fair, I think there has been a lot of progress in trying to attract kids and families to the games, pre-match entertainment before most games, bung a baw, and there was a family bus running to some away games last season. The only negative thing is the horrendous decision to give the family stand to the old firm.

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45 minutes ago, TopCat said:

Who on earth would want to invest in St Mirren? And why?

The club was for sale for almost 10 years and virtually no one was interested.

There aren’t a queue of rich benefactors waiting outside the ticket office wanting to give us money to get on the board.

Non starter.

True, But there is a pot of gold building in an account though I dont think that will be needed. More a case of the last few managers and number of players we have went through has cought up with us financially and now we have to cut our cloth accordingly. The fans have to support Jim Goodwin and the players to help us survive this season. Then that foundation built on next season should put us on track. Just my opinion.  

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The board to be fair have only been in charge for 3 years. Some may say that's plenty of time to out things into action, others differently.
I believe the club ARE exploring new ways of generating new income, it's just all cannot be a big reveal to the public until these things are in place. That's just my opinion though.
Hospitality isn't something I've done a lot of, though I haven't had any complaints with what you get for your money. Still one of the lowest costs in the league. I am sure if there is any question over standards, the club are probably doing their best to keep everything within budget without charging fans a huge increase due to now playing back in the top league.
Campbell and Tommy do a magnificent job for the resources at the club they have. A lot of clubs have a bigger backroom team behind them, though we are currently operating with very few people behind the scenes.
No ideas on funerals, though it is advertised in the commercial brochure and on the website. Would be interesting to see how the fakes generate interest from this.
To be fair, business club has been re-launched and has been going for the last 3-4 months. There are so many networking events out there. Once this one starts to gain exposure it will be one of the most popular ones in the area. I have already brought along a number of business owners who have since returned.
Agree on the youth side of things. I'm not sure how the club approaches this currently. When I was younger they used to dish out free tickets to schools. Could be some incentive attached to the free tickets for parents. Did you enjoy your free matchday experience? Why not sign up for an adult season ticket and get X amount of kids free season tickets Included.


The board to be fair have only been in charge for 3 years. Some may say that's plenty of time to out things into action, others differently.
I believe the club ARE exploring new ways of generating new income, it's just all cannot be a big reveal to the public until these things are in place. That's just my opinion though.
Hospitality isn't something I've done a lot of, though I haven't had any complaints with what you get for your money. Still one of the lowest costs in the league. I am sure if there is any question over standards, the club are probably doing their best to keep everything within budget without charging fans a huge increase due to now playing back in the top league.
Campbell and Tommy do a magnificent job for the resources at the club they have. A lot of clubs have a bigger backroom team behind them, though we are currently operating with very few people behind the scenes.
No ideas on funerals, though it is advertised in the commercial brochure and on the website. Would be interesting to see how the fakes generate interest from this.
To be fair, business club has been re-launched and has been going for the last 3-4 months. There are so many networking events out there. Once this one starts to gain exposure it will be one of the most popular ones in the area. I have already brought along a number of business owners who have since returned.
Agree on the youth side of things. I'm not sure how the club approaches this currently. When I was younger they used to dish out free tickets to schools. Could be some incentive attached to the free tickets for parents. Did you enjoy your free matchday experience? Why not sign up for an adult season ticket and get X amount of kids free season tickets Included.


Was the business club a Saints initiative or a request by our primary sponsors who benefit from similar arrangements at Motherwell and Hamilton where they also invest?

You make some great points Kevo but I truly believe we are falling way short of our potential.

Other clubs may have bigger background teams... But why can't we tap into our fanbase to increase ours?

I'm certain many a fan would give up their time and probably their right arm too, to serve the club.

The BoD may only have been in place for three years but commercially, we have been stale for a helluva lot longer than that.
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The club is not viewed as stable and we have a poor product on the park. This is hardly inviting to investers. A team performing well is key here. This attracts kids, families etc to come through the door and take up hospitality etc. All clubs would welcome extra money but we have to be seen as being stable and well run. Sadly looking from the outside we are not. 

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2 hours ago, BuddieinEK said:

What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!

And most likely a “can’t be bothered with the extra hassle” attitude

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6 minutes ago, BuddieinEK said:

 

 

 


Was the business club a Saints initiative or a request by our primary sponsors who benefit from similar arrangements at Motherwell and Hamilton where they also invest?

You make some great points Kevo but I truly believe we are falling way short of our potential.

Other clubs may have bigger background teams... But why can't we tap into our fanbase to increase ours?

I'm certain many a fan would give up their time and probably their right arm too, to serve the club.

The BoD may only have been in place for three years but commercially, we have been stale for a helluva lot longer than that.

 

 

 

The board are guilty of criminal neglect by failing to add ONE.... just ONE additional revenue stream in over three years. They are both lazy and clueless in creating and building sustainable business opportunities. This level of failure would have any other board of a company removed by the shareholders. Unfortunately for us Smisa are the biggest shareholder after the chairman, and with their easy money available to him he rifles those funds at will, and they facilitate it.

both the board and smisa should be held to account for their joint abject failures in discharging their duties. You can see all the signs of decline, and very soon you'll ahve the chairman begging for the support to bail out the club when they've screwed smisa for all they can. The only way to save it would be for someone to loan smisa the money to buy out Scott now, and appoint a new chairman and board with clear aims to add revenue streams. The shower in place now are just Blazer fillers and sausage roll thieving bastards!

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2 hours ago, BuddieinEK said:

What efforts?

For years we have been weak in this area, resulting in us chasing the easy short term cash of us displacing our own season ticket holders and reducing season ticket income to pander to the old firm to our long term detriment.

Hospitality... Previously classy... Now done on the cheap. Meal poorer. Even the complimentary pen has gone from classy to no more than a bic!

Hospitality places regularly given away to make it look busy!

Annual dinner. Hospitality. Golf do. Same old same old.

Within our fanbase, we are bound to have radio presenters... Comedians... Personalities who could present the hospitality day, releasing Campbell to network... Mingle with the guests. But no. It's his baby.

How many funerals do we host?
A major source of income for the fakes... With Woodside just up the road why isn't it one of ours?

How many networking business open days have we hosted?

Getting business owners together to network and support one another whilst promoting our own facilities?

How have we encouraged increased season ticket sales?

What have we done to increase youth support? You know... The kids we kick out for old firm games?

"Exhausted it's efforts"?

Don't make me laugh.

Actually, I can't. It is criminal neglect and makes me weep.

So many opportunities... Lost because of our small minded short term approach to income... Spunked on pay offs!

And most likely a “can’t be bothered with the extra hassle” attitude

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Frittered away any money we had from all the hard work of moving stadium, bringing through talented youth players, winning a cup, staying in the top flight etc

We Supporters right now should be asking for an emergency meeting with all the board and as half shareholders  tell them we have no confidence in their running of st mirren fc not investing more!!!

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I’m losing faith in this board fast.

I was fine with them up until the Stubbs debacle. That alone has cost us a lot of money in payouts for Stubbs, Heaton’s transfer and his dud signings (Cody aside). We are now paying out on Kearney, a man who has seemingly been pushed out of the door even though he did a decent job. This was done at the beginning of pre-season, which has played its part in our embarrassing (impending) exit from the League Cup, one of our two best chances of silverware for the season ahead.

As stated above, the likes of St Johnstone do a great job of bringing in revenue to help cover for the smaller fan base they have. They are the club we should be looking to copy, similar size to us, but well run, stable, and established in the Premier League. Instead we spunk funds at every turn, and have done our best to secure immediate relegation. It’s almost as if the board doesn’t want us in the Premier League.

The only positive about fan ownership I can find right now is that we won’t end up in a situation similar to Blackpool or Coventry. Aside from that, I’m struggling to see the benefits now, because we seem completely incompetent at running a football club.

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5 minutes ago, Cornwall_Saint said:

I’m losing faith in this board fast.

I was fine with them up until the Stubbs debacle. That alone has cost us a lot of money in payouts for Stubbs, Heaton’s transfer and his dud signings (Cody aside). We are now paying out on Kearney, a man who has seemingly been pushed out of the door even though he did a decent job. This was done at the beginning of pre-season, which has played its part in our embarrassing (impending) exit from the League Cup, one of our two best chances of silverware for the season ahead.

As stated above, the likes of St Johnstone do a great job of bringing in revenue to help cover for the smaller fan base they have. They are the club we should be looking to copy, similar size to us, but well run, stable, and established in the Premier League. Instead we spunk funds at every turn, and have done our best to secure immediate relegation. It’s almost as if the board doesn’t want us in the Premier League.

The only positive about fan ownership I can find right now is that we won’t end up in a situation similar to Blackpool or Coventry. Aside from that, I’m struggling to see the benefits now, because we seem completely incompetent at running a football club.

This is assuming that Kearney was squeaky clean in the happenings since the end of last season, i have my doubts but i don't care either because we move on.  I wholeheartedly agree with you on the Stubbs mistake. I don't think GS and co. can afford many more mistakes but i think Goodwin is a step forward.

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