The bid to take St Mirren into fan ownership has signed up two legends of the club’s recent past.

Barry McLaughlin and Ricky Gillies have thrown their weight behind the joint offer by the St Mirren Independent Supporters Association and ex-Saints director Gordon Scott to buy a majority shareholding in the club.

The #BuyTheBuds campaign has signed up 750 people in just six weeks and is now sitting around 250 people short of the 1,000-person target needed by 19 June for the deal to go through.

Should it be successful, Gordon would become chairman and SMISA would have a seat on the board, and would continue fundraising in order to buy Gordon’s shares over the long term.

And Barry and Ricky – local boys who starred for the club throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the First Division title-winning side of 1999/2000 – have urged their fellow fans to help get the deal over the line.

Former club captain Barry – now a business advisor with Satander – said: “St Mirren is a community club, and most of the fans are from the local area.

“Going forward you want to see the club being run by people who care for the club and are not looking to profit from it.

“Gordon Scott has St Mirren at heart and I am looking forward to seeing what he and the new board can bring to the club.

“The club has been going for 140 years, we want to see it going for another 140 years and to be kept alive for generations to come.”

 And one-time midfield maestro Ricky – who now works with PFA Scotland as a football agent – added:

“I think all football clubs at St Mirren’s level should be run by the fans. They are the ones that will be there until doomsday

“I’ve got a great interest in St Mirren - my wife and family are fans and they are a great club, the best I was ever at.

“You do not want people who are only there to make money, who just want to bring players in and move them on to other clubs, as St Mirren won’t see that money. If the club was sold to foreign agents it could be a disaster.

“The perfect solution is for the club to have business people on board but for the fans to have a real democracy and be represented in the boardroom and work together on what is best for the club.

“So what is being proposed is perfect. I have met Gordon Scott a few times in the past few years and obviously knew him from my own days at St Mirren. He loves the club and I think he would be a great chairman.”

As you will no doubt be aware, the deadline for sign-ups is in just over two weeks – Sunday 19 June.
We have said from the start we need to hit our target of 1,000 sign-ups for us to be satisfied the deal is viable and that remains the case.

To help with that final push we are calling a third and final public meeting on Monday 13 June at 7pm in the hospitality suite at The Paisley 2021 Stadium.
That will give fans a chance to put any remaining questions directly to Gordon and members of the SMISA committee before the deadline.

Right now we are standing on the verge of a huge moment in the 139-year existence of our football club – and we need your help to take that final step.
Although we have worked hard to reach as many St Mirren fans as we can over the past few weeks, there will still be some who may not know a lot about the deal, or who haven’t yet been convinced to sign up.

There is no more powerful tool at our disposal than word of mouth – so we are asking you to help us spread the word and convince your fellow fans to do this for the same reasons you have.

We appreciate the detail surrounding the bid is complex but also that it can be boiled down to three very simple points – feel free to use them.

1) The club needs fresh ideas and energy; this deal means new chairman will be a Saints fan with experience to take the club forward and a sustainable transition to fan ownership.
2) Your £12p/m contribution gives you a vote on big issues affecting St Mirren and the chance to elect a director and decide how member cash helps the club.
3) We won’t get another chance to do this; our club is precious and it will be sold but this way we keep it in the hands of the people who will care about it most...you.

Of course we appreciate some people may want to hear things directly from Gordon and the SMISA committee – in which case please ask them to come along to the meeting on Monday 13th.

As we say, this is the final push to make sure we and only we can control what happens with an institution which means so much to every one of us.
Together we can write the next chapter in the history of our football club together.

Whilst in the closed season we’ll be partnering up with local businesses in the Renfrewshire area to keep some stock of the #BuyTheBuds pin badges. We’ll keep this article updated with availability over the next few weeks. So far they are available at.
 
Saporito Coffee – 27 Gauze Street, Paisley
https://www.facebook.com/saporitopaisley / https://twitter.com/saporito_coffee
 
The Court Bar – 7 St James’ Street, Paisley
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Court-Bar / https://twitter.com/courtbarpaisley

St Mirren Club Shop - Paisley 2021 Stadium, Paisley
https://www.facebook.com/StMirrenShop / https://twitter.com/StMirrenShop

St Mirren fans have one month left to sign up to a scheme which could see them become the latest Scottish club to move into fan ownership, after a fundraising deadline was called.
 
The St Mirren Independent Suppoorters’ Association (SMISA) has teamed up with former club director Gordon Scott with a joint offer already accepted in principle by the consortium selling a majority shareholding.
 
The trust needs to sign up 1,000 members at a minimum of £12 per month for the deal to be viable – and are more than halfway there, having managed almost 600 since fundraising started in April.
 
But with other bidders on the scene the deal needs to be completed this summer – and SMISA have now called an end date of Thursday 19 June to hit the target.
 
The announcement was made last night at a public meeting at The Paisley 2021 Stadium attended by hundreds, at which Gordon and SMISA chair George Adam MSP answered questions from fans.
 
The joint SMISA/Gordon offer is loosely based on the successful model run by Ann Budge and the Foundation of Hearts.
 
Gordon is putting up the bulk of the money needed to fund the deal, which would see him become majority shareholder and chairman, while the fans would get a director on the board and a legal agreement giving them exclusive right to buy the shares Gordon buys now within 10 years.
 
Membership starts at £12 per month, with a £25 per month option, and a premium package offering ten years of membership and other exclusive benefits for a one-off payment of £2,500. For more information, visit www.smisa.net
 
SMISA chair George Adam MSP said: “We have had a fantastic reaction from fans, with hundreds signing up the first couple of weeks of fundraising, and we want to thank all of those who have done so to date.
 
“A team of us have been working hard behind the scenes on this bid for a year now – but its success now rests on what happens in the next month.
“We have one month in which to get the numbers we need to make this deal viable. If we don’t we won’t get the chance again.
 
“For the price of a pint a week, St Mirren fans have it in their hands to take control of the future of their club and everything it means to this community, and preserve it for future generations.”
 
Gordon Scott said: “The current board deserve a lot of credit for all they have done over the years – but one way or another they are going to sell up and move on.
 
“St Mirren fans have a simple choice – either be part of what are doing and build the future of our club together, or leave that future entirely to chance.
 
“It would be a life-defining achievement for me to become chairman of the club I have supported since I was a boy.
 
“My aim is simple – work with the fans and the community to give St Mirren the fresh ideas it needs, get the club back into the top league where it belongs, and hand it over to the fans to safeguard forever.”

Our next public meeting will be held with in the hospitality suite at the Paisley 2021 Stadium on Thursday the 19th of May at 7pm. The meeting will be a  chance to meet us face to face and ask George Adam, Gordon Scott and the rest of the SMISA team your questions on the #BuyTheBuds bid.

There will be a chance to signup on the day and we'll be live streaming the event for Buddies far and wide who can't make it that evening. We'll also be giving away a special something to the fans for your support so head down to the ground so you don't miss out.

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The bid to take St Mirren into the hands of its supporters has received some big-name backing – with best-selling author Chris Brookmyre issuing a plea to fans to join him in signing up.

Writer Chris and TV acting star Douglas Henshall were among the near-400 fans who signed up to the #BuyTheBuds campaign in its first week.

The St Mirren Independent Supporters Association (SMISA) has had a joint offer with former Saints director Gordon Scott accepted in principle for the majority shareholding in the club – but need 1,000 fans to join this summer before the deal can happen.

And Chris sent a message of support to the trust, saying: “Clubs like St Mirren are all about community.

“As fans we all invest emotionally in the club, so it make sense that we should take that a stage further.”

Chris had initially tweeted to his 14,000 followers that he had joined, posting a link to SMISA’s website, and then retweeting a link to a Paisley Daily Express story about the fan bid.

Actor Douglas – known for his starring roles in TV shows Primeval and Shetland – then tweeted Chris back to say he had signed up too.

Both men are originally from Barrhead and have talked about their support for the club throughout their careers.

Full details of how you can join Chris and Douglas and sign up to #BuyTheBuds are available here – fans can sign up from £12 per month.

If the deal goes through, Gordon would become majority shareholder and chairman of St Mirren and SMISA would get a director on the board – with an option to buy Gordon’s shares and achieve majority fan ownership within the next ten years.

SMISA chair George Adam added: “We have had a fantastic response to our first week of fundraising – we want to thank every one of the near-400 fans who have pledged their support so far.

“We put this deal on the table because we believe it offers the best possible future for St Mirren.

“This is a one-off chance to ensure St Mirren’s next set of owners will be people who will keep the club where it belongs, at the heart of the Paisley community, forever.

“But that chance will be gone if we don’t get 1,000 fans signing up this summer. So I would urge anybody who hasn’t yet signed up to do so online now."

Yesterday marked the annual Saint for a Day competition hosted by the club at the ground. Our two raffle winners were Mark Syme and Ian Walker. Unfortunately Iain couldn't play due to an injury so his son Dean duly stepped up to the plate. 

Both Gordon Scott and SMISA chair George Adam have thanked the near-200 Saints fans who have rushed to signed up to #BuyTheBuds over the past 72 hours.

Fundraising launched over the weekend with a public meeting and leaflet handout at the Paisley 2021 Stadium before Saturday’s 3-1 home Renfrewshire derby win over Morton.

The trust has since been making good progress towards its minimum target of 1,000 members - and both George and Gordon are calling on others to get on board.

SMISA chair George Adam said: “We have been delighted with the reaction to the launch of the fundraising – the sign-ups started almost immediately and I want to thank everybody who has pledged their support so far, as we have had some great feedback from fans.

“One way or another, the current board are going to sell the club – I think people understand this is a one-off chance to make sure St Mirren can stay in the hands of the people who will care for it best.

“But this is only a start – we need 1,000 signed-up members for this deal to be viable. So we are calling on everybody with St Mirren at heart to help us spread the word and reach that target.”

Gordon Scott added: “It was good to meet fans at the public meeting on Saturday – people had some good questions about how the deal will work, but hopefully they can see we have worked hard on this to make sure what we are proposing is well thought-through and viable.

“I want to help lead this club back to where it belongs in the top-flight of Scottish football and then work on a way to transfer it into the hands of the supporters.

“But it’s in the hands of the fans whether we get the chance to do that or not – so I would urge them to check out what is on offer at smisa.net now, and together we can own the future of the club.”