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.”
SMiSA News
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.
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.”
We’ve had a brilliant reaction to the launch of our #BuyTheBuds campaign this weekend – with 130 people signing up in just 48 hours.
Our new-look website went live on Friday evening and we had more than 80 people pledging their support by Saturday lunchtime, with a further 50 by Sunday evening – thank you to everybody who has signed up so far.
Saturday was a busy day for the SMISA committee, with our AGM at lunchtime followed by a public meeting and Q&A with Gordon Scott and SMISA chair George Adam.
We were then outside the Paisley 2021 Stadium before the traditional derby-day skelping of Morton, handing out #BuyTheBuds leaflets.
Our thanks go to everybody who came along to the meeting and particularly to those members who volunteered to help us hand out leaflets at the game.
We’ve had a lot of people getting in touch with questions – so although we haven’t managed to answer everybody yet we will aim to do so soon.
We’ve been delighted with the reaction so far – but if we are going to hit the target of 1,000 we need lots more fans to sign up.
And although we will be doing our best to reach people, we need those of you who have already signed up to help us spread the word and make sure as many Saints fans as possible can be part of this one-off chance to make sure we and nobody else can own the future of our club.
We've only got a limited time to do this...so let's keep the momentum going!
As you will already know, there has been major progress of late on our joint bid with former St Mirren director Gordon Scott for the majority shareholding in St Mirren.
As a result of that we are holding a public meeting on Saturday at 12.30pm in The Wynd Centre, School Wynd, Paisley.
Existing SMISA members are being asked to come along at noon for the trust’s AGM, where we will deal with routine trust business.
Non-members should join us at 12.30pm for a presentation and Q&A on the bid, where you can put your questions to Gordon and the SMISA committee.
Be aware capacity in the venue will be limited, so in the event of exceptional demand entry will be first come, first served. See you there!
Saint for a Day 2016 is now on Sunday the 24th April at the Paisley 2021 Stadium and SMiSA have the No. 5 Home & Away strips to raffle off!
The day will consist of:
* Playing the game on the pitch at St Mirren Park.
* Wearing an official team strip which you will also get to keep after the game.
* The teams will be managed by St Mirren assistant manager David Farrell and first team player Jim Goodwin.
* Man of the Match Award for a player from each team.
The rules are as follows:
* Entries for our raffle will close on 2pm at Tuesday 19th and we'll announce winners that evening.
* You must be 18 years of age or over to both bid and take part in ‘Saint for a Day’.
* By bidding in the auction you are declaring that you (or the person you are bidding for) are fit and well to take part in this event. For even more info please see the official St Mirren site here http://www.saintmirren.net/pages/?p=54346
Fill in your details below and you'll be entered in to the raffle, please also complete the verification email you receive.