St Johnstone's Public Relations

[slf]

I think you need to start reading what is written.

Your supporters page shows that on 4 buses you run so far this year you have made a profit of £480. Yes I think it is great that the Club is puttin money into Saints but at the same time you should be looking after your members by reducing the price you might even increase the membership and raise even more.

Also what sort of subsidy are the club paying? or is it just they are running the buses at cost.

if ye want to tell the barossa what to do then show yer face at there meetings and tell them .they dinnae bite and are run democratically.if ye want to tell me what to do ye can shove it.

[mainstand]

if ye want to tell the barossa what to do then show yer face at there meetings and tell them .they dinnae bite and are run democratically.if ye want to tell me what to do ye can shove it.

No I don't go on supporters buses I use ny car. This is on a topic about Saints PR not Barossa Street. You are slating the Club for something that they may not even be doing. I will ask again are they being subsidised or run at cost.

[Dr Christmas Jones]

So because saints get their finger out their ass 20 odd years after McD's been built all other clubs should just fold and rush to the Muirton Suite.

I would rather stick pins in my eyes.

[slf]

No I don't go on supporters buses I use ny car. This is on a topic about Saints PR not Barossa Street. You are slating the Club for something that they may not even be doing. I will ask again are they being subsidised or run at cost.

stop playing games.this is everything to do with saints PR.

[The ghost of Jim Morton]

I think you need to start reading what is written.

Your supporters page shows that on 4 buses you run so far this year you have made a profit of £480. Yes I think it is great that the Club is puttin money into Saints but at the same time you should be looking after your members by reducing the price you might even increase the membership and raise even more.

Also what sort of subsidy are the club paying? or is it just they are running the buses at cost.

As for your adolf comment get a grip.

the one person could be anyone even the Club. More buses being hired might even mean lower costs.

Firstly, your idea of everyone leaving from the same place, with one person running one club is nonsense. The Barossa Street ST.JOHNSTONE club is ideally placed for people who live in the east side of perth, Bridgend and Scone. For many, McD is not the easiest place to get to without driving. So what we put in place was an "option" Many fans have happily taken up this option. Do you believe we should just kill our supporters club?

Next.... Your comment on the club making money on the bar. So does the Saints Club, and hopefully in the future ( as happened in the past) the Saints club will donate surplus monies to St.Johnstone. This has not happened yet but hopefully will.

It is now not an issue of subsidy but an issue of aggressive pricing given the buses are now the sole resposibility of Saints.( alledgedly)

Bus profits. The bus does indeed make a profit mostly, indeed last season we made somewhere around £600 and including todays bus,we are sitting at just at about £700 profit already this season for just 5 buses. This profit though, along with the other monies raised through the various events goes into the pot which we use for donations to St.Johnstone. So far in the last few months money has been donated to pay for 4 sets of 20 strips for the under 13's, 15's, 17's, and 19's. The Barossa Wap also donated £1000 cash to help cover the costs of sending a team to the Foyle cup in Ireland. Add to that 20 rain tops and the sponsorship of 2 players @ £720.. In total around £5500 has been given to the club.

I hope this information is helpful to you mainstand and helps you at least understand what the Barossa Wap is all about and what we do with our "Profits"

All that said though, I firmly believe that if St.Johnstone are going to run buses for a fiver , the Barrosa Wap bus should also be the same price and any loses incurred could be covered with the monies held in our account. This would mean that we would have less money to donate to saints but as you say it would benefit the fans.

I ask for this as bus conveener at our meeting on Thursday past but when it was put to a vote it was defeated 9-5 and this prompted me to resign as both bus conveener and committee member.

I apologise for being another to take this thread off topic ( because I don't actually believe this issue has much to do with the original idea of this thread) but really do believe that Mainstands comment needed addressing and the facts needed stating.

[slf]

yer mostly right ghost man . personally i firmly belief mainstand is not thick so it seems he is clearly stirring the pot.as for the 208 if its defunct then RIP.this still does not detract from the fact saints PR stinks.

[Real Madrid]

Not interested in this Facebook & Twitter shite . i want my info on the Official site. Thtas where most fans check for info.

You will be in the minority with that then.

For many they will use this site as their number 1 source.

Others will use Facebook or Twitter which is the fastest form of communitcation the club has.

The club need to use every source open to them

The website will need to stay traditional and facebook and twitter can then go to areas a website cannot.

And then you have the forum where fans can discuss and drive things. lets not go back to the 80's when you got Saints news on the back page of the PA on a Tuesday and Friday.

Not that you will be interested but the Facebook album of today's game and the fans reactions are already on-line. Go on you want to have a look!

http://www.facebook....82677295&type=1

[mainstand]

Firstly, your idea of everyone leaving from the same place, with one person running one club is nonsense. The Barossa Street ST.JOHNSTONE club is ideally placed for people who live in the east side of perth, Bridgend and Scone. For many, McD is not the easiest place to get to without driving. So what we put in place was an "option" Many fans have happily taken up this option. Do you believe we should just kill our supporters club?

Next.... Your comment on the club making money on the bar. So does the Saints Club, and hopefully in the future ( as happened in the past) the Saints club will donate surplus monies to St.Johnstone. This has not happened yet but hopefully will.

Membership... We do not have a bus membership. The patrons who use the Barossa bus are customers.

It is now not an issue of subsidy but an issue of aggressive pricing given the buses are now the sole resposibility of Saints.( alledgedly)

Bus profits. The bus does indeed make a profit mostly, indeed last season we made somewhere around £600 and including todays bus,we are sitting at just at about £700 profit already this season for just 5 buses. This profit though, along with the other monies raised through the various events goes into the pot which we use for donations to St.Johnstone. So far in the last few months money has been donated to pay for 4 sets of 20 strips for the under 13's, 15's, 17's, and 19's. The Barossa Wap also donated £1000 cash to help cover the costs of sending a team to the Foyle cup in Ireland. Add to that 20 rain tops and the sponsorship of 2 players @ £720.. In total around £5500 has been given to the club.

I hope this information is helpful to you mainstand and helps you at least understand what the Barossa Wap is all about and what we do with our "Profits"

All that said though, I firmly believe that if St.Johnstone are going to run buses for a fiver , the Barrosa Wap bus should also be the same price and any loses incurred could be covered with the monies held in our account. This would mean that we would have less money to donate to saints but as you say it would benefit the fans.

I ask for this as bus conveener at our meeting on Thursday past but when it was put to a vote it was defeated 9-5 and this prompted me to resign as both bus conveener and committee member.

I apologise for being another to take this thread off topic ( because I don't actually believe this issue has much to do with the original idea of this thread) but really do believe that Mainstands comment needed addressing and the facts needed stating.

Ghostie

I know the work that Barossa Street put in helped the club, What I was saying before SLF started his ranting was is there no way that the 2 clubs could be using the same buses for the benefit of all the fans.

The figures you are stating there are impressive and as you say reducing the price to £5 and covering the costs from money raised seems a sensible solution but as you say that was voted out.

St Johnstone are too small a club for supporters clubs to be at each others throats or thinking one is getting better treatment etc, We can only hope that is resolved.

[dave mc]

I went to Dingwall on what i thought was the old 208 Jeanfield bus,but it seems that the committee of that club were not consulted in the venture of the Muirton suite buses,so i'm not particularly impressed that Saints as an entity seem to have steam rollered a supporters club into something they want to claim as their own.

[Dr Christmas Jones]

I went to Dingwall on what i thought was the old 208 Jeanfield bus,but it seems that the committee of that club were not consulted in the venture of the Muirton suite buses,so i'm not particularly impressed that Saints as an entity seem to have steam rollered a supporters club into something they want to claim as their own.

Agree again with you Dave, as I do on the majority of things.....sure we aint related!!!!

CYS boppin' since 1884

[MySpazz]

You lot need your heeds bangin the gither.

Who cares who gets the credit, so long as the club benefits in some way.

And why nit-pick about Barossa St club? They seem to have done good work with Saints, AND have generated good PR!! Just what you want. They ARE a good story.

Stop fighting, just copy Barossa St - sure they can take the compliment...likewise 208 might also feel hugely flattered that the club would welcome the name/patrons as their own.

As they say ....

[Dr Christmas Jones]

No I don't go on supporters buses I use ny car. This is on a topic about Saints PR not Barossa Street. You are slating the Club for something that they may not even be doing. I will ask again are they being subsidised or run at cost.

Then I will ask this......if its all being done in an appropriate way then why is it so hush hush.Surely if the chairman of the Jeanfield208 supporters club doesn't know anything about it then there is something underhand going on.

Why is there no advertising of this super deal to get more punters to use the Muirton Suite!

[The ghost of Jim Morton]

No I don't go on supporters buses I use ny car. This is on a topic about Saints PR not Barossa Street. You are slating the Club for something that they may not even be doing. I will ask again are they being subsidised or run at cost.

Okay MS I will take this one mate..

AFAIK, Saints are running a bus and charging a fiver.. Now, if they fill a 50 seater, then that is £250. ( and that is IF they fill it) Now, I get a pretty good deal for buses and that is £50 less than we pay. Lets say though that for a game against , lets say Killie, they only get 30 ( which to be fair can happen). Then the bus will only generate £150. Now they might be getting a bus for around £250, but they certainly won't be getting one for £150 MS..

I did also hear ( and I don't know how true this is) that perhaps a deal had been done with a coach operators where-by the coach operators got a table of four for hospitality for every home game and in return , no money changed hands for the bus. The down side to this is that a table of four for full hospitality is £90 a skull and if that is given away to someone, it deprives the club of £360 in revenue. and of course there is a cost issue as well for the production of such hospitality.

Once again MS I am trying to help you understand where we are at and what the score is. Not having a go at you just tring to get what I believe are the facts based on the infornmation I have.

While I am on here I just want to also point out that when I previously mentioned Beve in relation to the Saints buses, I was in no way saying that this is her doing. I firmly believe that it is coming from others further up the food chain. I was merely pointing out the info she passed on to me yesterday as an employee of the club. It has been claimed that I was told this information at a meeting previously but I can honestly say, what was said at that meeting did not come across as what I am now hearing from the club.

.

[wee john]

the j208 saints still run the buses.

i have had this clarified by s brown and r grant (twice) and roddy hopes the j208 will still be running the buses for another 20years.

now unless those 2 people are telling me lies then the j208 will still run the buses and i am still chairman of that club,

Edited September 30, 2012 by wee john

[Dr Christmas Jones]

Now if Im not mistaken this seems like a god awful mess and a public relations nightmare.Glad you are still in charge John cause it needs to be someone who has the supporters best intensions at heart...........and not just people that are in it for the money.

[The ghost of Jim Morton]

The club are not subsidising the £5 buses and if you read Ghostie's post he claims that Barossa Club could afford to reduce their prices too. If the reduction in the price encourages a few more fans to travel to watch Saints then that is great. It appears that some of the fans who use the Barossa Street bus are prepared to pay the extra for a variety of reasons.

We run a bus to 4 or 5 away games a year and will not be able to reduce the prices, I don't see the Muirton Suite/ 208 bus as a threat but as an opportunity to encourage more fans to travel to watch Saints.

Well actually, they are if only 30 people turn up becayse they aint getting a bus for £150 now are they .. And if as I have heard, they are getting it for nothing on the barter system them it is actually costing them at least £360 in lost revenue for the hospitality they are using as payment ( if this is indeed the case, which has not been confirmed OR DENIED.

[The ghost of Jim Morton]

My last word on this.

I have said a lot on this subject but I am now going to say nothing more, as given my resignation from the Barossa bus conveenership, the committe and the Saints fans user group I really don't have or want anything to do with this issue from here on in.I will not respond to anymore comments or questions on the subject. I hope you will all respect my position and I hope it all gets sorted out to everyones satisfaction. Good luck.

Gordon.

[Dr Christmas Jones]

My last word on this.

I have said a lot on this subject but I am now going to say nothing more, as given my resignation from the Barossa bus conveenership, the committe and the Saints fans user group I really don't have or want anything to do with this issue from here on in.I will not respond to anymore comments or questions on the subject. I hope you will all respect my position and I hope it all gets sorted out to everyones satisfaction. Good luck.

Gordon.

Does this mean you are not running the bus to Inverness Gordon?

[NeilSJFC]

You will be in the minority with that then.

For many they will use this site as their number 1 source.

Others will use Facebook or Twitter which is the fastest form of communitcation the club has.

The club need to use every source open to them

The website will need to stay traditional and facebook and twitter can then go to areas a website cannot.

And then you have the forum where fans can discuss and drive things. lets not go back to the 80's when you got Saints news on the back page of the PA on a Tuesday and Friday.

Not that you will be interested but the Facebook album of today's game and the fans reactions are already on-line. Go on you want to have a look!

http://www.facebook....82677295&type=1

I have to admit I have enjoyed the facebook updates this season, and as someone who doesn't go to many away games by bus and hence isn't involve with the politics that seems to engulfed the supporter buses the last few years I have to see the clubs PR has been much better this season.

Edited September 30, 2012 by NeilSJFC

[ancientsaint]

Does this mean you are not running the bus to Inverness Gordon?

Course he wil - He is the only option I think he feels that because he spoke his mind that he cannot back down ---No one accepted his "Resignation" NOR has anyone been lined up to "take over".......I just hope he DOES continue ( he wants too -even if he says he disnae !!!)

[andy rhodes fancy watch]

If saints run buses from the muirton suite they also make money on whatever is sold in said suite , now if saints make a few hundred on days that the buses leave i'm sure that more than covers any loss on the buses . Good idea .

[glenrothes saintee]

Why not form an association of Saints supporters clubs in conjunction with the club? Buses can leave from the stadium, Barrossa club and maybe even the city centre (bus stop outside sportsers/foundry) all for a fiver to away games.

I said in another topic I'm surprised the club has not done a deal with stagecoach to run shuttle bus service from the city centre to the stadium for home games. I'm sure a few of the pubs in the city centre would be up for doing a promo to get fans in before and after the game. Any deal with stagecoach could see them running buses from the likes of Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Crieff etc to McD for home games.

[McD]

Why not form an association of Saints supporters clubs in conjunction with the club? Buses can leave from the stadium, Barrossa club and maybe even the city centre (bus stop outside sportsers/foundry) all for a fiver to away games.

I said in another topic I'm surprised the club has not done a deal with stagecoach to run shuttle bus service from the city centre to the stadium for home games. I'm sure a few of the pubs in the city centre would be up for doing a promo to get fans in before and after the game. Any deal with stagecoach could see them running buses from the likes of Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Crieff etc to McD for home games.

It's not a bad idea Rothes but Stagecoach will probably be thinking of the potential problems of taking crowds forom pubs in relation to their employees and the hassle it could bring.

[ancientsaint]

Why not form an association of Saints supporters clubs in conjunction with the club? Buses can leave from the stadium, Barrossa club and maybe even the city centre (bus stop outside sportsers/foundry) all for a fiver to away games.

I said in another topic I'm surprised the club has not done a deal with stagecoach to run shuttle bus service from the city centre to the stadium for home games. I'm sure a few of the pubs in the city centre would be up for doing a promo to get fans in before and after the game. Any deal with stagecoach could see them running buses from the likes of Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Crieff etc to McD for home games.

Stagecoach already do buses that stop ootside Mcd on matchdays (No 2) - so cannot see Saints sponsoring a bus from the firm that already has one on that route.

Barossa Saints Supporters have ran a bus between Barossa St and Mcd at every home game .

The Muirton Travel club ( one of the oldest supporters clubs ) also ran buses from the popular Supporters club at Dunkeld Rd and as I believe that club was a great source of "cash" every season towards Saints (£30,000 -Thirty Thousand a season) and that was closed by Saints at the time -which basically led to the demise of that particular bus.

I personally have NO agenda with St.Johnstone FC trying to get supporters into their "Muirton Suite" on a Saturday - nor have i a problem with them doing their own supporters bus at whatever cost they choose to charge- thats their choice and if it works then good luck to them and the folk who use it.

I am one of "those" who live outside Perth and for me and others it costs us about £6 just to get buses up to McD.

Barossa St is a lot less than that and has been a godsend for supporters outwith Perth and probably folk within the City itself.

I dont see a problem (yet) with the buses outwith Saints one -They all seem to attract the regulars who have supported their particular bus over the years and whilst I cannot speak for the other Clubs that run buses -Barossa Street certainly (the supporters part that is) have given to the club for their youths.

Hopefully ALL the clubs can attract supporters every week and continue to survive - we dont want to see clubs fold.

[fazman1977]

I said in another topic I'm surprised the club has not done a deal with stagecoach to run shuttle bus service from the city centre to the stadium for home games. I'm sure a few of the pubs in the city centre would be up for doing a promo to get fans in before and after the game. Any deal with stagecoach could see them running buses from the likes of Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Crieff etc to McD for home games.

The Barossa club runs a return shuttle from the club to home games for £3.00.

There's also the option of a Stagecoach bus (#1 or #2) that stop outside the ground, that would probably be roughly the same price.

I, for one, would rather money went towards the community of the ONLY St Johnstone Supporter's Club left in Perth than lined the Gloag's & Souter's already heaving pockets.

As someone has said before, the Barossa Club is perfectly placed for folk from east & south Perth, city centre and, to an extent, Muirton.