New Owners

[garydavidson]

18 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

I have no idea if this is a thing in Scotland, but in England it's possible to have covenants put in place to protect land for sporting use. Is that not something our board should be looking into to protect McDiarmid Park under future owners?

Hypothetically, what happens if a buyer is never found? Who will ownership of the club pass to?

I imagine it would go to the Saints trust if it is a charity to lower the inheritance tax burden on the Browns.

[MySpazz]

On 12/14/2023 at 8:04 PM, Smarmy Arab said:

Aberdeen, Dundee and Utd now American owned....Saints as well?  
Loss making money pits, attracting US owners?  Wtf is going on here?????

They can see how badly we "do" sports, and will destroy our beautiful game... look at EPL - a circus.

[blueheaven]

12 hours ago, MySpazz said:

They can see how badly we "do" sports, and will destroy our beautiful game... look at EPL - a circus.

I think our beautiful game could learn a helluva lot from the way the English Premier is marketed.

[MySpazz]

A cautionary tale for the Browns and St Johnstone in turn?

More than 200 jobs lost as housebuilder Stewart Milne goes bust
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-67918029

Edited January 9 by MySpazz

[Cleveland-Saint]

Thats a good catch. If home building companies are getting into fiscal trouble, could that mean if this drags on the Browns may become open to less gilt chip offers to get out?

I realize there may be activity going on behind the scenes, promoting the sale, but I wonder if the message is getting to everyone who could have interest? Maybe we need to be more public with the PR around the sale.

Its not like we have a stellar record on marketing and promoting the club.

 

[andrew]

1 hour ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

Thats a good catch. If home building companies are getting into fiscal trouble, could that mean if this drags on the Browns may become open to less gilt chip offers to get out?

I realize there may be activity going on behind the scenes, promoting the sale, but I wonder if the message is getting to everyone who could have interest? Maybe we need to be more public with the PR around the sale.

Its not like we have a stellar record on marketing and promoting the club.

 

Maybe we could’ve beaten Motherwell to making a video…

[garydavidson]

2 hours ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

Thats a good catch. If home building companies are getting into fiscal trouble, could that mean if this drags on the Browns may become open to less gilt chip offers to get out?

I realize there may be activity going on behind the scenes, promoting the sale, but I wonder if the message is getting to everyone who could have interest? Maybe we need to be more public with the PR around the sale.

Its not like we have a stellar record on marketing and promoting the club.

 

Running the club isn't costing the Browns a penny in anything but the time they invest. If a business goes bust the owner won't suffer, or they shouldn't as that is the way the system has been designed.

[Setting Son]

Stewart Milne was distraught his company went under ,as he sat on his luxury yacht in the Bahamas 

[garydavidson]

Detailed negotiations with Perth club owner, Geoff Brown, are progressing well – so much so that the Scottish Football Association has now been notified about the potential for foreign investment at McDiarmid Park.

An agreement over a sale could even be reached before the end of the season.

The US investor, who has a legal background, was a guest of Saints earlier this month and, along with an associate, attended the Premiership matches against Ross County and Hearts during a week-long stay in Scotland.

Having been involved in talks for several months before then, he liked what he saw and discussions have advanced significantly since the trip.

The number of parties interested in a takeover has run into double figures but no others have got anywhere near to this stage.

Brown has previously admitted that the vast amount of prime site land at McDiarmid has proved to be problematic in terms of finding a suitable buyer.

For any deal to get completed, legal guarantees would be put in place on that front.

Saints will also be provided with proof of funding that underpins the bid and the future running of the club.

It is understood the prospective buyer assessed the landscape in leagues across England and Europe before setting his sights on St Johnstone.

A deal being completed over the next few months is looking increasingly possible, meaning Saints could be foreign-owned for the first time in their 140-year history.

Edited February 19 by garydavidson

[pezza70]

Sounds very promising plus a bit nervous knowing that GB won’t be around to help protect the club 

[rik2304]

Sounds good. 

I fancy a name change to something like the Perth Panthers.

[R.B.B:- Adz]

33 minutes ago, rik2304 said:

Sounds good. 

I fancy a name change to something like the Perth Panthers.

A remember a woman in the East Stand used to wear a Blue Jays baseball jacked to every home game! Looked great!

Could bring back the 1990’s Bukta kit with the baseball style collar at the same time.

Let’s go Perth saints, let’s go!

Edited February 19 by R.B.B:- Adz

[garydavidson]

10 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

A remember a woman in the East Stand used to wear a Blue Jays baseball jacked to every home game! Looked great!

Could bring back the 1990’s Bukta kit with the baseball style collar at the same time.

Let’s go Perth saints, let’s go!

I am fairly certain there was a Saints baseball jacket in the Bukta era.

[Melbourne Saint]

Well my fiancé is American and is excited... If it goes ahead, it would be great to have some pre-season games over there... Instead of Ireland. Or Dingwall. I presume this negotiation involves an American consortium? Be interesting who else is involved in this apart from the legal dude..

 

[Cleveland-Saint]

A lawyer? Great.....

[Maskrey]

11 hours ago, pezza70 said:

Sounds very promising plus a bit nervous knowing that GB won’t be around to help protect the club 

On the flip side maybe we will be run in a more professional sports team manner rather than like the local bowling club.  We have become lazy as a club and a few need a good shake up as we seem to be far too comfy at the moment.  

[Aitchy]

12 minutes ago, Maskrey said:

On the flip side maybe we will be run in a more professional sports team manner rather than like the local bowling club.  We have become lazy as a club and a few need a good shake up as we seem to be far too comfy at the moment.  

I would agree with that assessment. The return of Stan Harris and the removal of some of the charlatans that were hanging around the club has been encouraging, but the club has been stagnant for a number of years now. If things are at a stage whereby the SFA have been informed, then Geoff must be pretty confident that the sale will go through.

American investment in Scottish football has not exactly been a roaring success yet. Ogren at Dundee United has burnt through 13 million and finds his club stuck in the Championship with no guarantee of getting up this year with big earners like Watt, Middleton and Moult on the wage bill. The owners at Dundee do seem to have finally got things heading in the right direction, but are hedging are their bets on getting approval for a new stadium and it being a success. Hibs have had numerous managers and recruitment has been criticised, but they do seem to get credit for improving things off the pitch.

It will be interesting to hear if the new investor/s have links with any other clubs. I can’t say I am enthusiastic about us becoming almost a feeder club and fear we would lose a bit of our identity, but it does seem to be the way Scottish football is going, particularly in light of the recent SFA/SPFL approval of the owner of Bournemouth being able to invest in Hibs.

What would be people’s views on what could be improved if and when new owners take over? Evidently we all want to see an improvement in the first team, but I think we can vastly improve our engagement with fan base and wider community. There does seem to have been an attitude from the Browns for a number of years now that there is no point in trying to build or maintain or fan base. It’s evident that we need to vastly improve our recruitment side of things at the club. Would also be nice to see Alistair Stevenson given more resources. He works miracles on a minuscule budget at the moment and it would be fascinating to see what else he could achieve with more resources.

[Bruno Strasser]

Has any foreign owner really made a success of things over here in Scotland ? Deeply unimpressed at what is happening in Dundee. Both clubs have unsustainable finances and that is not the way we have achieved our success. Am I the only one dreading this ?

[Aitchy]

1 minute ago, Bruno Strasser said:

Has any foreign owner really made a success of things over here in Scotland ? Deeply unimpressed at what is happening in Dundee. Both clubs have unsustainable finances and that is not the way we have achieved our success. Am I the only one dreading this ?

I think we will all have an element of concern. The only thing that provides me with some reassurance is that Geoff is not daft and has always tried to do what he thinks it’s right for the club and has been open about the fact that he will only sell to the “right people”.
 

Both Dundee teams were already car crashes before being taken over whilst at least we are relatively financially healthy.

[blueheaven]

5 hours ago, Maskrey said:

On the flip side maybe we will be run in a more professional sports team manner rather than like the local bowling club.  We have become lazy as a club and a few need a good shake up as we seem to be far too comfy at the moment.  

Completely agree with this. As nervous as I am about the motives and capabilities of any new owner coming in, my number one hope is that we get someone with fresh enthusiasm and new ideas who can drag Saints out of their incredibly stagnant and old-fashioned mindset. Someone who is willing to try out some different approaches, whether that's about attracting new fans, galvanising the local community or attracting some more diverse sponsorship and investment. Saints have been left behind by the way modern businesses and sports clubs do things and seem to have zero interest in catching up.

I do wonder, though, why any overseas investor would have any interest in a Scottish club of Saints' size. It's not as if they're going to get rich(er) out of it. I can see the appeal of taking over a smaller club in the English leagues like Salford or Wrexham, as there's real scope there to rise up through the divisions and grow. But really, where do you take a club like Saints, based in a small city and playing in the Scottish leagues? Unless you're coming in with the sort of serious money that would overtake the Old Firm and put us into the Champions League, what's the target going to be that we haven't already hit?

 

 

[Melbourne Saint]

Well in fairness, (and it is unsettling), there's a lot of very rich Americans that like to have something "different" . Bit of a boast and ego. They can't buy into NFL, baseball, basketball etc. so we're cheap. And there's the Wrexham factor. And even the Ted Lasso series. For some reason it's a sign of wealth to own a club on the other side of the pond. So in Geoff's parting gift... I hope he's right. God bless America 

[Maskrey]

30 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Completely agree with this. As nervous as I am about the motives and capabilities of any new owner coming in, my number one hope is that we get someone with fresh enthusiasm and new ideas who can drag Saints out of their incredibly stagnant and old-fashioned mindset. Someone who is willing to try out some different approaches, whether that's about attracting new fans, galvanising the local community or attracting some more diverse sponsorship and investment. Saints have been left behind by the way modern businesses and sports clubs do things and seem to have zero interest in catching up.

I do wonder, though, why any overseas investor would have any interest in a Scottish club of Saints' size. It's not as if they're going to get rich(er) out of it. I can see the appeal of taking over a smaller club in the English leagues like Salford or Wrexham, as there's real scope there to rise up through the divisions and grow. But really, where do you take a club like Saints, based in a small city and playing in the Scottish leagues? Unless you're coming in with the sort of serious money that would overtake the Old Firm and put us into the Champions League, what's the target going to be that we haven't already hit?

 

 

Yes I am of the same thought.  I don’t understand the attraction of investing in a Scottish club, what is the motive for it.  Even at a club like Hibs who have a decent fan base they will be more likely to lose money than make it.  Sometimes clubs can be a play thing for these investors until they get bored and then there are problems.  Hopefully due diligence is done to protect the long term interests of the club.  A new fresh approach is to be welcomed however.

[Linky]

I think the only attraction would be an American who has some sort of Scottish roots, and a lot a money. They aren't looking to make anything from it, but just connect with the local area. Perhaps they have a house nearby or whatever. They might own other sports teams in the US, and it's a hobby of theirs.

[Gekko]

Maybe the reason for being interested in us is something to do with a Scottish family connection? "My Grandaddy was from Aberfeldy" type of thing.

But then they've apparently been looking at clubs in England and all over Europe, so I doubt that.

I think it's simply, as has been mentioned, an ego thing. Owning a soccer team in the UK. Plus we'll be less expensive than other options.

As long as they've got a bit of finance, a plan going forward and good intentions then I'll be happy enough.

Or even better, they're absolutely minted and we're going for the title. 👍😜

I presume they were found by that agency that was working for the club to find new buyers.

[Cagey]

1 minute ago, Linky said:

I think the only attraction would be an American who has some sort of Scottish roots, and a lot a money. They aren't looking to make anything from it, but just connect with the local area. Perhaps they have a house nearby or whatever. They might own other sports teams in the US, and it's a hobby of theirs.

Donald Trump ?