The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[capt_oats]

6 minutes ago, GAD said:

Does Motherwell's away stand not hold more than 4000 people on it's own though? Have they shut down parts of it for Rangers and Celtic?

Both things are true.

We used to give them a section of the main stand as well but we don't any more. It's just the away stand.

[GAD]

1 minute ago, capt_oats said:

Both things are true.

We used to give them a section of the main stand as well but we don't any more. It's just the away stand.

Yeah, but it's still more OF fans in the ground than St Mirren would have even with two stands open to them. I think it's something people need to understand before making these comparisons, it's not like for like.

[capt_oats]

4 minutes ago, GAD said:

Yeah, but it's still more OF fans in the ground than St Mirren would have even with two stands open to them. I think it's something people need to understand before making these comparisons, it's not like for like.

Oh absolutely. I've no dog in this fight.

It's just it's true to say we have cut their allocation but as you say that stand more than accommodates (tbf that's the whole point of it being the size it is).

There's been a section partitioned off while away teams have been using the south stand for dressing rooms but under normal circumstances it holds closer to 5k (4,856 to be precise).

Edited May 27, 2022 by capt_oats

[RandomGuy.]

23 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Yip and increase their ticket prices for the single stand in line with what they pay at their own cesspits with the extra redeemable for Saints fans from other match tickets. 

Do what we done, and hike up the prices the OF pay while offering reduced price tickets to home fans if they buy via a season ticket holder.

Edited May 27, 2022 by RandomGuy.

[Smithers Jones]

3 hours ago, buddie06smfc said:

I voted to retain 3 stands at all times and to the detriment of the first team budget, we managed before and even won home games against Celtic/Rangers. Championship is a much better league and if it comes to that without this coveted £100k (sounds like how drastic things will get given the boards insistence on this figure) then I will be at ease with my decision. 

They have always had more than one stand in the new ground. Remember they had a few sections of the West stand as well as the away stand.

[AW saint]

Lets be honest if our support was bigger this would not be on the table. If we don't want the old firm to pack out an extra stand then we up the ticket price and kick them out. I am in favour of giving us much of our stadium to our fans and thats how I voted. I am happy to pay more to not listen to the bigots 

[DumbartonBud]

8 hours ago, btb said:

Not one to dredge up old arguments  but I'm sure GLS was suggesting we made a lot more from this move a coupla years back.

Yep the claim was £120k this was debunked and is a max circa £80k but I suppose ‘six figures’ makes it sound like even more than it is. 

[Spam_Valley]

17 hours ago, Silvio said:

Get them out. More important things than playing budget.

 

There really isn't. The playing budget is the most important part of pre-season planning. 100k is a major chunk to lose out on.

[NorthBank]

We charged £22 for a ticket last season. The OF £30. So bump up to their prices against them to £30 and we pull in approx £40k (1600 * 8 * 3) per stand. This should be done regardless of the outcome of the vote.

So that leaves a £60k shortfall if we only give them one stand. (We gain an extra £80k if we give them 2 stands). Some of any loss will be offset by

- slightly increasing Family Stand season ticket prices to reflect validity for all games.

- maybe slightly increased number of Buds returning if only one stand allocated to the OF.

- some OF infiltrators into the Home Stands.

So the loss would be closer to £50k than £100k. Not great but we can live with that.

[geo87]

If we can plug 60-70% of the gap I think it’s the right thing to do, any less than that and it’s basically one player less to have in the squad (give or take a few grand!)

An absolute no brainer to increase the OF pricing though, wonder how we compare to rest of the clubs pricing for OF games?

[Arch Stanton]

The 3 games v Rangers and Celtic last season were priced at £27 for adults. I don't know what the concession prices were. 

[Saint Shug]

14 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

The 3 games v Rangers and Celtic last season were priced at £27 for adults. I don't know what the concession prices were. 

£17 the concessions were. 

[Spam_Valley]

34 minutes ago, geo87 said:

If we can plug 60-70% of the gap I think it’s the right thing to do, any less than that and it’s basically one player less to have in the squad (give or take a few grand!)

An absolute no brainer to increase the OF pricing though, wonder how we compare to rest of the clubs pricing for OF games?

Until we can guarantee that we can make the O.F. money through other means, we shouldn’t be sacrificing any amount from the playing budget. Every penny is a prisoner and that extra cash could be the difference.

[Hendo]

4 hours ago, Spam_Valley said:

Until we can guarantee that we can make the O.F. money through other means, we shouldn’t be sacrificing any amount from the playing budget. Every penny is a prisoner and that extra cash could be the difference.

The financial argument really doesnt add up, and the suggested figures from the club don't tally with reality.

Last season, the three old firm games had an average attendance of around 6400. The next best supported club, who only got one stand, was Hearts in February, the attendance there was nearly 5800. Therefore, even though both ends of the ground appeared full v Celtic and Rangers, the actual net gain was only around 600 fans, due to the drop off in home supporters attending. While there may be an argument that a lot of the home fans not attending would be season ticket holders, so wouldnt be paying on the day anyway, if we dont give away the Tony Fitz stand we can still charge higher season ticket prices for that stand and not piss off the next generation of fans.

Anyway, my point is 600 extra fans only equates to, at an average ticket price of £25, £15k per game, not the £40k quoted. The benefits of doing it are now vastly outweighed by the benefits of not.

[Spam_Valley]

32 minutes ago, Hendo said:

The financial argument really doesnt add up, and the suggested figures from the club don't tally with reality.

Last season, the three old firm games had an average attendance of around 6400. The next best supported club, who only got one stand, was Hearts in February, the attendance there was nearly 5800. Therefore, even though both ends of the ground appeared full v Celtic and Rangers, the actual net gain was only around 600 fans, due to the drop off in home supporters attending. While there may be an argument that a lot of the home fans not attending would be season ticket holders, so wouldnt be paying on the day anyway, if we dont give away the Tony Fitz stand we can still charge higher season ticket prices for that stand and not piss off the next generation of fans.

Anyway, my point is 600 extra fans only equates to, at an average ticket price of £25, £15k per game, not the £40k quoted. The benefits of doing it are now vastly outweighed by the benefits of not.

Sorry, no offence meant but I’d believe the football club over a stranger on the internet. 

[Hendo]

7 minutes ago, Spam_Valley said:

Sorry, no offence meant but I’d believe the football club over a stranger on the internet. 

The football club is guilty of lazy arithmetic. The family stand holds 1600, so 1600 x £25 is £40k, but they havent factored in at all the losses incurred by the strategy.

[FTOF]

4 minutes ago, Spam_Valley said:

Sorry, no offence meant but I’d believe the football club over a stranger on the internet. 

So many pointless and incorrect calculations carried out over a situation, which in the big scheme of things, is completely insignificant.

Given what's currently going on in the world, I think I'll direct my concerns towards situations that actually matter.

[Hendo]

3 minutes ago, FTOF said:

So many pointless and incorrect calculations carried out over a situation, which in the big scheme of things, is completely insignificant.

Given what's currently going on in the world, I think I'll direct my concerns towards situations that actually matter.

Yep, you're right. 

I'm away to find out the latest from the Wagatha Christie trial.

[proudtobeabuddy]

Let's be honest... if our attendance in the two stands we are in wasn't  gradually floundering the board wouldn't even be consulting us. It's painfully obvious that the BOD policy has led to season ticket holders not bothering to attend the OF games in recent seasons.  Anyone who denies this can debate it with themselves.

[IrishBhoy]

4 hours ago, proudtobeabuddy said:

Let's be honest... if our attendance in the two stands we are in wasn't  gradually floundering the board wouldn't even be consulting us. It's painfully obvious that the BOD policy has led to season ticket holders not bothering to attend the OF games in recent seasons.  Anyone who denies this can debate it with themselves.

Is that true though? The last game of the season had an attendance of 4500, with a couple of hundred Livingston fans. The Dundee game, which had a healthier away support, was 5500. I’ve been going to St Mirren games for a good few years now and there has always been that core home support of ~4000, maybe slightly less during the years in the Championship. It could be an optical illusion due to the colours of the seats, but I’ve been at games sitting in the West Stand where I’ve been certain the stadium is over 75% full, and the attendance still gets announced as 4000/5000 odd. 
 

If we give the OF the normal away end, allow family stand season ticket holders to have their usual seat and try and encourage a larger than usual home support at OF games, then I can’t see the difference in income being anything more than negligible. The only problem with that being that the majority of our games against the OF will be midday kick offs, often on a Sunday and live on Sky Sports. I don’t see any harm in the club trialling it for the coming season, and if there isn’t a noticeable difference in the size of the home support, resorting back to two stands the following season.