Fans close in on St Mirren buyout

Fan ownership of St Mirren appears to have moved a step closer after the 10000Hours group announced they had reached their target for support of their bid.

After reaching an agreement in principle with the selling consortium to buy a 52 per cent shareholding for a total purchase price of £1.5million over three years, 10000Hours have been accumulating subscribers on their website, www.10000hours.org.

Online pledges of £10 a month reached the target of 750 ahead of last night’s midnight deadline, but the group are seeking further support before Monday, when they will meet.

10000Hours bid leader Richard Atkinson said: “We could become the first, I believe, professional, top-flight football team in the UK to be completely controlled by the fanbase. We’ve had support of them (the current board) for the past two years in trying to get this to happen and we’re just bringing it to a conclusion now.

“If we don’t buy it someone else will, that’s what the chairman (Stewart Gilmour) said, so we’ve got to get our skates on. (The support is) accelerating, which is bizarre because we thought you’d get a big hit right at the beginning of the process, which was three or four weeks’ ago. It’s still gaining momentum, so that’s another good reason to leave it open over the weekend.”

The club’s board, led by Gilmour, is hoping for a sale to be completed before the new SPL season commences.

Atkinson added: “What we know is the consortium who are selling the club say they expect the club to be in new ownership by the start of next season. That will either be us or somebody else; there are another two parties that are interested.

“It’s in our own hands to make it happen. If we want it, we can get it. If it turns out there isn’t the support there to match the valuation, then if we can’t afford it we can’t buy it.”