Fans' Forum meeting minutes (February 3)

Fans' Forum Open Meeting, Monday 3rd February 2025, Centenary Suite, McDiarmid Park

Present: Fans' forum - Colin McCredie, Colin MacKay, Stuart Taylor, Mark Melloy and Tom Welsh. Club - Fran Smith, Daniel Lamb, Aidan Smith, Matt Gallagher, Bev Mayer and Eric Knox.

Apologies: Fans' forum - Andrew Holden, Danny Williams, Laura Stewart and Dan Shek. Club - Adam Webb, Matt Klase, David Beaton, Alistair Dewar and Roddy Grant.

Chair: Colin McCredie. Minutes: Tom Welsh.

Guest speakers: Aidan Smith and Matt Gallagher.

After introducing the top table speakers, Colin passed over to the media team of Aidan and Matt for an exclusive reveal on screen of one of the club’s latest signings - Stephen Duke-McKenna.

Opening remarks by chair:

It has been fantastic to welcome Adam Webb back home to Perth, especially with the news that he is now cancer-free. Great to see him out and about meeting fans, speaking to the media and pulling pints. Adam has now resumed duties as club chairman and thanks are due to Fran for stepping into the breach for Adam over the past few months.

Pleased to welcome a new member to the board in Aileen Campbell. Ex MSP, member of Scottish Govt and chief executive of Scottish Women’s football - and a Saintee too. Exciting for the club and hopefully the Saints women’s team too.

Recent accounts published show a profit of £100K compared to previous year loss of £2.1m. A fantastic turnround and thanks to Stan [Harris] for achieving this during his stewardship of the club.

Great results on the park over the last three weeks have seen us close the points gap in the league and progress in the cup with next round at home to Hamilton.

The winter transfer window has seen eight players come in and six go out so far. To the incoming players, welcome to Saints and, to those departing, thank you and good luck. Special mention must be made of Fran, Gus, Gemma and Simo for all their effort in the transfer window, especially keeping the signing information in-house until deals were done and getting some transfer fees in.

Usual housekeeping rules apply with the exception regarding phones. With under four hours of transfer window left, Fran is allowed to have his phone on full volume as long as, when he answers it, it goes on loudspeaker!

Foodbank update - Colin MacKay

On behalf of Saints Fans Supporting Foodbanks, expressed gratitude to fans for their contributions, highlighting significant donations and events since the last meeting. Key achievements include the Focus on Foodbanks event on November 2nd, where fans donated a massive 950KG of food and toiletries and £1,253 in cash to support Perth and Kinross Foodbank. This was further boosted by £3,488 raised at a charity night and auction.

Since the initiative started, fans have donated over 11 tonnes of food and toiletries and £6,000 in cash for the foodbank, over £6,000 in cash towards Saints in the Community food-based projects and, most recently, £1,600 to support Graham Carey’s partner Rachel in her ongoing cancer battle.

The club's ongoing support was also acknowledged, including featuring the Fans Supporting Foodbanks logo on their third kit, making them the first club in Britain to show this level of support and commitment to the FSF network. 

Guest speakers: Media team

Matt explained how, as a lifelong Saints fan, his first job was being pie runner for Jimmy Robertson and his pals in the Main Stand - Matt got to keep the change as his wage. He then explained his input with the club as a volunteer and his journalism background prior to being offered - along with Aidan - the opportunity to become the media team here at McDiarmid Park.

Aidan also explained his route into journalism and how, even working in Glasgow, he tried to shine the spotlight on Saints. He was working at the Herald when the offer was made to work with Matt in the media team - an offer he could not let go past.

Other media guys were also introduced – Graeme our photographer and Chris our videographer, as well as other matchday volunteers.

The guys then explained what their roles covered during the week, including:

Press conferences, Saints TV, social media channels, website content, matchday programme, newsletters, Junior Saints, player liaison roles, event planning.

Going forward: New website and rebrand, more events such as “An evening with (ex-player)”, exposure of commercial aspects of the club to new audiences, more behind the scenes reports and videos, increase Saints TV coverage and audience, greater coverage of the women's team (thanks given to Stuart Cowper for his work with women’s team media work), working with Eric from SITC and his team to highlight what they do more.

Any ideas or suggestions, get in contact. Email details are on the club website.

Q&A with guest speakers

Q. During press conferences you cannot hear the questions being asked, - can the questioner be given a microphone?

A. Solution could be subtitles on screen. Will get onto it.

Q. Do you have any targets for ‘An evening with…’?

A. Not specifically at this moment, but would welcome suggestions from fans.

Q. Can Saints TV broadcast a behind-the-scenes view of what goes on in other departments on matchday?

A. More behind the scenes content is an area we are looking into.

Q. Matchday programme is it viable?

A. Fran commented it breaks even, but looking at ideas of digital programmes with links to other aspects such as ticketing. Bigger audience but will still have a printed copy.

Q. Walk out music when will a decision be made?

A. There will be a vote option going out to fans - hopefully within the week - and a decision then made.

Colin thanked Matt and Aidan for their talk and presentation.

Home and away fans altercations (Stuart Taylor)

Over the festive period there were a couple of issues with visiting and home fans, notably the St Mirren and Hibernian matches. Were the club aware of these events and what was/is being done to combat this?

Dundee match and Motherwell cup match pyros in the away end. What are stewards doing regarding the away fans' general behaviour?

Fran: St Mirren was when fans invaded the pitch.  Their CEO has informed us that two of the offenders are serving bans, others could not be identified. Regarding our own support, I took action by bringing FCU group representatives in and had a conversation.

Regarding pyrotechnics, the stewards are limited in the areas they can pat down and fans know this.

Future functions: POTY and Hall of Fame (Fran Smith)

There is a new member of staff brought in for events - Ellie Forrester - who has a background in events. Bev, who has previously organised POTY, will work alongside Ellie on it.

The deal with the concert hall was over a three-year period to hold three events and we have held one. Need to pick the next date and organise a committee to go ahead with it. No dates yet but on agenda to do. Probability is Hall of Fame this year and cup double in 2026 when fifth anniversary. Saints in the Community 10th Anniversary is also in 2026.

Pyrotechnics at football matches (Colin MacKay)

This is a personal opinion as this matter has not yet been discussed by the Fans Forum Steering Group.

The use of pyrotechnic devices sadly appears to be on the increase at football matches in Scotland and there have been a number of higher profile incidents which the authorities are examining with a view to taking action against the clubs of the supporters concerned.

We haven’t been immune from issues at McDiarmid Park, with a young Dundee supporter suffering a significant burn as a result of a flare being thrown within the away support, and most recently at the Scottish Cup game versus Motherwell, where numerous flares were lit by opposing supporters and rockets fired within the stadium.

There have been other incidents outside Perth where fighting fans have thrown flares at each other outside the grounds.

As well as being illegal to bring a pyrotechnics device into a football stadium, it’s my view that it’s also extremely dangerous and irresponsible. It can only be a matter of time before someone is really seriously injured or killed.

I understand pyrotechnics are seen by some as part of the Ultra culture, but with the Football authorities and the Scottish Government pondering what action to take, I’d hate to think the club could be punished financially, or law abiding fans could be negatively impacted by the actions of a very small minority of fans. I’d therefore hope that Saints fans would give a commitment not to use pyrotechnics at any stadium, home or away.

The matter was then open for discussion and a question asked if any Motherwell fans were ejected or arrested at the cup match for use of flares.

Fran explained that no fan had been ejected for use of pyrotechnics and explained how they used a flag, face coverings and moved around so that the individual responsible could not be identified. Stewards are not allowed to go into stand whilst pyros are going off for health and safety reasons.

Fan Forum Annual Review Meeting (Tom Welsh)

This meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th March 2025 with 7pm start at Railway Staff Club, Feus Road, Perth.

Amongst the topics will be the election of the steering group.  Those interested please read the terms of reference, section 3 Membership to make sure that you qualify.  These are on our website at www.sjfcfansforum.co.uk 

Interested parties please send name, email address and telephone number to sjfcfansform@gmail.com ahead of the closing date of Thursday 13th February 2025 at 5pm.

General Q&A

Q. Any update on city centre club shop?

A. Fran explained the situation with the council and previous tenant. The club is the preferred tenant and hopefully the lease will be signed mid-March and work internally carried out thereafter.

Q. Being transfer deadline day, when are the lights going out tonight?

A. Gus and Simo were still in the boardroom along with Gemma, who is a godsend doing all the paperwork.

Q. At night, the traffic prevention posts at the top gate are a hazard. What can be done?

A. Bev to raise with the maintenance department.

Q. What is the position with Uche?

A. Last week needed a further investigation into his knee because of infection.

There was a discussion regarding reciprocal pricing and Fran is meeting with all club CEO’s and will mention it then. Fran also explained that, in the cup match versus Motherwell and Hamilton, both clubs would not agree to under 12s being free, hence the price of £5. The Hamilton game is not a police free game because of issues between their supporters and FCU in the past and that adds £5500 to cost of match day expenses.

Q. Could there be a ticket package for a number of matches, not half or full season?

A. Adam and Bev have had discussion regarding this but unable to do this season so will look at it.

AOB

Colin MacKay thanked fans for voting Stewart Falconer as Scottish Football Supporters’ Association’s Fan of the Year 2024. Stewart is a lifelong Saints fan and we are delighted he won the award.

The fan that took unwell at St Mirren was George (74) and was in hospital. Fran spoke to him and he is getting out of hospital tonight. Was delighted to get a call and also spoke to Simo. Fran will do a follow up call with George.

There being no other business the meeting was closed.