It seems that the club will transform into an Industrial and Provident Society. That’s the same structure that forms the basis of the Motherwell Supporters Trust (a copy of their rules is available here ). Members elect the board.
The guiding principle will be that the club will be a ‘one member one vote’ organisation run on democratic lines. In the words of Leeann Dempster in The Herald, “We’re going to create two, or three, levels of membership. The first will be aimed at the regular punter, costing about £300.
“There will also be corporate membership, and possibly a tier for wealthier individuals. We will start to publicise the scheme in the next few weeks – but regardless of whether you invest £300 or £5000 each member will get one vote.
“The principle is one of democracy, and importantly a say in how the club is run, moves forward and develops. A supporter who invests more will get more overall benefits in terms of value, but this will not mean they have a bigger say than the regular supporters. This is a very important point.”
She referred, not for the first time, to Neil Doncaster’s old stomping ground Norwich. “Over the last 10 years they have gone from 7000 season ticket holders to over 20,000. It’s very much a family-orientated club with a good match day experience. We can do something very similar here. Our season ticket sales were up 13% last season.
“Furthermore, football clubs we’ve been to on the continent, especially Odense, put themselves at the heart of the business community, not just the wider community. That is also something we have to learn from.”
The suggestion in the article is that the club might raise £750,000 from the membership scheme to be used as a pot to even out the ups and downs of cash flow over the season.
The big question is whether our fan base has enough spare cash in these hard pressed times to deliver £300 on top of their season tickets. Can the club come up with benefits that would persuade local firms to contribute £5,000?
The Herald article is here.
How much would you pay to join the new way forward? There's a poll on the front page of the site.