JOHN Needham, the St Mirren chairman, last night defended the Paisley club’s three stand retention policy following a furious reaction from Celtic and Rangers supporters to having their ticket allocations slashed.
Followers of the Parkhead and Ibrox teams traditionally took up two stands when they played games at the SMiSA Stadium in the past – but they will now only be allowed entry to the away stand following a board decision this summer.
The Scottish champions will receive just 1,493 briefs when they take on Stephen Robinson’s team in the cinch Premiership on Saturday, September 17.
St Mirren launched two schemes in the summer – one where their supporters can make a £30 payment to cover any commercial shortfall and another where they can purchase £25 tickets for the less fortunate members of the local community.
Refugees from war-torn Ukraine as well as terminally ill patients have already benefitted from the new initiatives this season.
Needham expressed hope that St Mirren will have a full house when they host Celtic and Rangers, whose fans have condemned the move, and stressed the three stand levy is in place for all their home matches.
“We were receiving very strong feedback from our fans,” he said. “They were unhappy at giving up two stands to the away team at home. They would rather we hadn’t done that.
“It also meant that season tickets holders in the family stand were being moved for games where they happened and they strongly objected to that as well.
“We did a quite extensive consultation in the summer and received a very strong response to that. It indicated the fans wanted us to change things.
“Being fan owned, we were probably in a slightly different position to some clubs. Our fans rightly expect us to act in their best interests at all times.
“So after a lot of debate at board level we decided we would proceed with essentially trying this out – retaining the three stands for the home supporters while filling the gap from any lost income that arises.”
Needham added: “Obviously when Celtic and Rangers come to town both of those stands were full. That is the challenge for us – to make sure that commercially this makes sense as well as emotionally for the fans. We want to keep the right atmosphere in the ground by having the majority of seats filled by home fans.
“Two of the schemes that we rolled out when we announced the decision was to purchase tickets for both of those games and other games for potential fans who couldn’t afford it or wouldn’t normally go to games.
“We have had a pretty strong response to that. There is also a voluntary top up scheme for people to basically pay a little bit extra to help us bridge the gap financially as well. Between those and the team on the park hopefully playing attractive football, we are optimistic.
“It won’t happen overnight, but hopefully over time we will get people back into the habit of attending games if they have maybe got out of the habit.
“It is not about Celtic and Rangers – it is about making our home ground a fortress when we are playing at home and getting the home fans behind the team on all three sides. Because it definitely makes a difference in terms of the atmosphere.
“The criticism would be fair if we were just saying we were going to keep away fans out and we don’t care if a stand is not full. But we want a full stadium at as many games as possible. The onus is on us and our fans to turn up in bigger numbers for those games.
“They are difficult games because they are often at lunchtime because of TV. We believe over time that we need to focus on attracting young fans and getting them into the habit of coming to all home games.”
Needham revealed that St Mirren directors have been encouraged by the response to the schemes and stressed their objective is to have sell-out crowds at all of their matches.
“The reaction was universally positive,” he said. “Some people said: ‘The club should take the money’. But they were very much in the minority. We have sold hundreds of Help a Buddie tickets and hundreds of people have paid the £30 as well. We are encouraged by the response.
“We need people to support it and not just on a one-off basis. We will be publicising the first test of this in the coming days. We will see how it goes.
“It was our family stand we were giving up. There was an incongruity in turning over a family stand which is named after one of our stalwart players, Tony Fitzpatrick, to away fans. It just didn’t hang together particularly well.
“There was a big debate about the fans and among the board. We believe it is right in line with our desire to be the best community-based club in Scotland. That is our objective and vision for St Mirren.”
Needham added: “I understand the reason for our previous policy but it was really at odds with where we find ourselves now.
“Tony Fitzpatrick is now a club ambassador and one of his objectives is to focus on him filling that stand. We have fans’ groups and businesses buying tickets which allow us to distribute tickets to fans for free. Times are tough for a lot of people just now.
“The Help a Buddie scheme is already up and running. We have used it recently for a big group of Ukranian refugees who are staying in a hotel at the airport. We have used it for people who are resident in hospices. We are using it for all games, but we will use it for the Celtic and Rangers games as well.
“We have just done a big drop of free tickets for primary schools in the area as well. One of the legacies I want to leave as chairman is that we have more youngsters attending games going forward. We are working hard post-Covid with connecting with youngsters in primary schools in order to get them along.”
