Fan Forum 01/09/2025

Present: Tom Welsh, Darlene Macdonald, Danny Williams, Stuart Taylor, Elliot Thomson & Dan Shek

Present from the club: Matty Gallagher, Aidan Smith, Bev Mayer, Chris Logan, Aileen Campbell & Fran Smith

Apologies: Laura Stewart, Colin Mackay,

Introduction -

A lot has changed since we were last at McDiarmid for one of these meetings. Unfortunately,whilst we did experience relegation there has been an undeniable boost in positivity around the team, fan base and the club in general. With the new club shop, record kit sales, more season tickets sold this season than last, a total refresh around the club, which we will touch on shortly and more to come.

At the time of writing, we are sitting on 10 points, 3 clear of Raith Rovers, and have experienced a very positive league cup group campaign, finishing top of the group comfortably. Whilst we did exit in the following round a fantastic performance against Motherwell has surely given us some confidence in what the club is doing long term. Wehave carried this form into the league campaign also.

 At this moment I do want to out our thanks on record to Andy Kirk, and Alec Cleland for their contribution to the club, and they have our best wishes in their future endeavours. We extend this to all departing players from last season also. Also, A very warm welcome to all our new players (Toby Steward, Morgan Boyes, Cheik Diabate, Jack Baird, Matty Foulds, Liam Smith, Reghan Tumilty, Reece McAlear, Stevie Mallan, Sam Stanton, Kai Fotheringham, Jamie Gullan, Louis Lloyd and to Jordi Aluja, who is now acting as the assistant Manager. With the new look coaching and playing team, we have a diverse group, with representation from Uganda, The Gambia, Scotland, Sweden, Panama, Finland, Spain, Poland, England, Austria, Croatia and Wales, showing that football can unite people from all

corners of the world together. I’d also like to congratulate Uche Ikpeazu, Adama Sidibe &  Makenzie Kirk for their call ups to their national squads respectively. I’d also like to thank Makenzie for his contribution to the club in his time here and wish him very well following the news of his transfer to Portsmouth.

Like many of you I look forward to following his future career closely.

So, before we get onto the main body, tonight’s agenda is –

Josh Henderson talking about SJWFC and the upcoming season 

Q&A session with Josh 

Proud Saintees introduction 

Update on the foodbank 

Update on the works around the ground, including changes to the astro.

Open floor Q&A

Josh –

Thank you for letting me come along as a guest speaker, started as a volunteer, in the academy and now in the woman’s team, bit surreal doing this. I have been in post for 14-15 months and it has been a great experience. Support from club and the direction we want to go is massive. We have made massive steps, build a new team, support and grow. We want a positive support on this regard, being a local boy want to push St. Johnstone as far as we can. We have a good team here listening to me and my rants. Moving to McDiarmid is fantastic, we have seen new support and youngsters coming through the game, can only be a positive step, for me it is trying to build and grow success, see more supporters and grow this. This leans into the one club, one city, one community and we want to see more of this on social media too. The reaction for the team is positive, and the girls like the recognition they get.

Danny –

We have Nathan, one of the coaches here, as a volunteer for the team on a Sunday it is a great team, group and coaches. Having seen what Josh is trying to do over the last year, including Stuart and Nathan yeah it is fantastic, really like encourage all to get up here on a Sunday, will not be disappointed, will be £2 for season ticket holders to turn up here.

Josh Q&A session –

Alex – I want to ask you Josh, what style of football can we expect to see from your team?

Josh – I speak to Simo quite a bit and the way we speak about styles etc, having exciting football and whilst game moves forward we want to have people be excited and look forwardto the football on the pitch, you want them to enjoy it, you want them to play an exciting style, even when I was in the academy I want teams to play like this.

Fan – Do the men’s coaches help you out?

Josh – Yes, Simo has been down a lot to watch the games, he has passed comments on what to do, he is someone we can speak to and give advice, anytime he sees the team he is happy to talk about it.

Danny – Opening game we had 5 directors there and management.

Danny – Mixed bag of results for the opening, but what is the ambition going forward?

Josh – After league reconstruction, we want to go for top 6 in our division. We have to be realistic and build from there, was not a good 6 months, but turned around, we have brought players in that can turn us around. Keeping a large body together has helped us.

Tom – What area of Scotland do you recruit from?

Josh – Hardest part is this, Perth is central but if you are looking at teams in our league we have to deal with Glasgow and Edinburgh teams, travel side is PT, they have work etc and this can be hard, we have players from Fife, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, We had one from Elgin for 9 months travelling down. We try and get players in the same area for catchment etc. Southside of Glasgow is hard due to number of teams for them.

Fan – Will there be a pathway for the woman’s team for local girls?

Josh – Something we want, lot of good young players in Perth and we miss out due to the lack of academy, if we had one this would allow us to attract players more regular and I would like to see this in the future.

Proud Saintees Introduction –

Iain – Unfortunately Homophobia is a problem in Football, there was an incident at a game in Scotland recently with Chanting from Terracing resulting in club dealing. We want to have this group to help more LGBTQ+ Fans to come to games, they do feel there is a risk of homophobic abuse, and having this gives them a group to travel with, and speak  to the club about issues. We want this to be a social group in the community, challenge any hate and work towards improving relations. We met with Fran a few weeks ago who has been a great support, we are in the early stages of the club at present, and if you know anyone who would be interested, please let us know – we have leaflets, we want to get a group together in the next few months and get more LGBTQ+ Fans along to support Saints. My first game was when I was 7, and I am a season ticket holder, and proud to be one. I know of at least one person from the community, who came on a free ticket who has now bought a season ticket.

It does work and we hope you support Proud Saintees. We also want to thank Ryse for helping us.

Bev – Iain have you been in contact with other clubs with the LGTBQ+ Clubs?

Iain – Yes, been in contact with them and elite sports, just on Friday I went to the football pride event, which had groups, Teams and gave me an opportunity to meet up with them and tap into their knowledge.

Foodbank Update –

Already this season before Saturday there has been over a ton of donations to the foodbank, since 2023 we have donated over 14 tons, over £1400 this season donated to SITC, total since 2023 to £7900. You continued support is appreciated and will never be taken for granted. An update is that the club has given an update for the game on November 1st for the annual support for foodbank game. Focus on Foodbank Day is unbelievable, support from

club is unreal. 83 crates for the foodbank because of the last day. I think for context they came down with the van, filled it then had to come do a second run again. Again, large thanks to Matty who has designed and donated our new donation point flag which looks fantastic. The donations and collection is not possible without the fans turning up in numbers so the praise goes to you all. We are collecting more as a community, than some larger clubs, and the support we get from the football club is a massive help.

Improvements around the ground -

Fran – New improvements outside, in the lounges bringing the design into the club. Work is now complete, and you can see the improvements around the club, resonates with you a bit more. The new astro is up, the women have played on it. The next stage is the building going up and the changing rooms, starts in a week, will be done by the end of September.

The fan zone arrived Tuesday and was done in less than a week. Was pulled together very quickly, we hope those who attended enjoyed it. ‘

Internally the lift we were speaking about is ongoing. Had contractors in, planning permission submitted, withdrawn and re-submitted, it will be inside rather than outside. It will be when you go through the door, up the stairs to the

campbell, in the exec taking out a staircase and putting one into service 3 floors rather than 2 floors, mainly to help injured players potentially get in and out. 

Still things on the new website being updated, please let Matty know if you have any feedback. 

There are more things to come. We want to do a few more, 

Shop museum and community space in town is now in place. We hope it is a good change for most people.

Questions –

Alex – Has there been any recent development with the partnership/connection with us and Hercules CF in Spain and Eses in Turkey?

Fran – No, nothing from us, unless Bev Etc have been in touch with them.

Danny – This did get brought up before by Stan, who said that the partnership had nothing done in writing.

Blair – Partnership is still alive in Spain from the club, I want to know from the club if this is in place. 

Fran – Nothing we can say yet as we have no paperwork from the clubs to show this.

Danny – This is a matter for the club to look at.

Tom – It was a jolly with some guys.

Fan – I never got the discount code from M&M direct? how does it work.

Fran – register your account with it, you will get free shipping, let us know if there are any issues with it.

 Mark – I remember a few months back you looked at solar panels, you have reduced costs, is this happening?

Fran – Got quotes in, needing to check stand weight to hold strength of them. We have spoken to several companies in relation to this.

Fan – Tile in the wall, what is happening?

Fran – Spoke to Eric, we have them here not sure why not on the wall, I will chase Eric to find this out.

Blair – Can you order more of them?

Josh – There is a second batch being done but go direct on email to the trust.

Questions received –

Bollards at top of car park – people continue walking into them in the dark, what is the club planning to do to stop this happening before someone is hurt? – Darlene Macdonald

Fran – We want to fix the lighting up there, issues with lighting, we have asked Jonny to go back up and retape them to make it clear where it is.

Tom – Fran can you put cones on top to make it a soft impact?

Fran – Never thought of that. We can look at that as well if needed.

Seats in east stand do look faded and not in good condition, can they be cleaned up at all? – Steven Oswald

Fran: We did pre-season give part of that stand a power wash, will see if we can do anything else we can do, the cost of redoing all seats is a fortune not a priority but is on the list of improvements over 2-3 years.

FCU Question – Club concerned about the Hospitality lounges and lack of taking up on them? Whilst we welcome the news on Findlay’s running the fan zone will the club be bringing this back in house? Itison Vouchers – Less than season ticket holders, what is the thinking behind this? – Colin McKay

Fran: Hospitality is up this season compared to last season. There is a lot more people turning up. We have been selling well but I have challenged the team to get people who would not normally come, I have used Groupon to go to hospitality at other grounds, capped at a very limited number, we sold it out for one of the games for the

exec. If you are on Itison it is complimentary drinks, but with the club package it is an unlimited package. It is another way of getting more people to come to McD, same as the comedy night to come to McD. We need to do more to get more people in to get more people in.

Fan Zone: Investment in it for a year, bar in alone is £20k but they have done this as a commercial agreement, we have a deal with them and will run it with us, we need to strengthen it with them, plans to put in more zones but needs to check this one runs safely, without trouble then licence board will give us more.

Hospitality, sponsorship, tickets, sales, up. We were offering people sponsors last season. We have sold out literally almost all sponsorship. Income up 70% and expenditure up 3.7%. We are not looking to devalue a product; we want more people to come in. We had some people who just took the pack for Saturday to come and try us and have now signed up for full price. It is a win.

Away kits, home kits and general sales, why not sold the club shop, and why are you having

to pre-order them? – Banter page common question

Are sold at the club shop here and in town. At the time our retail partner did not do enough in the first run, when they do the run a pre-order guarantee, if they sell out again it gives them an idea on how much to deal with. Hits the balance sheet and we make a loss on them. Gives people the chance to get them guaranteed. No Excess stock

Do you balance out numbers of Home Away based on previous season sales?

We now look at data on what is popular, we reckoned away kit would sell double last year, asked they make enough but this is where we are. Every club has this issue. We didn’t expect the popularity of this. We have already got the kit designs set up for if we stay with macron.

We will not be doing a third kit for sale, we might have a third off the shelf one for Morton Away, but we do not want to rip off fans, do not think it is right to hit the pockets. We might try and retain kits over a couple of years instead of all the time.

Kiosks – Fans have reported that whilst food quality is good, drinks are cold the time it takes to be told how much it is taking a while, causing further queues, club been in contact with Pie Sports about this? – Laura Stewart

In constant contact with pie sports about this. Group exec was in at the weekend looking at kiosks and marking improvements, In the east stand there is one main kiosk getting rammed and we are trying to change this and make it a better layout.

They are still looking for staff, and do it based on card readers than point of sale to cut down costs. We will work to improve this.

Can we get some Gluten Free food at matches?

I am sure they do have a Gluten Free option at the club, You might need to ask them to provide a gluten free pie at the till but I will check with them.

Queens Park tickets – How are the club handling the sale of them? (Aitchy on WAP)

No information from Queens Park yet but will have this raised asap. We have not had

a league meeting this season to discuss it, first one is the 30 th of September.

Fran went on to explain that they don’t make decision at start of season as will wait on the fixtures coming up to get even more. Queens Park might retain sale but will likely be only 200 tickets we get.

League does not get involved in tickets, mainly because clubs are run as individual businesses, Blair then highlighted fan groups have asked for fans to be taken into consideration. If league sets prices would be a quango.

Fans Forum – can you do the business club meeting dates?

We did say we want to get meeting in diary sooner so we can give an indicative calendar in for the year, subject to change dependent on fixtures etc.

Fran – we have produced a fan engagement document we are working on with the Group. This will make these meetings more organised and better placed, with 2 meet the manager nights included.

We are recording tonight’s meeting, contentious at fans forum, this is to test the quality of it, send to Adam and investors for QA, we will then put it on behind the paywall, and if there is a positive feedback then we will look to do it from another method or way to do it, allowing more fans to take part who cannot make the meetings.

This email came from the FCU –

First, I’d like to thank the individual who shares this email, and the individuals who respond. 

We have a few questions for club officials, in order for ourselves and the wider support to obtain greater clarity.

Following relegation we have seen a substantial increase in usage of the Muirton Suite post match partly due to the introduction of live  music, and a return of the outside Fanzone as a permanent fixture on match days. Which should deservedly be applauded and is a great positive for fans and should provide a much needed revenue stream for the club. Do the club still intend on obtaining the appropriate licences and running the Fanzone themselves in future? If so, what’s the likely timescale to gain self control?

Although these aspects are positive, there are concerns over the hospitality offerings, with the club offering matchday packages starting at £120 per person, which is reduced to £96 for Season Ticket Holders, with a third party (ItIsOn) selling the exact same packages for significantly cheaper - 18% - at £79 to all fans. Assuming that the external provider also charges a premium, the final amount to St Johnstone is greatly less, does this make

business sense and return a profit?

 According to the St Johnstone website, Centenary Suite packages are priced at £100PP +vat (£125 + vat for category A) or just £80PP + vat for season ticket holders.

Despite self promoted as award winning, is there a concern with the take up in hospitality so far this season, with the need to involve external promoters and judging by social media posts there appears to be unsold packages each match day with suites even being closed in the latter part of last season. 

Secondly, going forward, with the Woman’s team playing home matches from McDiarmid, is there any thought to provide an in house hospitality offering or opening of a supporters bar in match day?

Finally, the club have identified Dunfermline as a category A fixture, which in no other year has this opponent been deemed of such stature. Do the club still intend on proceeding with this? And if so will the general admission pricing be increased for this fixture?

Yours sincerely, worried St Johnstone Supporters.

Fran replied:

Looking at a fan zone at back of the east stand, having a pint at halftime where possible, if this works, we can open it up in other areas of the ground. This is a licensing issue and we need to show it works with the current set up. We are already trialling halftime pints in the main stand, so we want to do something with the other stands also.

With the women’s team at McD can you open the bar on Sunday or Hospitality, we have the catering van but for certain games we may look to offer the hospitality package when seats are in place.

Finally, the club identified Dunfermline as a Cat A fixture. We have not played Dunfermline in 15 years in the league. Roddy and I went to speak to differing clubs about support, looked at when Dunfermline last played us, 1500 fans last time  we played so this could see more fans, more policing costs and we have had to increase number by £2 a fixture. If Dunfermline are doing well, they will bring a large support, and if so, we would need more police presence.

We had issues in last 2 home games from behaviour from some areas of the support, and this could have a knock-on impact with police and stewarding attendances.

The following questions were emailed in by Phillip Brooks -

Why are the videos from the club hit and miss on quality from footage and quality – IE KaiFotheringham compared to Liam smith, Full Time Videos look better compared to earlier games.

Aidan and Matt confirmed they do it all with Chris, sometimes they film, sometimes Chris films so it just depends on what happens and what style they take on the day.

Hopefully no untrue rumours in this, one club, one city, one community Is a false statement, why did an Edinburgh or Glasgow company fit this?

Fran – it was a Kinross based company. They did the de-rig of the previous shop and knew all the layout and rig, so we used them. They are match ball sponsors for an upcoming game.

Are there community-based projects or businesses that saints will be involved in just seem

to piggyback off of SITC or foodbank?

Danny – Answering on behalf of the Foodbank, obviously with the foodbank, We love our new banner, we are grateful for the work Matty put in, we are part of the wider network, we have the banner for this, for the foodbank flag it has the foodbank name, community name and the club badge. We are grateful for the club’s support, considering some other teams will not allow the foodbank collection to occur on their ground.

Fran, can we ask what the situation is with the coop agreement with Hearts, you said we would not be in this –

At Kit Launch we were not interested in it, Simo wants to keep his players playing and rotating them where possible, however after making some of the signings, we had a discussion in sending players to Cove and call them back where we want to, let them get gametime etc. We then discussed it because we had more players than we

wanted, we looked at the Hearts one to get a player from Hearts, it did not work out then, but who knows in the future.

Carpark is on a backburner due to the loss to spend it on the player payroll than a new carpark at that stage, speaking to a tarmacing company to put some walkways down.  The lift, women’s building and other improvements take more priority due to the cost element.

When are the lights out tonight?

We can bring loan players in until end of September, and there is free agent market as well to consider, please be patient. Lights will be out before 11pm.

Danny thanked for the attendance of Josh, Fran and everyone in the room and we brought

the meeting to an end.

Stuart echoed Dannys thanks for attending and confirmed the end of the meeting.