Property Update......

Several weeks have now passed since the shareholder meeting to discuss the Club’s proposed property deal. The Trust Board understands that the Club Board remains committed to pressing on with a partial sale of the ground (being the Main Stand and South end), subject to final shareholder approval. We have not been provided with a date for this shareholder meeting as yet, but expect that it will take place before the end of August, with the deal completing shortly after the meeting.

Given the allocation of shareholdings at the Club, we fully expect that the decision to proceed with the partial sale to be ratified at the shareholder meeting, regardless of whether or not the Trust supports the proposal. We will shortly canvass our membership to obtain your view on this issue before the upcoming shareholder meeting.

It is well known that the purpose of the property deal is to reduce the debt repayments which are due to the Bank, so as to assist the Club to trade at break even going forward. Based on the level of investment in the property deal disclosed by the Club Board at the June shareholder meeting, the Trust Board estimates that the reduction in payments due to the Bank (assuming no additional borrowing) will be in the region of £60,000 per annum. That clearly leaves a significant six figure funding gap when we look at the annual losses posted by the Club in recent years.

The Trust Board also understands that funds received from the sale of Gary Harkins and Marc Twaddle will be allocated towards last season's losses. As such, the proceeds from the sale of these players will have no direct impact on the position with the Bank.

The Trust Board therefore does not believe that the proposed property deal will, on its own, generate the kind of annual savings which are required in order to safeguard the Club’s future, in even the short to medium term. We do not like the deal that is on the table, but we have to be realistic and accept that without the significant financial backing needed to make any alternative options feasible, the Trust cannot stop the deal from proceeding.

It is clear that in the current environment, the Club cannot continue to operate at a loss unless significant new investment is found – in short, the Bank is unlikely to continue to fund a loss making business. Since the Club Board has been unable to secure the level of investment which would see the Bank debt cleared, they believe that they have no option but to proceed with the proposed property deal while also looking at other ways of cutting costs and increasing revenue, all at a time when the wider economy is struggling under recession.

We know that none of this makes pleasant reading, but every Thistle fan is united by a desire to ensure that the Club survives for generations to come. We all want better players, and clamour for them, but we have to be realistic in our expectations. The Club has been making unsustainable losses for a number of years and we now have to pay the price for that.

The Trust Board is committed to trying to help the Club Board to achieve the magic “break even point”, so that the long term security of Partick Thistle Football Club can be guaranteed. In reality, that is our only option. We hope that all supporters will join together in demonstrating to the Club Board that we accept as fans that we can sacrifice short term success for long term stability. We all have a part to play in helping the Club to achieve that stability.

Regardless of our differences, we are all united by our love of the Club, and we believe that this is the only way forward to secure its long term future.

Help The Trust As You Save Money On Your Bills......

The Jags Trust has enrolled as a Community Fundraiser with the Utility Warehouse Discount Club, who are owned by Telecom Plus, a FTSE 250 business who supply all utilities to domestic and business customers at discounted rates. We have a dedicated website which explains the system in more detail, but the principle is that by switching your gas, electricity, landline, broadband or mobile (or ideally all of them) to Utility Warehouse, the Jags Trust will receive a monthly commission, based on the value of your bills, forever, so long as you stay with UW.

The commission is typically around £4 per customer per month, so the benefits for the Trust are obvious - with only a small number of customers we could cover all of our day to day running costs of mailing, printing and meeting room hire through this alone, leaving us to run fundraising events that will generate clear profit.

Whilst the Jags Trust are now in partnership with UW as introducers, anyone considering this needs to do their own research and make sure that switching from another provider is the correct thing for them to do.

UW is a multi level marketing organisation with 300,000 customers at present and it does not advertise but relies on local agents to develop business on its behalf by word of mouth and referral. The JT are now effectively one of those local agents although the commission is slightly smaller for us than it would be for an individual agent.

We have heard that one of the Old Firm are close to signing up as agents and have a database of well over 150,000 targets so we are keen to get this going. If we introduce another agent, for example another fans trust, we also get a fee for that as well as a small residual commission.

Anyone with any queries can call the support phone number 0800 131 3000 quoting our reference number which is E33962.

The local executive director of UW, Stewart Paterson, is also happy to handle enquiries on 0800 298 2090.

Micro supporters clubs

We're looking for volunteers who would be willing to act as the lynchpins in a JT initiative to try to "get organised". Basically the idea is to copy the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Supporters club model in other areas, for example East Kilbride, Duntocher/Hardgate or Clarkston/Shawlands.

We'd like to arrange a trip by a couple of the Edinburgh folk to any interested group, so that they can explain the way it works, what it takes to run and how it gets funded. The JT will give a small start up grant to groups of fans who want to take up this offer, essentially just to get a bank account up and running and then you will be left to your own devices.

It's not "running a bus" - it's probably easier and much more informal than that, but to get it to work it will need a few folk who probably already know each other and who are prepared to put in a bit of effort at the start.

Send us your details via the link at the top of the screen if you are up for it, your e mail is a good start and we will get back to you.

We're also looking for students at Glasgow and Strathclyde who would be willing to set up supporters clubs via the Student Representative Councils. If you set up a "proper" club you will get a grant from the SRC and representation for your club at freshers week.

Again, a bit of hard work and organization will be needed at the start to get it going, but after that it should be easier. The JT are happy to help out with any aspect that we can. Send us your e mail address if you are interested and we will do the same mentoring visit to your embryo group, since the principles will be the same.