In 2016, SMiSA launched the Buy The Buds campaign to purchase a majority shareholding in St Mirren Football Club. This was achieved in 2022, when the club became majority-owned by SMiSA, which still holds 51% of the shares.
Since that campaign was launched almost 10 years ago, our membership has remained relatively static, from around 1,200 members to the current high of just over 1,400. This is a concern because we need to see growth in order to make further progress.
Also, the membership demographic is not as wide as we would like it to be, and we need to attract more young people and women to get involved.
The recent success on the pitch has resulted in over 4,000 season ticket holders, so there is a lot of scope for SMiSA to attract more members who want to have a closer relationship with their club.
In 2024, the board recognised that SMiSA needed to do more to give the fans what they want and to grow the membership. They invited members and non-members to take part in separate focus groups, to find out what members want to see from SMiSA and what would be needed to encourage non-members to join.
These groups provided a lot of valuable feedback and it was clear that there was a real need to change the current model, with a greater emphasis on projects to benefit the fans’ experience and to help the club.
The SMiSA board spent months designing a new campaign, Build The Buds, based on the feedback from the focus groups and responding to their priorities. This was presented to members and non-members in October 2025 and put to a members’ vote. The key proposals were approved by members on 1st November 2025.
Build The Buds is aimed at taking SMiSA to a new level, providing the members with a much greater say in how their subscriptions are spent on development projects and on associated groups such as the Youth Academy, St Mirren FC Charitable Foundation and the Women’s Team. A percentage will also be added to the SMiSA reserve fund.
The goal is to have 3,000 members by the time St Mirren celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2027. This is an ambitious target, but one that the SMiSA board believes is achievable and will create a much stronger SMiSA and club in the years to come. The club has reached new heights in recent years and SMiSA will step up to the mark with Build The Buds so that we continue to work for increased success on and off the pitch.
With SMiSA’s cash reserve currently sitting above the agreed threshold of £500,000, the new funding model takes effect immediately.
Going forward, the distribution of member subscriptions will be as follows:
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50% – Build the Buds Pot: to support key projects around the Club
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30% – St Mirren FC Youth Academy: investing in the future of our young Buddies!
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10% – St Mirren Charitable Foundation: helping make a difference in our community
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6.5% – SMiSA Cash Reserve: ensuring financial stability and sustainability
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3.5% – St Mirren Women FC: backing the continued growth of the women’s game
This balanced model allows us to directly invest in areas that develop the Club, strengthen our community ties, and safeguard our long-term future as a fan-owned organisation.
