Now that the dust has settled, I’m delighted that we can look forward to another season as a Scottish Premiership club after our play-off victory over Partick Thistle. Finishing in 11th place was not where any of us wanted to be, so we are grateful for your unstinting support helping us over the line to retain our top-flight status.
I’d like to pay tribute to Craig McLeish, Stuart Taylor, Jamie Langfield, Allan McManus and Marc Kelly for stepping up to lead the team in difficult circumstances and along with the players, securing our status in the Premiership.
An update on the ongoing managerial recruitment process and squad list will follow in the coming days. Rest assured we are all working hard behind the scenes to bring the process to its conclusion.
As a fan-owned club, your support is crucial to our ongoing success. In football, there will always be highs and lows. Whilst our league campaign may have proved frustrating, we can't lose sight of the fact we won only the fifth major honour in our history when we lifted the Premier Sports Cup in December.
Allied to this, our Academy players also did us proud, with the U19s winning the Club Academy Scotland Elite League Cup in May and our U17s reaching their League Cup Final too. We want the Academy to play an increasing part of our strategy going forward and we are determined to see more Academy graduates progressing into the first team in the future.
We are proud to continue to prioritise our community, with our Street Stuff programme in its 17th year, going from strength to strength and reaching and supporting more young people than ever before; and the incredible work our partner, the St Mirren FC Charitable Foundation, who continue to support and engage with a diverse audience within our community, making a difference across Renfrewshire; and we thank our fans who help St Mirren to support local charities such as Home Start through generous donations.
We have spent time assessing the current pricing categories of season tickets. As a result, we are excited to introduce a new 18-21 category to help bridge the gap from junior to adult season tickets. We are also aware of the gap between adult and concession prices, compared to other clubs, and this is something we will look to address gradually over a period of three year starting from season 2027/28 to bring more balance and fairness to all supporters.
Balancing football costs and income has become increasingly challenging. As a fan-owned club with no benefactor to underwrite losses or provide significant investment, we are up against many clubs in our division who are making such investments and can afford to absorb losses in the pursuit of success. The club is also facing continued increasing costs across the board. Player salaries have risen, there are living wage and National Insurance increases, matchday costs such as policing and stewarding have risen significantly as have utility costs. Despite these challenges, our prices remain amongst the best in terms of value for money for season tickets in the Premiership.
In arriving at next season’s prices, we have limited the price increases as much as possible. Your support will be vital in order that we put together the best possible team for next season.
I believe the only way for us to tackle these challenges and be a successful and sustainable club with a bright future, is through unity. We are stronger together. In 2026/27, Be Our Strength.
Thank you again for your support.
