Will Relegation ever be accepted

[Heilandee]

without the usual end of season kerry on

Dunfermline object

[wyness_is_god]

What Stewart Gilmour of St Mirren says is laughable :017: It shouldn't stand up as any argument against Gretna.

Taken from the link

However, Gilmour said: "We had to pay £200,000 for undersoil heating last summer, which has been switched on twice, when we could not provide a build contract and start and finish dates for a new stadium.

"I want to make sure that the same ground rules apply as it has been sore for us financially."

What Gilmour fails to mention is that Gretna plan to groundshare at Fir Park like we did with Pittodrie until there stadium is done up which is undersoil heated, and St Mirren stayed at their own ground Love Street which needed undersoil heating for them to be allowed up. :014:

[Alex MacLeod]

Before we went up we submitted our plans to the SPL, by the due date of 31st March, showing we would meet the criteria. That included groundshare plans for a season and council approved plans for the development of our own stadium.

What Mr Gilmour is arguing is that Gretna have not submitted plans for their stadium development. They dont even know yet whether they'll be staying at Raydale or building on a completely new site so they cant possibly have planning permission in place yet.

Falkirk were refused entry into SPL because, although they had an agreement to play at Murrayfield, or was it Tynie, they had no site nor planning permission to develop their own stadium.

Personally I think the rules need to be sorted out to come into line with the present climate and that all SPL grounds should be required to have standing area's :003:

[Scotty]

If you finish bottom you should go down, simple as that. As for promotion, there are a few scenarios that would work...

1. If your ground meets requirements - no problem, no argument, you are up.

2. If your ground does not meet requirements then you should still be able to come up provided that you can show that your home ground (existing or new) will meet the criteria by the start of your second season in the SPL (if you are lucky enough to stay up) ie. by submitting plans of the work to be done. You should be able to continue using your existing ground (to save money on groundsharing costs) but can only use those parts that are SPL compliant. [eg. if we look at the original TCS - we would only have been allowed to use the main stand in the SPL until we built the other stands. once built and certified we could use new facilities immediately]. If you do not meet the criteria by the end of season 1 in the SPL you are automatically relegated.

This would do away with the ridiculous gamble that some clubs are forced to consider - spend a wad of cash on upgrading the ground when they are not sure they will win the division and not only that, have it ready nearly three months before the end of that season (the 31 March deadline) just in case you will be eligible to play in the SPL nearly 5 months later. Tullochs have shown how quickly stands can be built - so clubs could quite easily get it done in the close season or use the full season (and the extra cash it brings in) to build more permanent structures.

if this option isnt attractive then there is always the good old standby .....

3. If the team that wins Div 1 is not eligible to come up or cannot show work plans for making their stadium compliant then team2 comes up, if they are not eligible then its team3 or team 4 or team 5. I would make a cutoff point at team 5 (top half of division) at which point the SPL team would be saved from relegation. realistically, with Div1 being full of some reasonably large teams at least 2 or 3 of the top 5 will usually have a compliant stadium.

[The Fly]

Number 2 makes most sense - I think those are more or less the rules that Dundee had to work to about the time the SPL was formed.