Over the last year Penny has been working closely with Richard Atkinson as he and a small group has developed the 10000Hours CIC to take over 52% of share in St Mirren Football Club to enable the club to truly become a community owned club. This is the first of its kind under this particular model in Scotland.
From his company’s construction arm ( Maxi construction) building Broxburn United Sports clubs ’s new facilities Richard working with Penny realised that community led and owned facilities make a real difference and felt that if this could work at grass roots sport it could work at a higher level and have a greater community impact.
Through the availability of the sale of 52% of shares at St Mirren the opportunity arose to take this move and develop a CIC ( 10000hours CIC) to help take the asset of St Mirren into community hands for the whole community to use on a daily basis not only once a fortnight and to genuinely allow the fans a voice on running the club.
The plan went live several weeks ago and fans and community groups have come on board and embraced the plan and over the next couple of months all the hard work we hope will pay off and St Mirren will come into true community ownership for the people of Renfrewshire. See www.10000hours.org for more information on this unique development in Scottish sport which PMR are proud to be associated with.
Penny and the PMR team are also working with Richard to see how 10000Hours can work with other community projects across Scotland and utilize the power of community ownership to take sport forward into a new era.