Former St Johnstone owner Geoff Brown has identified the spot where he hopes to build a new community hub.
Brown completed the sale of the Perth Club to American lawyer, Adam Webb, last week.
When he announced Saints were on the market after over 30 years in his hands, the house-builder revealed an act of huge generosity by declaring the net proceeds would be donated to the St Johnstone Community Trust.
And from that pot of money a community hub is to be built.
Brown has now revealed that disused ground next to the Crieff Road, Tesco supermarket, which used to be a slip-road on to the city by-pass, is his preferred site for the multi-million-pound project.
“What I’m still trying to get is the piece of land next to Tesco,” he said.
“We’ve had (First Minister) John Swinney out to try and get Transport Scotland to move.
“There’s three acres in there and I’d like to think that’s where I can build it.
“It’s going to provide everything to take on young players.
“You put the community office in it and work from there, but until I get the ground, I can’t take it on.
“There will be no architect on it until that point.”
On the same page with Adam Webb
Brown’s vision for a community hub dovetails nicely with Webb’s plans to make better use of the vast edge-of-city land McDiarmid Park sits on.
“One of the things that Adam bought into was the fact that St Johnstone is a club on 22 acres of ground,” he said.
“He never saw that as being a problem – he saw that as being an asset.
“With the others who I talked to, it was always: ‘I don’t really want to buy real estate’.
“I didn’t have any other offers. I had plenty talking. They didn’t want the ground, as such.
“Adam was quite clear when he came here and had a look.”
Brown added: “I’m hopeful that the guy is good – and he’s insisted on keeping me as honorary president!
“He’s got enthusiasm and an American attitude.
“When you’ve got a data room that goes back three years, he’s got bags of history.
“Being a lawyer, it didn’t take him a lot of time to read it.
“You can see where we’ve gone wrong. He knows how difficult it will be.
“There’s nothing hidden. He won’t find any traps.”
Conversation