Raith Rovers chairman John Sim reveals several different parties want to buy club
Over two decades after the Reclaim The Rovers campaign to save Raith Rovers from extinction raised £100,000 to thwart the threat of Stark's Park being demolished for housing and the club sliding towards financial ruin, current interim chairman John Sim is contemplating whether or not to keep local ownership within the Kirkcaldy club which was founded way back in 1883.
Sim, 74, who played a key role in the 2005 Rovers takeover and became owner of Stark’s Park via Stark’s Park Properties, previously stepped down from day-to-day operations at Rovers after selling a stake to a new consortium in 2023, but he retained a ‘hands on’ role prior to returning as interim chairman this spring.
And now the supremo has revealed that a handful of groups have recently indicated their desire to buy the Stark’s Park club.
Sim told Raith TV: “At the moment I’m aware of five different interested parties who want to buy Raith Rovers now.
"I’ve been through this for years and people will say: ‘We want to see numbers’. I say: ‘No, you need to come and see our stadium, fans and set-up and we need to see who you are’.
"The insurance company says our stadium is going to cost £12 million to rebuild so that’s the insured value.
"What’s the land worth? Who knows? What I can tell you is the last time the board had it valued, and that would be before 2005, was £2 million.
"But I’ve seen many valuations on the land and it depends on what’s happening with housing and other bits and pieces.
"Our turnover is between two-and-a-half and three million pounds depending on where we finish in the league and depending on who else is in the league.
"And we’ll just have to see what happens, but regardless, we’ll tidy up the structure and we’ll listen to anyone who wants to talk to us.
"But we’re not going to be diverted from fixing the sustainability of the club and we’re not going to be diverted from moving forward on things like the ladies team or on helping the community foundation expand.
“In 2005 the message I got was we want local ownership, we want stability and we want to be part of the community.
"Is that still what we want? Do we want local ownership?
"Are we ready for a strategic investor or are we ready for somebody who wants to take over the whole schebang, put a whole bunch of money in and see if he can make a profit.
"And you ask me about the risk. I’m wedded to the community club and yes, we can look at all sorts of options, never say never.
"At Dunfermline, an American investor is coming in and is quite happy to lose £1.5 million, £2 million a year.
"What they are doing is looking at it as an alternative asset and they think that the value can go up.
"And if Dunfermline had got through (against Partick Thistle in the premiership play-off semi-finals) and then gone on to beat St Mirren (in the finals), the value of Dunfermline would have gone up and he would have got more than his £1.6 million or whatever it is he’s invested if he wanted to flip it and sell it on.”