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St Mirren

Simple Digital Arena

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Capacity: 8,006 (all seated)
Club Nickname: The Buddies
Year Opened: 2009
Pitch Size: 110 x 70 yards
Address: Greenhill Road, Paisley, PA3 1RU
Phone: 0141 889 2558
Pitch Type: Grass
Shirt Sponsors: SkyView Capital
Fax: 0141 848 6444
Ticket Office: 0141 840 6130
Undersoil Heating: Yes
Manufacturer: Joma
Home Kit: Pink and Black
Last Update: June 25, 2024

After spending 115 years at Love Street, the club moved half a mile to this purpose built stadium in 2009. The ‘new’ St Mirren Park, as it is known was built by Barr Construction at a cost of around £8m.

The ground is comprised of four separate stands and although it probably won’t win many design awards, it is at least modern and functional. The stands on three sides are all single-tiered, have large windshields to each side and are of the same height.

The East Stand on the remaining side is taller than the others but contains a smaller amount of seating, with a large paneled area behind that rises up to the roof. This stand also has the team dugouts in front of it. Although this is the Main Stand at the ground, the television cameras are located opposite.

The stadium was called St Mirren Park but in 2020 it was renamed the SMISA Stadium in reference to the St. Mirren Independent Supporters Association.

Away fans are located at one end of the stadium in the North Stand, where just over 1,600 supporters can be accommodated.

As you would expect from a new stadium, the facilities and playing action are good. However, one slight drawback is that the fans are set quite back from the playing action, as there is a large perimeter area surrounding the pitch.

Pubs near the SMISA Stadium:

  • The Argyll Bar – 16 Old Sneddon St, Paisley PA3 2AL
  • Bull Inn –  7 New St, Paisley PA1 1XU
  • Old Swann Inn – 20 Smithhills St, Paisley PA1 1EB

The ground is particularly easy to get to due to its proximity to the M8.

From the West

Exit the M8 at J29 St James Interchange signed A737/Glasgow Airport/Paisley. At the roundabout both lanes of the slip road lead around to the A726 Greenock Road towards Paisley and East Kilbride which is the 3rd exit. Directions are then as M8 East below.

From the East

Exit the M8 at J29 St James Interchange. It is best to be in the 2nd lane on the viaduct, as the inside lane leaves at J28a just before the junction 29. Turn left at the traffic lights on the roundabout onto the A726 Greenock Road (signed Paisley and East Kilbride). At the second set of traffic lights from here, turn right onto McFarlane Street which double backs on itself. After 300m the road has a sharp left bend onto Greenhill Road and the Ground is a further 300m away. The ground it usually signed from the St James Interchange.

From the South 

Fans travelling along the A737 from Ayrshire, can also exit at St James Interchange, however leaving and joining the road at Linwood may help beat the traffic. Exit at Linwood, and turn right on the roundabout towards Paisley. After passing the Asda, at the 3rd roundabout turn left onto Barskiven Road. Follow this road for about a mile going straight across two roundabouts. After the second you will be on Ferguslie Park Avenue, the road then turns to the right and the ground is about 400 yards away on your right.

Car Parking

here is a large matchday car park located directly behind the West Stand that costs £5. It is accessed via Ferguslie Park Avenue. Otherwise, street parking is available.

The nearest railway station is Paisley St James, which is situated almost just across the road from the Paisley 2021 Stadium. It is a 17-minute journey from Glasgow Central Station.

St Mirren ticket prices:

  • Adults: £26
  • Concessions: £16
  • Under 12s: £6

If you require hotel accommodation in Paisley or Glasgow then first try a hotel booking service provided by Booking.com. They offer all types of accommodation to suit all tastes and pockets from; Budget Hotels, Traditional Bed & Breakfast establishments to Five Star Hotels and Serviced Apartments. Plus their booking system is straightforward and easy to use. Yes this site will earn a small commission if you book through them, but it will help towards the running costs of keeping this Guide going.

Official Programme £3

Greenock Morton.

If you require hotel accommodation in the area then first try a hotel booking service provided by Late Rooms. They offer all types of accommodation to suit all tastes and pockets from; Budget Hotels, Traditional Bed & Breakfast establishments to Five Star Hotels and Serviced Apartments. Plus their booking system is straightforward and easy to use. Yes this site will earn a small commission if you book through them, but it will go to help with the running costs of keeping the Guide going.

Record Attendance

At the new St Mirren Park
7,542 v Kilmarnock
Premier League, 31st January 2009

At Love Street:
47,438 v Celtic, August 20th 1949.

Average Attendance

2023-2024: 6,591 (Premier League)
2022-2023: 6,287 (Premier League)
2021-2022: 4,259 (Premier League)
2020-2021: N/A (Covid)
2019-2020: 5,376 (Premier League)
2018-2019: 5,356 (Premier League)
2017-2018: 4,448 (Championship)

Official Web Site: www.saintmirren.com

 

If anything is incorrect or you have something to add, then please e-mail me at: [email protected] and I’ll update the guide.

Special thanks to Geoff Jackson for providing the photos of St Mirren Park and to Owen Pavey for providing the stadium layout plan. Check out Geoff’s Cumbrian Groundhopper blog.

Ground Layout

Ground Layout of St Mirren

Reviews

Avatar of Andy M Andy M
Game AttendedSt. Mirren v St. Johnstone
CompetitionScottish Premiership
Date28/10/2023

Why were you looking forward to this game and visiting the ground itself?

Won 2 tickets to a Premiership match and decided that as St Mirren were playing well, 3rd in the table, it would be a good match to go and see. Although not a Buddy I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them.

How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?

Was unsure about where best to park the car so initially was going to head into the town centre and get the train out from Gilmour Street. With a rather later time in leaving the house than expected I decided that it wasn't worth heading into town so instead parked at Bishopton park and ride and caught the half hourly train from there. 5 mins and £2.90 return. Paisley St James barely a 2 minute walk from the ground.

What you did before the game pub/chippy etc, and were the home fans friendly?

Didn't have time for the boozer but a decent pie & bovril once through the turnstyles was welcome. All fans encountered around the ground were chatty and friendly.

What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the stadium?

Functional looking from both the outside and in and that's by no means a slur, it looks like a football stadium and it is a football stadium. We were sat in the Main stand towards the goal at the home end and gave us a good view. It was also very clean inside and plenty of bins for recycling and general rubbish.

Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, facilities etc..

The group in the far corner never stopped banging the drum and bouncing about the entire match which gave a great feel. St. Johnstone started the brighter but ended up being routed 4-0. Crowd was fantastic all game. Salt and chili pie was a good size and quite tasty. £14 for 2 pies and 2 bovrils seems about right.

Comment on getting away from the ground after the game

Out the ground, along to the station, train back to Bishopton. Couldn't have been simpler.

Summary of overall thoughts of the day out

Very enjoyable and will certainly be back.
Avatar of Stuart Edwards (Neutral) Stuart Edwards (Neutral)

St Mirren v Hearts
Scottish Premiership
Saturday 28th September 2019, 3pm
Stuart Edwards (Neutral)

Why were you looking forward to this game and visiting the Simple Digital Arena?

Two previous attempts to watch the Buddies in Paisley had come to grief with matches postponed due to bad weather. A weekend in Glasgow provided an ideal opportunity to finally get to the ground and see a game.

How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?

I took the train from Glasgow Central to Paisley Gilmour Street (about 15 minutes) then walked to the ground (another 15 minutes). The ground, though new, has tall floodlights.

What you did before the game pub/chippy etc, and were the home fans friendly?

Once at the ground bought a ticket and went straight in.

What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the Simple Digital Arena?

The ground is box-like from the outside. I sat in the Main Stand and had an excellent view. The four stands all look very similar and I would think the view from all of them would be equally good. A bonus for any plane spotters would be the sight of planes taking off from Glasgow Airport, although this view wouldn’t be available to visiting supporters as the planes were behind their stand.

Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, facilities etc..

For a 0-0 draw, it wasn’t a bad game. The atmosphere in the ground was good with a near 6,000 crowd making plenty of noise. Stewarding was low key. My halftime birdie was excellent, but there was no milk to be had for my coffee.

Comment on getting away from the ground after the game:

Getting from the ground and back to Glasgow was as easy as getting there.

Summary of overall thoughts of the day out:

Overall this was a good day out. A visit to Paisley to take in a match is recommended.

Avatar of Paul Donaldson (Scotland) Paul Donaldson (Scotland)

Scotland v Switzerland
Women's World Cup Qualifier
Thursday 30th August 2018, 7.35pm
Paul Donaldson (Scotland)

Why were you looking forward to this game and visiting the Simple Digital Arena?
 
It was my first visit to the new-ish St Mirren stadium, although I had been to the old ground at Love Street once when the club were still based there, several years ago. As well as being my first visit to this stadium, it was also the first time I'd ever gone to watch a women's football match, and one with Scotland still having a chance to qualify for the World Cup, a situation that our men's team have not been in for a very long time. We were looking to win this match by at least two goals, and then a win in the next match would see Scotland qualify. A win by only one goal would mean having to depend on other results going our way.
 
How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?
 
The journey was very easy, the stadium is a 2 minute walk from Paisley St James station and the train journey was just under 20 minutes from Glasgow Central station. If only all grounds around the country were as easy to get to as this one.
 
What you did before the game pub/chippy etc, and were the home fans friendly?
 
Before the match, I had a quick pint in one of the pubs in Glasgow city centre, before getting the train out to Paisley.
 
What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of Simple Digital Arena?
 
I arrived at the ground about 25 minutes before kick off. It's a nice, modern and compact stadium, which has four separate stands without the corners filled in. The seating in all four stands goes all the way down to ground level and everyone is very close to the pitch, no matter where they are sitting. I was sitting right in the very back row of the West Stand, which runs along the side of the pitch, opposite the main stand, and felt close to the action sitting there. There was a decent amount of legroom between each row of seats. As expected in a modern stadium, the roof covers the seating all the way to the front fairly well, and there are no seats with views restricted by pillars, although my view of one of the corners of the pitch was very slightly obscured because I was sitting right beside the TV gantry, this was no problem for me. Between the Main (East) stand and the North stand behind one of the goals is a large screen. As this was an international match and I was in the home end, I'm not quite sure which stand would be used for away supporters for normal St Mirren games, although for this match there were a small number of Switzerland supporters sitting in the Main Stand.
 
Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, facilities etc..
 
A dramatic start, with Scotland scoring in the first minute and then again a couple of minutes later. Switzerland pulled a goal back just after that, so three goals in the first five minutes or so of the match. At that point it looked like either team could score at every opportunity going forward and I thought it could end up being 10-10, but that wasn't to be, it stayed 2-1 until the end. I felt a bit sorry for anyone who had not been able to get into the ground for the start, because they missed all the goals. The match was played at a very fast pace, with a lot of good passing from both teams, and it made a nice change to watch a football match without too much of the long ball being hoofed up the pitch, as we are far too often used to watching in Scotland. The crowd of just over 4,000 meant the ground was around half full for this match. Being an international women's match there was a very different atmosphere to most other games, but it was a good atmosphere and the Scotland fans made a lot of noise. Despite only being around half full the stadium size did seem well matched to the size of the crowd.
 
I'm afraid to have to mention a couple of negatives though. I did my usual of going to the catering stand about 5 mins before half time to get a pie and coffee. There was already an extremely large queue and after a few minutes in the queue, it was clear it was not moving at all, and that the catering stand was very badly understaffed, as well as not being very well organised. There was a big queue until you actually reached the area where counters were, then it seemed like a bit of a free for all, with no proper queue for any of the four counters. When I eventually got served and back to my seat after what seemed like an eternity, the clock was showing 63 minutes and I missed nearly 20 minutes of the second half, so I would guess I waited around 35 minutes to be served, which is much longer than I've ever waited at any match I'd ever been to. The catering stands are under the seating area, and there are no screens, so you are forced to miss the play while waiting to be served. The pie was good quality and reasonably priced, just a shame I had to wait so long for it. I can't say whether or not this was always the such a problem at this ground. Because of the type of match, there was a very different crowd from most other matches, and I would say that there were probably more children in the crowd than adults, giving the stewards a very different challenge to what they are normally used to. In my view, the stewards allowed far too many kids to run around uncontrolled. I can imagine there were probably quite a few people bumped into by children running around and not looking where they were going, and hot drinks being spilled as a result. The stewards are there for the safety of the crowd, and I felt they did quite a poor job and stood by watching, instead of telling the children to walk around in an orderly way and look where they were going.
 
Comment on getting away from the ground after the game:
 
Getting away from the ground after the match was as easy as getting there. A two minute walk to the station and the train back into Glasgow Central was running on time, which is all you can ask for.
 
Summary of overall thoughts of the day out:
 
An enjoyable match and a win for Scotland is always good to see, although only winning by one goal means in terms of World Cup qualification we are now depending on results elsewhere going our way in the final round of matches. Nice stadium, but the night was let down a bit by the extremely slow service at the catering stand and missing nearly 20 minutes of the second half.
Avatar of James Prentice (Rangers) James Prentice (Rangers)

St Mirren Park  – St Mirren
Sunday November 7th, 2010
V Rangers, Premier League, 1pm
By Jim Prentice

1. Why you were looking forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may be):
 
In short, just another ground to tick off the list! The Rangers supporters' club I am a member of, the Harrogate True Blues, organises a few away trips every season and, having been to the usual suspect such as Easter Road, Tynecastle, Celtic Park etc, a lot of us fancied going somewhere 'a bit different', so plumped for a Sunday lunchtime kick off at St Mirren's new home in November 2010. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and love old grounds so wasn't really savouring the prospect of a trip to yet another new breezeblock-constructed stadium, but I was prepared to give it a go if only to say I'd been. We took an almost-full bus to the match, although travelling 250-plus miles for a Sunday lunchtime kick off in Paisley meant we were always going to be in for a long day! 
 
2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?
 
The ground is quite close to both Paisley railway stations and is only just off the M8 motorway, just a few short miles from Ibrox, which we passed while en route. The ground is situated on an industrial estate and there is both a decent-sized club car park in addition to plenty of off-street parking for cars and supporters' buses. It is perhaps one of the more accessible stadia in Scotland. 
 
3. What you did before the game pub/chippy…. home fans friendly?
 
There are a few bars close to the ground and it's not too far from the town centre, but being a Sunday all of these were most definitely closed until after the match was due to kick-off. I didn't notice any chippies or other eateries in close proximity of the stadium, although there were a number of fast food vans on the aproach roads. We didn't arrive in Paisley until about 45 minutes before kick-off so we just headed in the direction of a long queue of Rangers fans waiting to get through the turnstiles. Putting it lightly, fans of non-Old Firm clubs tend to be a wee bit hostile to Rangers and Celtic supporters, so there was exceptionally limited inter-club mingling prior to the match, although St Mirren fans seemed about as friendly as anyone outside of the 'big two' is ever going to get! 
 
4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the ground?
 
The ground is still very new and is quite smart and functional, if a little characterless and on the small side. It is quite reminiscent of Shrewsbury Town's New Meadow stadium or Chesterfield's B2Net ground. The away end holds around 1,500 fans and, with Rangers' allocation behind the goal taken, St Mirren had also allocated part of the West Stand, which runs along the side of the pitch, to away followers. Although small, the rows of seats in the away end were sufficiently steep to give a decent view of the playing action, and the legroom and space between seats was okay. There is quite a balanced and compact feel to the ground, although something about it just felt a bit unfinished – perhaps it just requires 'bedding in' over the next couple of years! 
 
5. Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, toilets etc..
 
The concourses and toilets are pretty basic but the service was both quicker and friendlier than most I've come across over the years. There are television screens along the concourses that show Sky Sports News (it always makes me wonder why they don't pipe just a bit of sound through when you're trying to lip read what the presenter is saying!). I didn't see any programme sellers outside the ground but there were plenty to be had once I'd made it through the turnstile. The stewards, thankfully, were pretty quiet and unlike at some grounds didn't demand that standing fans retake their seats, and while the Rangers fans were unusually quiet for much of the game, some of the St Mirren fans in the West Stand tried to create a bit of an atmosphere by showing off some creative and interestingly designed banners.
 
Despite having had a barnstorming start to the season and sitting at the top of the league prior to kick off, Rangers hadn't quite found the knack of playing well for 70+ minutes and had thusfar only managed one decent half in every match played. This encounter was no different, and after a lacklustre first period, Rangers took a stranglehold on the game after 48 minutes when St Mirren's Mark McAusland could only direct a header into his own net. Ten minutes later, Steven Naismith made it two from close range and, after another ten, Kenny Miller pounced on a defensive dalliance before roling home the third. Michael Higdon replied for the hosts, firing home a dubiously-awarded penalty, but Rangers ran out convincing and deserved victors. 
 
6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the game:
 
We didn't experience any problems at all – upon leaving the stadium small groups of us met up and walked the 10-minute journey to our bus. As soon as everyone was on board we got away immediately – the crowd was just under 6,000 which meant that most of the traffic managed to get away much quicker than after games at Ibrox. There was, however, a bit of a queue for the exits at the club car park give that there was only one way in and one out! 
 
7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out:
 
I had a good day at St Mirren – not the best ever but certainly not the worst. The ground has a nice new feeling about it but it might take a good few seasons for it to feel as familiar as Love Street, the Buddies' former home. Love Street was not as practical as New St Mirren Park but, having been the club's home for so many years it had a real traditional feel about it where you could sense the history of the old place. Looking at both the pluses and the drawbacks, a trip to St Mirren isn't the best day out I've ever had but it certainly one worth making – even if only to tick it off the list!