PARTICK Thistle are giving power to the people.

Instead of just providing their backing from the stands, fans have been handed the chance to have their say in the running of the Firhill.

Working together with the club's board as part of the Jags' 'One Thistle' scheme, supporters will be able to help oversee a range of areas including marketing, the matchday experience, community development and social media management, in conjunction with director Greig Brown and general manager Ian Maxwell.

Each member of the team will have a specific role, with the ambition of attracting supporters back to Firhill and helping Thistle thrive once again.

The concept is an intruiging one, moving away from the traditional structure in place at clubs across the country – but Thistle are confident it is a step in the right direction.

"For me, the best ideas about the club environment and what the fans will buy into are going to come from the fans themselves," Brown told SportTimes.

"They know what they pay for, what they experience on a Saturday and what would make that experience better."

He added: "One thing we are not short of is good ideas – now it is about the implementation of those ideas.

"We want to create a model where we bring in a select number of fans into the club.

"We want to get their ideas and their thoughts on what we can do, have dialogue with myself and the other directors about what we can do with the club to make it better and, importantly, feel empowered to implement it. It is not about handing over complete control because there is a board and governance, but we certainly want to give more implementation power to the fans and see their ideas coming to fruition.

"I don't see there being an end point to it, I think it will be a continuous project that will continue to improve and change.

"We have to try things out, if they don't work then we will change it again.

"We have a group of eight people involved right now and we will look at making that group more formal and that is how it will operate."

As with clubs across the country, finance will dictate Thistle's future, with the red and yellow hordes who flock to see Jackie McNamara's side in action more important than ever.

Work is continuing to help plug the six-figure gap that will be left at the end of the season when the Glasgow Warriors rugby club end their tenancy agreement at Firhill.

Thistle have an average crowd of around 2,400 this season and Brown hopes continued backing from the stands will have on-field benefits in the years to come.

He said: "We are working extremely hard to fill the void created by the Warriors' departure and the board are working on a number of options.

"The most important thing is to make sure we can give the management an early indication of the budget available.

"That lets Jackie plan properly and it is our job to support Jackie in that way.

"One of the biggest factors in that is the commitment to season tickets.

"The earlier fans commit to buying season tickets, the more it benefits the club because Jackie can then go and re-sign players and sign new players as early as possible ahead of the new season.

"One of the priorities for us is how do we transition the fan who normally pays at the gate to committing at the front end and becomes a season ticket holder."