Edinburgh, Scotland shoe salesman Bob Jamieson "has teamed up in a bid" to buy Scottish Premier League Heart of Midlothian "with one of the men associated with a failed effort to take over" Scottish Second Division Rangers last summer, according to Stuart Bathgate of the SCOTSMAN. Jamieson, who runs Kex Shoes Ltd., has joined forces with Club 9 Sports Co-Founder Jon Pritchett, who "was one of the key players" in American businessman Bill Miller’s attempt to take control at Ibrox. Jamieson, a former sponsor of Hearts, was "involved in previous offers to buy the club both in 1999, when Chris Robinson was in control, and in 2011, when Vladimir Romanov first put it on the market." Jamieson and Pritchett "plan to move Hearts away from Tynecastle to an as-yet-unspecified site on the outskirts of Edinburgh." Hearts administrators BDO "have named Friday as the deadline for offers to buy Hearts." Business sources "poured doubt on initial claims" that the Jamieson-Pritchett offer would be for £5M ($7.5M). Analysts suggest that such a sum "would most likely include an amount designed to bridge a funding gap" for the first three years -- possibly as much as £3M ($4.4M) (SCOTSMAN, 7/10).
