THOSE of a cynical disposition will look at Kilmarnock’s wretched opening to the league season and wonder whether calls for a larger top division are being made entirely on altruistic grounds. Jim Mann’s cry for change, however, has long pre-dated his team’s stuttering start to the campaign.

The new Kilmarnock chairman has been in post for just five months and trying to rebuild the relationship between the club and its supporters – one that became fairly fractious under his predecessor’s watch – remains one of his key objectives. He has still found the time, though, to assess the bigger picture and believes it is in need of some fairly drastic alterations.

Mann is now retired from his day-job as a senior executive with TUI Travel but still approaches football problems from a business perspective. How to market Scottish football and make it more appealing is proving something of a head-scratcher, especially when – unlike more traditional commercial firms – so many factors remain out of a mere chairman’s reach.

The league model, for one, has to change. Mann wants a bigger top division and can see no purpose for the late-season split; he also thinks the return of a proper winter break will happen sooner rather than later. Additionally, he anticipates a day when, rather than criticising Kilmarnock’s artificial surface, more clubs also elect to go down the same road. “People say you have to play football on grass, but what’s actually happening is we are playing on mud and sand,” he says.

The feeling Mann gets is that football’s hardcore fanbase is drifting away and they might not ever be coming back. Change, then, is imperative if the decline is to be stopped or, at the very least, slowed down.

“I’m banging the drum on this a bit but there is undoubtedly an element of boredom in the Scottish game that makes it hard to market,” he told Herald Sport. “The league structure is so small and so tight. You’re playing teams three or four times a year. Is there enough variety in that to keep it interesting? That’s something we have to deal with. There’s no quick fix but it’s something I’m personally making a point about. We need to get change.

“A larger league structure is probably what’s needed, one where you only play each other twice and you don’t have a split at all. That doesn’t seem to make a great deal of sense to me. You don’t see splits in the English Premier League, the Championship or any of their leagues but you still end up with quite a churn of teams at the bottom and the top. You still also have play-offs which are pretty successful so I can’t see why you wouldn’t do that here as the formula seems to work.

“The essence of what happened to Kilmarnock last year was that we only had 18 homes games and 20 away from home. Apart from the unfairness of that, there are financial consequences too as you’re one game down in terms of matchday income and there is no compensation for that. In nine of the last 15 seasons that’s happened to one or other clubs in the league. That needs sorted.”

Kilmarnock are trying to do their bit, too. This season they are following the lead of several others by allowing under-16s into Rugby Park for free, if accompanied by a paying adult. The installation of the new pitch has also allowed young supporters the sort of connect with their club that Mann wishes had been in place when he was a boy growing up in the town.

“Since we put down our artificial pitch we’ve had more than 12,000 children play on Rugby Park,” he added. “It’s not always about creating the world’s next Lionel Messi, although you might wish that can happen. It’s about providing opportunities for children to play at what they see locally as the home of football. When I was between six and 10 years old, I would have absolutely bitten someone’s arm off for the chance to play a game on the magical pitch that was Rugby Park. So building up that young population is absolutely crucial for provincial clubs such as ours.

“My ambition is to make Kilmarnock a really accessible football club for its fans. When you’re competing for people’s share of their wallet and their time and wanting them to buy season tickets, they have to feel that they are a part of you. My big job is to make that possible.”

Mann, though, acknowledged that ultimately what will create a lasting bond is a winning team and one, ideally, that does so with a style of play that is easy on the eye. Defeats to Dundee and Aberdeen, without scoring a goal, will not have the fans queuing around the corner at Rugby Park, especially with Celtic lying in wait this evening. Mann, though, is not overly disheartened.

“If you’re successful, particularly at home, then that helps a great deal in getting people to come along. And playing attractive football is important as well. Football clubs are about the core product. If it’s not right then all our marketing and selling doesn’t matter.

“Results so far haven’t been very satisfying, it’s fair to say. But I’m optimistic that they will come good. Starting a season with a new team and playing Aberdeen and Celtic in the first three games was always going to be tough. But we need to start stacking up some points pretty quickly.”