IF and i say IF,f.c.and rovers were to agree to a merger,i reckon anyone who realy loves rugby league ,would still go to watch a newly formed team,i know i would travel down for the games,the same as i do now.no snide remarks please.

There isn't a version that would appeal to a big enough constituency to make it worthwhile. You'd get continuity clubs starting up and all sorts of mess. Where do we rank for crowds in SL - 4th and 8th, something like that? I can't bothered to check, but they're not among the worst.
Most SL clubs need subsidy, because most clubs get subsidy, because they need it...
Merging wouldn't change that, you'd just have one club fewer.

I would bare my ass in Marks and Spencer`s window.

a good enough reason foe it to never be considered

I wouldn't support any merger. It would be a case of throwing away both clubs history and I'd rather HullFC dropped in to the Championships and started again.

Could you imagine a Good Friday with the new 'Hull' team running out the tunnel in Blue & Yellow (Council colours) and being made to play someone like Huddersfield as we have no derby to play? with the fans having no songs to sing because the team has no history, no passion from the fans or players because there is no real fear of losing any bragging rights...it would be the death of RL in this city.

We would all complain and kick against it. Give it 10 years though and the next generation would not care. They would just want to support a powerful club. Which is what it would be.

Why would it be any more powerful than Hull are now ? Where's the guarantee of that ?

As above.

A newly formed "Hull" club would take years (possibly decades) to establish itself. By establish, I mean create an emotional attachment for its supporters which provides the, at times illogical, bedrock of any clubs link to its fanbase.

As MR says, that is without taking into consideration the distraction of reborn clubs bearing the names of FC & KR which would be the real clubs for most people, certainly in my case. Even playing in tier 3 of RL, I would bet they could draw attendances to match the crowd figure of a frankenstein club playing in SL.

The theory that if you take club A with an average attendance of x and merge it with club B, attendance y, you will end up with a "superclub" playing in front of crowds of x + y is a fanciful one which doesn't stand up to any detailed scrutiny. The reason being is that a newly formed superclub lacks the one thing that drives all fan-club relationships, an emotional passion which defies logic by bringing us pleasure and pain in equal measure (God knows this is certainly true on both sides of the muddy River Hull).

People follow their club because it is a part of their DNA, often passed onto them by Father/Mother/Family. The newly formed club has none of those physical or emotional links and would subsequently only provide a dispassionate replica of the fandom expeirence. The interest would be there but the visceral thrill of watching your team triumph (or despair as they and you fail once more

) would not be there.

No guarantees. Not saying id support it. Just think you would have one club with a pick of the young players, pick of the sponsors, etc, rather than fighting each other.

Top post

Once again, as above.

The removal of emotions in supporting a club removes the reasons why we support a club in the first place and why we all continue to support our club (whoever we may follow) even when logic tells us we will end up suffering yet again.

A cobbled together superclub has none of the emotions you describe above because for you and I it has no emotional attachment to ourselves, our lives and our history (both personal and club wise).

The mergers in Oz have all worked out well.

The real opportunity to do this was when SL started. At that stage, both teams were out in the cold and had a reason to consider merger. Hull's place in SL is guaranteed indefinitely so it's hard to see a situation that would compel us to merge.

I'm sure if the clubs had merged in 1995, most of us would be supporting the new club by now

Or would you be supporting West Hull, playing in black and white and working there way up into the professional ranks?

No, I'd be watching top flight rugby at the KC as I do now

I would go and watch it immediately.

That's stretching it a bit far

Is it? Is their a higher level of RL in this country?

I think I would if the alternative were standing on some crappy terracing in a poor location watching low quality rugby. So, I could stretch to tolerating a bit of red in the shirt and Kingston in the club's name, just about. But not at Craven Park, that would be the dealbreaker. They smell.



The tradition argument needs a bit of context. 150 years ago there was no Hull FC, pretty much no RL. The derbies are good, but we've survived spells without them. The Boulevard is our spiritual home, but has been flattened, and once we resided at Selby, or some such. If there were the possibility of a truly vibrant single team in the city that could genuinely challenge for honours on a regular basis, I think in the medium term it could attract big attendances. The world is changing at pace, and at a pace that's accelerating. To always do what we've always done in rugby league may hasten our own demise. Adapt or die. A merger may not be the answer because the short term lack of appeal might kill it before it got started, but the game's up shiit creek and some big thinking is needed. Unfortunately Red Hall doesn't appear to be blessed with strategists divorced from the 2-3 big clubs.

Aye. And emotions towards a club can be the death of it.

Do you think? I've supported Rovers for 30 years but from out of town. Im not immersed in the tug of war between east and west. if a team was born out of the two combined I would certainly go as I love my rugby. Sometimes I think league fans in hull are in a bubble as to what fans from out of town think. And there are plenty of us.

I live well out of town and wouldn't bother going to watch a merged team at all. Just for balance like.

I'd rather nail my balls to a plank...

Oh, go on. I'm out of town too, so 66% of out of towners surveyed would go according to my maths. We could form a club, I'll bring sandwiches, blakeysrobin the flask of tea, you'd not be able to resist for long.

Excuse me, I would also provide flapjack and little olives on sticks to be posh.

Im in. I'll bring the plastic cutlery & some tuna pasta. We can discuss new Black/White/Red kit designs.