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36 years, how much longer?


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52 minutes ago, stu92 said:

For talking's sake, let's just take all ten teams in League 2 and punt them out of the SPFL pyramid.

  • Albion Rovers - Despite being in Lanarkshire, the only team who would stand to gain a bigger support would be Celtic.
  • Annan Athletic - QOTS could arguably stand to benefit by Annan going regional, but only if you're saying that Annan's presence in the SPFL pyramid since 2008 has been to their detriment.
  • Bonnyrigg Rose - Joined the SPFL five minutes ago. Kicking them back out again would have zero change to other club's fan bases.
  • Dumbarton - Next nearest club would be St Mirren I imagine, but given that they struggle to entice fans in from the OF next door, what is to say that people from Dumbarton would not just jump on either Rangers or Celtic also?  
  • East Fife - Average attendance last season of under 500. How many are going to hop along to support local rivals Raith?
  • Elgin City - 1hr drive to next nearest team.
  • Forfar - Average attendance last season of under 500. How many are going to hop along to support one of the Dundee sides?
  • Stenhousemuir - Average attendance last season of under 500. How many are going to hop along to support local rivals Falkirk?
  • Stirling - Average attendance last season of under 500. Alloa is probably the next closest side, followed by Falkirk, but how many fans would either of these teams stand to gain?
  • Stranraer - Best part of 1.5hrs to next nearest team, who's fanbase stands to benefit?

 

The reality is that population is more widely spread in Scotland than in other countries (i.e. England where population centres are more densely populated). To consolidate and condense the number of teams in the professional set up only stands to make professional football less accessible to sections of society. But you're probably right, local communities having their own professional football team is a pretty backwards idea.

 

The teams also don't actually disappear if they go into regional football. The Annan fans would still support Annan in the Lowland League or South of Scotland league or whatever.

Edited by craigkillie
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5 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

 

The teams also don't actually disappear if they go into regional football. The Annan fans would still support Annan in the Lowland League or South of Scotland league or whatever.

I was thinking that. Do Cowdenbeath fans just start supporting another team when they drop out the SPFL.  Rangers or someone?  Actually that's a bad example to use. 

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11 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

 

The teams also don't actually disappear if they go into regional football. The Annan fans would still support Annan in the Lowland League or South of Scotland league or whatever.

Annan and any of the rest would be desperate to hitch their wagon to the nearest SPFL juggernaut!

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11 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

 

The teams also don't actually disappear if they go into regional football. The Annan fans would still support Annan in the Lowland League or South of Scotland league or whatever.

Exactly. Sort of suggested that without explicitly saying it. If Motherwell were to be kicked into the lowland league, I certainly wouldn't be on the first bus to Hamilton.

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14 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Mind when those Inverness teams merged and the new club benefitted from having supporters from two teams?

No? Oh....

To be fair Caley and Thistle has a combined core support of about 800.

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2 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Mind when those Inverness teams merged and the new club benefitted from having supporters from two teams?

No? Oh....

That did happen. The new club surged up the Leagues and ultimately won the Scottish Cup.

Did absolutely nothing to disrupt the OF duopoly though, the idea that mergers might accomplish this is ridiculous.

 

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50 minutes ago, EpicMike said:

That did happen. The new club surged up the Leagues and ultimately won the Scottish Cup.

Did absolutely nothing to disrupt the OF duopoly though, the idea that mergers might accomplish this is ridiculous.

 

My point was that they didn't magically get huge crowds as the morons who spew pish about merging clubs always insist will happen.

Not that it would make a difference if clubs did merge and somehow got bigger crowds.

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8 hours ago, BFTD said:

Considering the clubs and their fans don't want it, and say it wouldn't make any worthwhile savings, has anyone managed to come up with a positive argument for regionalisation yet?

So far it seems the hobby horse of people who just don't want to risk being embarrassed by the diddies anymore. It wouldn't even provide them with any tangible benefits, even if they could take all of the money used for clubs below the Championship and redistribute it upwards to the top two leagues.

They just think might is right.

It's not a remotely considered stance.

Fans of the Socialist club seem the most determined to hammer the weak and vulnerable.

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10 hours ago, Forever_blueco said:

What happened to the Celtic Kilmarnock thread ?

I logged on before 7 this morning and it was still there.  That Supersaints guy had gone absolutely nuts though, attacking OF fans in a way that even I found distasteful.  By the time I left at 7.30, the thread had been removed.

I read the Cancel Culture thread earlier too.  Supersaints had quite a day of it yesterday.  

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4 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

They just think might is right.

It's not a remotely considered stance.

Fans of the Socialist club seem the most determined to hammer the weak and vulnerable.

This will be about the tenth time that Willy's demanded regionalisation with no justification, had it pointed out why it's a terrible idea, and completely ignored everything that was said.

So yeah, I think the answer has to be, "because I don't like wee clubs and this seems like an easy way to kill them".

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11 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

Scottish football is a brutal capitalist game Monkey,players are mercenaries and clubs are brands. 

Yes, thanks.

How would requiring some to play in regional set ups, rather than a National one, help end this 37 year run, the purpose of the thread?

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8 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

You need to get the foundations correct before building on top,we have too many clubs at a stretch 30 is plenty which means 12 need to go regional,cutting it to 24 would be a real cull.
The catchment area becomes bigger overnight for the main clubs creating feeder clubs.
Condensing the money available to a smaller number would help but not the answer.
Scottish football is so polarized and self serving with too many getting their piece of pie.  

What's the total prize money for league 2, and the bottom two clubs in league 1? I can't find up to date figures.

Just taking your example of cutting it to 30 - see what financial impact it'll have. 

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8 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Yes, thanks.

How would requiring some to play in regional set ups, rather than a National one, help end this 37 year run, the purpose of the thread?

It becomes the survival of the fittest and sell it like a franchise,the cull would be just the first step.
Football is Scotland's national sport yet it is never promoted in that way.

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10 minutes ago, Estragon said:

What's the total prize money for league 2, and the bottom two clubs in league 1? I can't find up to date figures.

Just taking your example of cutting it to 30 - see what financial impact it'll have. 

I'm pretty sure the top league gets about 75%-80%,so the impact would be minimum for both sides of the fence. 

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20 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

It becomes the survival of the fittest and sell it like a franchise,the cull would be just the first step.
Football is Scotland's national sport yet it is never promoted in that way.

How would a cull of this type be even a first step towards such a target?

Try to provide something specific in any response.

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