The Herald and Hibs Hearts Merger....

[doontheslope70]

According to Alan Campbell, of The Sunday Herald, Wallace Mercer was right with his planned merger and '' The idea still lives'. As both Hibs and Hearts are a joke!!!

http://www.sundayherald.com/sport/sh...e_monument.php

[Greenmachine]

Originally Posted by doontheslope70

According to Alan Campbell, of The Sunday Herald, Wallace Mercer was right with his planned merger and '' The idea still lives'. As both Hibs and Hearts are a joke!!!

http://www.sundayherald.com/sport/sh...e_monument.php

It's the article itself which is a joke.

Mergers are impracticle in major footballing communities. It can't happen, and it certainly won't happen in Edinburgh.

[Colr]

A merged team could possibly challenge the OF but I don't see it happening.

Would I support it? Probably but not with the enthusiasm I do Hibs. I would probably divert my attention to Spurs. Supporting a team is in your blood and you have to have a history. You can't just switch to a new team.

[SG7nil]

It's not the teams that are trying to get by and act responsibly within their budgets that are a joke.. it's the whole Scottish football scene where the Infirm are allowed to dominate that is the problem.

Until we can say good riddance to them (off to a 'bigger' european league or England) the better.

I honestly believe that scottish football could thrive without them, however, with them we are in terminal decline.

Of course the OF loving media will tell you that without the big 2 we are not viable (in an attempt to promote the status quo as the way forward) however I think a more competitive league structure with all teams on a more or less level playing field would generate more excitement and crowds would return to the games.

I cite as evidence Hibs own experience of the last time we played in a league without Sellic and the Hun.. when we were relegated... did our average crowds fall due to us not having four home games against them? Nope.. they actually increased! And why?... because we had a real chance of winning the league..albeit a lesser league I admit, but that's what we are discussing here. If there were at least 7 or 8 teams at the start of the season in the Premier league (without the OF) who harboured genuine belief that they could actually win the league, season tickets sales would have to increase.

There may have to be some form of wage capping introduced across the league to stop any one or 2 of the remaining 'bigger' teams simply becoming the NEW "Old Firm". Suggest that rules for that could be easily drafted to state that clubs have to work within their operating budgets.

Merging teams with real history and large latent support is not really an option unless you can retain some of the characteristics of the old clubs. Simply calling a team "Heart of Hibernian" and putting them out in Maroon and Green Striped strips (god.. I think i'm gonna be sick!) wouldn't work because Hibs have a football tradition and Hearts have a hoofball one which are as incompatible as the colour scheme!

[HailHail]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Simply calling a team "Heart of Hibernian" and putting them out in Maroon and Green Striped strips (god.. I think i'm gonna be sick!) wouldn't work because Hibs have a football tradition and Hearts have a hoofball one which are as incompatible as the colour scheme!

wrong compromise on colours should this unlikely horrid merger ever occur.

green from hibs
white from hearts.

that's fair eh?

[Fro]

Based on the logic of that article celtic and rangers should merge. Maybe they'd be able to do better in Europe that way.

[GalegoHibs]

Originally Posted by Fro

Based on the logic of that article celtic and rangers should merge. Maybe they'd be able to do better in Europe that way.

And just imagine the crowds of over 100,000 that would come flocking in to watch the new Glasgow City FC.

[Gunnerhibby]

Originally Posted by Colr

A merged team could possibly challenge the OF but I don't see it happening.

Would I support it? Probably but not with the enthusiasm I do Hibs. I would probably divert my attention to Spurs. Supporting a team is in your blood and you have to have a history. You can't just switch to a new team.

Sorry Bud but thats just bollox!


A merged team in Scotland, Hibs/Them, Dundeh/ Untied, or any other combo you care to mention, would never challenge the OF. The financial clout they have would always be enough to keep them head & shoulders above anyone in Scotland. The bigotted side of it always shines through as well, and make sure they have a horde to support them, whereas, any merged side, whilst being a novelty to the town/city they were based in, their support would soon dwindle through lack of success. A merged team would also need a backer, someone with ties to it, that would be a serious drawback to its finances. Whilst there might be the odd "sugar daddy" with a singularly Hibs, or Hearts, interest, it would be more difficult to come up with someone that would have both interests in mind.(Well there was one, but he´s deid )

The difference between any merged team and the Of is, they would always find someone willing to pour money in to either, but very unlikely for a Edinburgh United.

The "draw" for players would still be there too, sign for the OF, or sign for sumdae that used tae be Hibs/Hearts. Amounts tae the same. A Merge would never be able to compete with the wages either.

[Briant]

Hertz debts + Hibs profits


STF says " "

[AndyM]

The story I have heard from an individual who was involved at the time was that Wallace Mercer's plans were actually far more advanced than many in the media actually realised but they would have been the death knell for 115 years of Edinburgh football rivalry. The plan was to buy Hibs and close them down as a functioning football club.

What Mercer never really explained well to the drooling baboons at Tynecastle was that the following season would have seen Hearts play their last season at Tynecastle for they also would have been shut down and their place taken on by an Edinburgh United team playing in black and white colours at a new purpose built stadium on the city bypass.

Apart from the strength of feeling that he stirred up what Waldo did not realise was that the Hibs players contracts after takeover woud have reverted to the SFA and not to Hearts (goodbye any thoughts of getting Andy Goram and John Collins then) and that 15000 Hearts fans and 15000 Hibs fans attending games in Edinburgh would not equal 30000 fans of Edinburgh United. It would have been more like 8500.

As for challenging the Old Firm - probably not then and doubtfully even now, History would have just judged it to be a vile act of vandalism against 2 fine old Edinburgh clubs and my own opinion is that Hibs would have resurfaced with a likely takeover of Meadowbank Thistle by Hibs minded businessmen - the team an awful lot of Hibs fans would have gone to see anyway including me.

Thank God for Sir Tom Farmer.

[Colr]

Are there any examples of city teams merging and what can that tell us.

The only one I can think of is Inverness Caley Thistle.

[oo2beahibby]

The article is nothing more than a column filling waste of words.

[egb_hibs]

what nonsense. i can;t be arsed going over the reasons why in depth, so here's the bullet point version:

- all you achieve is further reducing the credibility of the league by reducing the pool of vaguely credible clubs by about 20%

- all the teams in the spl could unite and they still wouldn't challenge the OF. rangers and celtic's revenue streams are far more diverse and far far more substantial. add up all the other teams gates and you'd probably roughll equal celtic's. but you'd not match their 600k shirts sold each time they pump out a new one etc etc

- far from the majority of hibs and hearts fans would support the new identity. and - like it or not, it's a reality - a chunk would go off to support celtic or rangers instead.

- hearts are altready spending today, more than would be sustainable for a well run team the size of hibs and hearts together. and they are getting, and will get, nowhere.

[SG7nil]

Originally Posted by Colr

Are there any examples of city teams merging and what can that tell us.

The only one I can think of is Inverness Caley Thistle.

FC Utrecht was formed from a merger of 3 teams... it still can't break the monopoly of the 'Big 3' in Holland, but has won the Dutch cup a few times.. BTW.. I don't want a merger, but I thought that I'd tell you of (possibly) the most successfully merged club that I could think of...

See Wikipedia for more info on Utrecht.