For the greater good of Sheffield Football is now the time to merge?

[Bladesway]

Look at the state of us, look at the state of them. We are going to be playing in the same division next season and for too long a city the size of Sheffield has underperformed in footballing terms.

There are two ways of looking at this. One is the traditionalist "there have always been two teams and there should always be two teams". I fall into this camp as a rule. If you do however you have to take with it the utter shite that has come the way of both us and them over the last thirty or so years. So you have to shrug and take it.

However if you take an alternative view and merge the clubs, forget the "where will we play" and "what colours shall we play in" it makes utter and total sense. Football has already sold its soul to the devil and its never coming back. So if we want to join the bandwagon we should merge what we have, cash in on selling one or both of the grounds, get the council to help us in the redevelopment of somewhere and stack up a big 50,000 all seater stadium.

We would have a massive supporter base, we would in time eclipse Leeds United as the biggest club in Yorkshire and we would be in the Premier League inside 10 years. We would be a genuine investment opportunity as well.

Once the dust has settled we could attract 40,000+ every week and could genuinely threaten the top half of the Premiership.

The downside is that we would have sold our soul.

 

[sitwell]

Wheres this massive supporter base ? You would lose 90% of both clubs supporters who would simply pack it in.
I'm a Sheffield UNITED fan ,no other club has any interest to me at all ,and I bet I speak for at least 90% of posters on here.

 

[sheffielder]

I would be done with football, however would be interested in an FC United or Wimbledon idea.
Actually let's do it now

 

[davidpinder]

If there was to be a merge the club could only be called one thing SHEFFIELD UNITED. The ground should be in the city centre so that is BDTBL i can't see much of a change for me.

 

[grafikhaus]

I'm thinking 'merger' more and more these days. As the OP says, it always gets howled down by tribal loyalties. But let's look at the facts.

United and Wednesday - and the 4 other teams that Radio Hallam used to call 'The Big 6' are all dire. This must be the most depressed and under-achieving footballing area in Britain. This isn't a recent phenomenum, it's been going on for donkey's years.

Like Labour/Tory, we spend all our energies dragging each other down instead of standing back and looking at the bigger picture. Compare it with every team continually upgrading/building new stadia instead of the infinitely more sensible option of stadium sharing. This not only ensures clubs are permanently in debt to building contractors - instead of spending the revenue where it matters, on the pitch - but dilutes the efforts of both teams resulting in below par performances.

Apart from the truly 'big' teams such as those on Merseyside, Manchester and London (who have many decades of success to justify their independence), teams at United's (and, dare I say it, The Massive's) level are pretty low down the food chain and, the way the game is going, will fall further behind with every year.

Birmingham is a funny one. Villa are the biggest team with the history of winning things, the ability to pull in 40k + regularly. The rest - Birmingham, Wolves, Coventry and WBA are serial scufflers who may have the odd season in the sun, but will then quickly revert back to normality. I think Bristol is a more accurate comparison with Sheffield - similar population, constantly overlooked and 2 crap teams.

So, assuming we will never, ever join the elite what is the way forward for 2 very dismal teams (not just at the moment, but historically)? Well I think it's to look at the 'one-club cities/towns'. Leeds, Norwich, Ipswich, Derby, Leicester, Southampton and, I would add, Nottingham even with County ( a bit like comparing West Ham with Millwall and Orient).

Every one of these has superb grounds, 'punch above their weight' both crowd- and performance-wise and don't suffer from the dilution of their fan base.

It'll never happen here, but just my thoughts.

 

[alcoblade]

I think in time it would be a huge club. But that's not the point. Football's been all but ruined by money men and the chase (£) for success. Do we want to enter that game?

We're crap right now. We'll probably go down. Look at it as an opportunity to visit a load of new grounds and have a different perspective on football. Our day will come when it's once again our turn to make up the cannon fodder for tourist attractions like ManUre and Chelsea. Is it really worth selling out for?

UTB

 

[Yossarian]

The shirt:

The badge:

 

[JohnDenver]

If we don't succeed for a spell, just give up? Create a profitable business instead. Nice new plastic stadium. McDonalds and Coca-Cola all round.

If people want that, go support a top-4 Premiership team. Don't mess with my club.

 

[SwissBlade]

This was discussed a few weeks ago by Lenners

Attendances are dropping at 2 shite sides.

Attendances would be low to start with a merged side but 30,000 max i'd say (I wouldn't be there, you'd never see me following a merged side)

Then when the merged side found its level in league 1, attendances would be even shiter.

I'd suggest a merged side would be out of business within 5-10 years.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I would consider a ground share long before i'd entertain the prospect of a merger.

 

[breeny]

the answer to the title of this thread is.......NO!!

 

[TheSwollengland]

Wash your Feckin mouths out ! Id sooner eat shite than merge with the pigs

 

[Yossarian]

But they wouldn't be "The Pigs" any more. "The Pigs" would not exist. They would be a set of football fans, a set of football players, and a set of business administrators.

 

[lenners]

A merged club would in time be a big success, that's highly likely.
Tribal loyalties count for less and less among kids who grow up quicker these days and are well aware that both United and Wednesday are shit, have been shit for a long while and show few signs of being anything less than shit for a while yet.
Determined businessmen could quite easily make it work.
In reality, it's probably a way off but longer term there's a good chance it will happen.
Shorter term, the big problem for United is being unable to compete with Wednesday financially and what that might mean.
If they do get to the Prem relatively quickly and we are in League One, we might struggle to survive at all as a meaningful club.
The potential to become a Notts County in comparison to a Notts Forest is there.

 

[broomhillblade]

Let's get this right. The idea is to combine two teams with big debts into one team with an even bigger debt?

You would end up with the lowest common denominator - one average team with crowds of 20,000 - 25,000 per week, and massive debts.

No thanks.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Why are you a Blade? Not, in this instance, about how you arrived at the hallowed BDTBL, but what makes you a Blade. Is it the hope of seeing some success? Is it just a family thing you've inherited? Or is it something that identifies you as a person, that defines you?

Answer those questions and you'll find the answer to the merger question. Personally I don't follow football, I'm identified not as a football fan but as a Blade. Winning the Champions League every year or bumping along in Division 1 doesn't change my identity. Once a Blade, always a Blade!

So, No! Thanks very much but no!

 

[Bladeforlife]

Wash your Feckin mouths out ! Id sooner eat shite than merge with the pigs

100% agree with you there

 

[sheffielder]

You can't take emotion out of football and Some of you are talking as though this is a business. To the fans its not.
You wouldn't be even talking about this if we weren't in the shit we are talking about now. Can't remember many people calling for a merger when we got promoted. Our time will come again, maybe it won't be in my life time but that doesn't matter.
How do you shit list people who think this is a good idea? Do you work with Wednesday fans? I know one pig who looks at this board who will take great delight in the fact some of you have SURRENDED!

 

[TheSwollengland]

You my friend were obviously not brought up as I was on a housing estate surrounded by these wankers ,if so you'd realise they are pigs and will always be pigs no matter hoe you dress em up

 

[lenners]

Let's get this right. The idea is to combine two teams with big debts into one team with an even bigger debt?

You would end up with the lowest common denominator - one average team with crowds of 20,000 - 25,000 per week, and massive debts.

No thanks.

A new club would have no debt, the current clubs would disappear and it would be a new company.
Part of merging could involve using receipts from the sale of both grounds though.

 

[JohnDenver]

They'd have to find the freehold first.

 

[lenners]

You can't take emotion out of football and Some of you are talking as though this is a business. To the fans its not.
You wouldn't be even talking about this if we weren't in the shit we are talking about now. Can't remember many people calling for a merger when we got promoted. Our time will come again, maybe it won't be in my life time but that doesn't matter.
How do you shit list people who think this is a good idea? Do you work with Wednesday fans? I know one pig who looks at this board who will take great delight in the fact some of you have SURRENDED!

That's ironic. To many fans on here, the sale of our best players, our future, has been virtually applauded on the grounds that we are a business.
Under our current ownership and previous owners, we have sold our best players and gone through endemic failure.
Looking at it in business terms, the argument for merger is there.

 

[Guesty]

There was a particularly apt chant doing the rounds the last time this was seriously proposed, over a decade ago. I think it was "You Can Shove your fucking merger up your arse!"

Sums up my feelings rather succinctly, I feel.

 

[Yossarian]

The terminating of two clubs, and the creation of a new club by the city of Sheffield, made for the city of Sheffield, with the input of the fans in an open and inclusive way (creating an emotional investment), with a view of optimism and not the constant, typical god-awful pessimism that pervades not just these boards but Sheffield football as a whole could in fact reinvigorate the city. As a city-wide project, I think it would be one of the greatest things to have happened to the place for decades.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

A merged club would in time be a big success, that's highly likely.
Tribal loyalties count for less and less among kids who grow up quicker these days and are well aware that both United and Wednesday are shit, have been shit for a long while and show few signs of being anything less than shit for a while yet.
Determined businessmen could quite easily make it work.
In reality, it's probably a way off but longer term there's a good chance it will happen.
Shorter term, the big problem for United is being unable to compete with Wednesday financially and what that might mean.
If they do get to the Prem relatively quickly and we are in League One, we might struggle to survive at all as a meaningful club.
The potential to become a Notts County in comparison to a Notts Forest is there.

Garbage. This isn't Nottingham. The Blades & the Pigs are a similar size - always will be. At the moment we have bigger crowds and, although McCabe won't spend it, a richer owner. The Pigs couldn't even manage 30,000 average crowds in about 15 consecutive seasons in the top Division, even when they qualified for Europe. We averaged over 30,000 under Warnock despite being relegated.

 

[lenners]

Garbage. This isn't Nottingham. The Blades & the Pigs are a similar size - always will be. At the moment we have bigger crowds and, although McCabe won't spend it, a richer owner. The Pigs couldn't even manage 30,000 average crowds in about 15 consecutive seasons in the top Division, even when they qualified for Europe. We averaged over 30,000 under Warnock despite being relegated.

I'm pretty sure Notts County were once a decent size, not any more.
There's no reason why United should always remain a good-sized club, particularly as loyalties just aren't the same as they used to be. Which is part of the reason why a merger would eventually work.

 

[Yossarian]

Notts County used to average 30,000.

 

[Worksop II]

Wouldn`t it seem a bit strange having Statues of Players from both Clubs standing side by side

 

[sothall blade]

did,nt robert maxwell try to merge oxford and reading a few years back,with all his money and dodgy dealings he failed,who would finance this merger,we cant even sort our present club out,mandaric is only at wendys to make a quick buck once he as made a profit on the pigs he will fuck off like he did at portsmouth and leicester and the pigs aint worked that out yet. i certainatly woul,nt waste my money on a stupid merger

 

[Kenilworth]

Rather than merge them both into one great big giant turd they should disband the pair of them and turn both grounds into retail parks to put us all out of our collective misery. What a F**kin waste of a Saturday afternoon or mid-week evening those showers if shite are.

It's shameful, it's embarrassing and it's utterly depressing. South Yorkshire is the worst football area in the whole of the UK.

Those muppets on Radio Sheffield Sport must be at the lowest end of the broadcasting job spectrum because they have the shittiest, most gloomy, worthless jobs compared to their counterparts anwhere in England. Grumble & Grumble must be the most miserable programme on the airwaves. Every presenter must be contemplating slashing their wrists, especially now that paragon of joy, Gary Smegson is in charge at the sty. At least Irvine sounded as though he was a character from a RL Stevenson novel.