What would be best for HIBS?

[Dan Sarf]

Think selfish (like the Old Firm). What would be the best set-up for Hibs?

A small league - more big games so we get more TV money and can buy better players?
A bigger league - so we have a better chance of keeping up with the OF?
Go back to 2 points for a win - so its not so easy for the OF to accelerate out of sight?
Join an English league - maybe better TV money?

Or what?

[monktonharp]

Think selfish (like the Old Firm). What would be the best set-up for Hibs?

A small league - more big games so we get more TV money and can buy better players?
A bigger league - so we have a better chance of keeping up with the OF?
Go back to 2 points for a win - so its not so easy for the OF to accelerate out of sight?
Join an English league - maybe better TV money?

Or what?option 2

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Or what? Tin hat time, but, someone willing to chuck dough at us is the only thing going to change the 'at least we are still here' status. Its been a transitional period for nearly 20 years, getting tedious now. (thats me thinking selfish!)

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Or what? Tin hat time, but, someone willing to chuck dough at us is the only thing going to change the 'at least we are still here' status. Its been a transitional period for nearly 20 years, getting tedious now. (thats me thinking selfish!)

Dundee Airdrie Livi Gretna Celtic Hibs
All went through the mill two went out of business ones future hangs in the balance

Now lets look at Celtic and Hibs
McCann laid the foundations for celtics success but it was built on a biscuit tin mentality they had more resources at their disposal and had to endure 9 in a row whilst rangers splashed the cash fast-forward now and look at them
Hibs on the other hand have steadied that ship built some good foundations for the future question what if we did a Dundee united it'd had a little success but couldn't build on that because we didn't have the capacity increase to attract crowds or under 21 Scotland games/cup semis?

That said I'm frustrated with the perpetual transition but if I were the board I'd be miffed at the result in Dingwall and that backing the managers proved ultimately fruitless. Well see with cc but I think the board need to stick by him thick and thin not to the extent of magoo though!

I'd like to see an expanded league with a playoff system at the top to determine the eventual winner heck why not go American ?

[Hibbyradge]

I'd be excited if we were in a British League.

It won't happen though so I'll just continue to moan about what we currently get served up. :wink:

I understand the attractions of a 16 or 18 team league, but it wouldn't be the panacea that some seem to suggest.

A 16 team league would only give us 30 games a season, 8 less than we have now (4 home). That's a loss of income of over 21%. Clubs couldn't survive.

The suggestion is to reinstate or invent a cup tournament to compensate for this. What happens to the teams knocked out in round 1 after a difficult away fixture? Celtic and Rangers would progress through the tournament as usual, and their income would increase.

Go back to the old league cup qualification groups? Seriously? They were awful and would be seen for what they were - vehicles for extracting supporters' cash.

With an 18 team league, we'd still be 2 home games short and while folk might salivate at the possibility of getting closer to the Old Firm, it should be remembered that 14 out of the 17 home games would be against opposition we have never sold out.

The teams who weren't challenging at the top of the table, the vast majority, would be playing meaningless games, in front of small crowds from the turn of the year. Income for these clubs would plummet.

Yes, the (very) occasional years that we were challenging at the top would be exciting, but can you imagine what following Hibs would be like if our results were similar to what we usually achieve?

By now, we may have played our home games against Celtic Rangers and Hearts and we're languishing in the bottom half of a 16 or 18 team league.

There's no top 6 to aim for, Europe is out of sight and we're too strong to be relegated. Home games against Hamilton, Raith Rovers and Partick are looming. People would just stop going. I've stood in 4000 crowds at Easter Road while we played out a "top flight" fixture. It's not much fun.

The Old Firm would end up with even more TV money cos they'd be on every week, while other clubs may only get paid for the 2 live games against them.

Those would be the realities for the majority of member clubs every year.

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but the utopia of an expanded league doesn't exist, imo.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fed up with Scottish football currently has to offer and going back 12 years or so to a 10 team league doesn't fill me with glee.

However, neither does going back 40 years to a failed 18 team system.

[sunshine1875]

Thinking outside the box - apply and join the English Football League. I am tired of the 'same old' boring games against St. Mirren, Hamilton, Killie, Falkirk, ICT, St. J whoever gets promoted. They bring very few fans and the atmosphere is poor. Remember the last St. J game at ER - very, very boring. And we would not have to subjected to the great unwashed coming to our 'family home'.

If we played in say the 1st Division, we would have home games against Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Carlisle United, Bristol Rovers. Ok, not that exciting but it would be something new. It would likely attract a big travelling support as they would love to make a weekend of it in Edinburgh and they could not fail to be impressed by the stadium.

Then if we made it to the promotion spots the stadium would be buzzing. Anyone fancy the trip to Wembley for the play-off finals. Hibs will never win the SPL, so it is very boring to play in. Playing in the EFL would give us something achievable to aim at, say promotion to the Championship or one day promotion to the Premiership. If Burnley and Blackpool can do it, why can't we?

I rarely go to away games now (usually only one or two a season), but if we played in the EPL I would start to pencil in the away trip to Carlisle, Exeter or Huddersfield. It would be a week-end away with the boys.

The Scottish League is going no-where. We need something new!

Thoughts!!!

[Devine]

As much as I dislike the split it’s the only real way at the moment to work a 12 team league in Scotland in its current format.

Going back to a ten team league is not my idea of fun. Yes the financial perks would be better for teams as the OF would come calling guaranteed twice a year but I for one am so tired of playing the same old teams 3-4 times a season and I’m pretty sure most other fans would get bored of it pretty quickly as well. The one automatic relegation and one playoff spot in a ten team league would stagger youth development and quality of football with most teams determined not to go down and playing it as safe as possible.

A 16 team league would again bring its issues too many meaningless games for teams hovering around the middle to bottom and the quality would also be diluted.

My suggestion would be a 14 team league,
• That splits after two rounds of fixtures (This ensures a split where teams do not have an imbalanced home/away structure)
• 1 automatic relegation spot and 2 playoff spots
• SPL2 champions go directly up and 2nd playoff with SPL1 13th before meeting 12th team in SPL1 in a playoff final.

This system would ensure the 38 games a season, foster competition to get into the top 7 for financial gains, provide the same/better security against relegation that we have now, foster excitement in the bottom 7 to see who can avoid the 2 playoff spots, improve competition and excitement in SPL2 with potentially 2 teams in a ten team league having the opportunity of promotion in the closing weeks of the season & hopefully provide a bit of variety that a ten team fare would not.

Just my views probably pick flaws in it as you could with any system… thoughts?

[Dan Sarf]

Dundee Airdrie Livi Gretna Celtic Hibs
All went through the mill two went out of business ones future hangs in the balance

Now lets look at Celtic and Hibs
McCann laid the foundations for celtics success but it was built on a biscuit tin mentality they had more resources at their disposal and had to endure 9 in a row whilst rangers splashed the cash fast-forward now and look at them
Hibs on the other hand have steadied that ship built some good foundations for the future question what if we did a Dundee united it'd had a little success but couldn't build on that because we didn't have the capacity increase to attract crowds or under 21 Scotland games/cup semis?

That said I'm frustrated with the perpetual transition but if I were the board I'd be miffed at the result in Dingwall and that backing the managers proved ultimately fruitless. Well see with cc but I think the board need to stick by him thick and thin not to the extent of magoo though!

I'd like to see an expanded league with a playoff system at the top to determine the eventual winner heck why not go American ?

I missread this and thought you said let's go TO America. Sudden images of Hibs V NY Red Bulls, Columbus Crew or New England Revolution exploded in my (hungover) mind. A 747 packed with partying Hibees landing in the sunshine. Hibs V LA Galaxy. Palm trees. BBQs. Beach football. Starlets. Hibs top of the league (maybe). Now THAT would be an SFA future I would look forward to.... then I went back to bed. :greengrin

[DH1875]

Na **** the lot of them. We should join the EPL and leave the rest behind:greengrin. Just think what we could do with the money and you can't tell me we aren't as big if not bigger than the likes of Blackpool, Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Fulham or West Brom.

In the real world I can't see why we can't just have an 18 team league and be done with it. Fair enough there would be some really crap games in there but look at what we got now.

[Franck is God]

I'm not that fussed about how they organise the leagues alhtough my preference would be to only play against the other sides twice, home and away and I don't like the split in any shape or form. I'm honestly not sure if it is league format that is keeping people away, it is getting too expensive and inconsistant to be a fan these days, it used to be easy, home one week, away the next and always on a Saturday at 3pm. Now you can play one home game in a month and three the next and go weeks without seeing your team. You can't expect people to follow football like that, some of us are stupid enough to go along anyway but sadly its the 'fairweather' fans that we are trying to appeal to right now.

With that in mind I would opt for summer football with the season starting in March and finishing at the end of October. Taking next year as an example, if our first league game of the season was 5th March, if we keep the Scottish Cup Final as the close to the season then it could be played on the 29th October (35 weeks later) For those old enough to have been there I remember being at Hampden in t-shirt weather on the 27th October 1991 to see Keith score the second in the League Cup final so weather doesn't have to be an issue.

I would have cup matches up to Semi Finals in both competitions played midweek mainly because I love night games and it opens up easy tv coverage for any company wishing to show it.

I would enforce a standard ticket price throughout the league so it costs the same amount to go to any game and if you buy a season ticket it should cover all home games regardless of whether they are league or cup.

I think we should consider changing the times of our kick offs to Saturday evenings, this would allow all fans to spend day times with their families and go to the games at night in the same way as they would go to theatre or cinema and would be a real treat for the kids. I know I'd rather go to a match on a warm July evening than a freezing cold afternoon in December...

Only a few ideas to be getting on with but it is a start.

[Woody1985]

As much as I dislike the split it’s the only real way at the moment to work a 12 team league in Scotland in its current format.

Going back to a ten team league is not my idea of fun. Yes the financial perks would be better for teams as the OF would come calling guaranteed twice a year but I for one am so tired of playing the same old teams 3-4 times a season and I’m pretty sure most other fans would get bored of it pretty quickly as well. The one automatic relegation and one playoff spot in a ten team league would stagger youth development and quality of football with most teams determined not to go down and playing it as safe as possible.

A 16 team league would again bring its issues too many meaningless games for teams hovering around the middle to bottom and the quality would also be diluted.

My suggestion would be a 14 team league,
• That splits after two rounds of fixtures (This ensures a split where teams do not have an imbalanced home/away structure)
• 1 automatic relegation spot and 2 playoff spots
• SPL2 champions go directly up and 2nd playoff with SPL1 13th before meeting 12th team in SPL1 in a playoff final.

This system would ensure the 38 games a season, foster competition to get into the top 7 for financial gains, provide the same/better security against relegation that we have now, foster excitement in the bottom 7 to see who can avoid the 2 playoff spots, improve competition and excitement in SPL2 with potentially 2 teams in a ten team league having the opportunity of promotion in the closing weeks of the season & hopefully provide a bit of variety that a ten team fare would not.

Just my views probably pick flaws in it as you could with any system… thoughts?

This would be my prefered option. I read in the news today that the HM recommends a ten or 14 team league.

Why not just have the 14 teams with all the other proposals? The money might stretch a little thinner but this is meant to be a change for Scottish football, not just top division clubs.