Quote Originally Posted by Pretty Boy View Post
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I don't think less teams makes any difference to the economic dynamics of Scottish football.

If we say that Arbroath, Montrose, Forfar and Brechin are all too close together are fans of the respective clubs all going to go and watch Angus County? Or all get behind whichever team makes the cut to be the one that represents the area? Same is true of Fife. Raith Rovers, East Fife, Cowdenbeath and Dunfermilne fans aren't all going to get behind Fife United any more than we were going to get behind Mercer's 'merger'. A cursory glance at ICT shows what happens when you merge teams against the wishes of the fans. It's unsustainable long term because you will never grow a fanbase.

'We need less teams' is an often heard cry but with little substance into how it materially improves things. All it would do is see a generation of fans lost to senior football altogether or more people 'supporting' a Glasgow side on TV.

There may well be an organic loss of clubs given time but there are probably fans of global superclubs and football administrators alike who would quite happily see a club like Hibs as collateral damage in that organic loss in their quest for even more money concentrated in an increasingly closed shop. We'd hardly see that as a positive because a couple of Scottish mega clubs would theoretically be better for the greater good.

These clubs aren't stealing support from each other or the bigger clubs. There isn't a big pool of supporters waiting to get behind a local team if only a couple of other teams in the area got punted to the sidelines. The only clubs hoovering up support from all over are Celtic and Rangers.

We really don't have that many full time teams in Scotland, the majority in the league set up are part time. Regionalisation may be one solution to keep costs down but even then Scotland is so lowland heavy in terms of population and teams I'm not sure that is workable either.
I don't think anyone in this thread has suggested that the minnows all merge together to create a regional powerhouse. What's done is done and these clubs exist, I would never say that they should all pack it in for the sake of combining their attendances to potentially be another Dunfermline or Raith etc. But I do think the amount of them limits their ceilings and even lowers their floors of what is achievable by them individually, much in the same way I think four divisions of 42 teams is a poorer set up for the game in general.

Something will have to change in how the SPFL runs or how it funds the lower leagues though because the financial issues will only grow worse I think in the coming few seasons for some clubs.