Give your effin head a shake..

I agree with Sheldon. Done correctly we would now be watching the biggest club in super league. A generation of fans would have grown up with new club.
It wouldn't have been done correctly though. Too many vested interests.
Personally, I feel that ambivalent towards super league at the moment, I think I'd prefer watching a merged team if it was winning and playing good rugby.

How would that have come about? We as a city have a poor record of producing top class talent and we'd have had the same salary cap restraints as all other clubs. If by doing it the correct way meant improving the youth systems then I don't see why both teams couldn't do this, we have the fan base for two clubs and i'm not sure there'd be the economies of scale some at the time probably thought there would be.

In theory I think a "Humberside" team would have probably had the best attendance of all the Super League clubs. If you look at the attendance of the derby games at the KC then it shows how many people in Hull are passionate about rugby.

But that passion would have been a problem because we're passionate about either FC or KR, not both nor a merged club. I don't think the merged team would have got great attendances to start with due to the controversial nature of what had occurred. Maybe people would have calmed down and attended after a while (I know I myself would simply because I would be missing attending games) and as time went by a new generation of fans in the city might have started showing an interest.

How would the Humberside team have fared in Super League? I have no idea. Whilst I think the potential was there to have the best supported club that doesn't necessarily translate to success on the pitch. I'd like to think that we would at least be regulars in the playoffs.

back in 1995 it was more plausable because both clubs were getting smallish crowds playing out of poor quality grounds with next to no corporate facilities, and neither were going to be in superleague in their own right. if you would have said back then that in a few years time there would be 2 hull clubs in superleague playing out of big new stadia (in 1 case) pulling in over 20k fans a week between them, you would probably have been laughed at. (at that time they were averaging around 6k between them). in 1995 both clubs were in a mess. nowadays as both clubs are strong the call for a merger is not there. however in the future, if one or both get into serious financial difficulty a la bradford you can bet the rfl will look at the issue again

I think that is a very realistic (and highly probable) scenario.

RL is not a sport where you can create franchise teams. In the "heartlands" club history and tradition counts for a lot, and the younger people would not be led into it but would perhaps be more likely to follow soccer as a genuine alternative historic club. Until they become cairo tigers of course !