I'm currently reading a book by a guy called Richard De La Riviere entitled Rugby League: A Critical History (1980-2013) which details the period in the game before and after the advent of Super League and Summer Rugby. What strikes me reading this book is how little has really changed in the overall structure and heirachy of the sport. The upper end of the domestic game is still dominated by a small elite of 3 or 4 clubs who maintain a monopoly on the game's major honours, and who continue to ensnare the few genuine quality players within their ranks (thereby ensuring that monopoly continues). Meanwhile Internationally we are, if anything, even further behind the Southern Hemisphere than at the start of the Summer era.

However, my main question to everyone out there (FC or Rovers) is this; When the original Super League proposal was dropped like a bombshell onto us in April 1995, it included the highly controversial subject of mergers as part of the bright shiny future that SL was apparently going to bring us. One of these highly controversial mergers included, of course, the formation of a new super powerful club named Humberside, to be formed out of the ashes of the two existing clubs (ourselves and our nearest & dearest).

If Maurice Lindsey had gotten his way, and the mergers were indeed forced through, and the new look Humberside team had taken its place in SL1 in 1996, where does everyone think we would be in 2014 in terms of the City's position within SL. Would we/it be one of the dominant sides of the game or would it be a mid/lower table side struggling to maximise its undoubted potential but somehow never quite fulfilling the promise it showed from time to time (a familar scenario to us all).

Also, how would the new club have affected the inner dynamics of RL within the city itself? The thought of us all being one happy family running in the same direction supporting the same team is bizarre to the point of being virtually unimaginably.

Thought/opinions anyone?

It is really difficult to know where a combined FC/KR club would be..

For one thing, the fans just would never, ever accept it and rightly so, you can't just merge two clubs with (at the time) almost 250 years of history between them.
it'd be like asking Everton & Liverpool merging, Man City & United, Arsenal & Tottenham, there is just something unwholly wrong with merging..
Thus a sporting club needs the fans to turn up and watch, I think fans would rather go and watch re-born clubs starting from the bottom leagues than merge with their most fiercest rivals.
So..where do I think a merged club would be..in liquidation and non existant with two emerging Hull clubs (HullFC 1865 & HULLKR 1882) fighting their way back to the top tier & maybe they both might be in a better place than were either clubs are now..

In the end this was what killed Uncle Maurice's grand masterplan. The likes of ourselves, Rovers, Wire, Widnes, Cas, Wakey, Featherstone made it clear that we were indeed prepared to take that route if need be. In the case of ourselves and rovers, it was very much a feeling of rather a lower league side with a least at semblence of identity remaining rather than some faceless corporate Sky entity.

I do feel that if Lindsey had gotten his way and somehow forced his plan through, the game would be in an even more perilous state than it currently is.

I think initially the City would have rejected it, but in 2014 at the KC consistent five-figure crowds and acceptance from many people would have been possible. People been born then are 18-19 year old adults now, with (as harsh as it sounds) no reason to care for history that they didn't feel and experience.
Personally I'd have been crushed, and over the last twenty years would have spent my 'Rovers money' on my football team and RU (or perhaps a soft-spot club like Bradford) but again, while I think traditionalists would have resented it and maybe boycotted, the new generation of kids, teenagers and young adults would have got the franchise through a difficult initiation period, and I think it would be doingokay now, mostly because (realistically) it would be based 80% on Hull history/heritage/culture, and 20% on ours.

Also as well, while tradition means a lot, there are many people out there who just want to support a successful club, however it looks. At the time I thought no-one would ever support a merged club, but in 2014 with both clubs having sold much of their heritage away (us especially, and I'm sorry if this offends but its just my opinion) I really could see many people under the age of 40 (or certainly 30) having no problem watching a Humberside team at KC if it was an entertaining, value-for-money experience, and the team competing for the best.
However, needless to say I'm very glad it never happened, and in a bizarre way those two seasons with us in the third tier afterwards were some of my most enjoyable times as a Rovers fan. That idea of the chase being better than the catch is sometimes true...

I honestly believe that the majority of local RL supporters no matter which club you support, would at some point have attended the KC to watch a Humberside team. We all love our RL and if it could have been made to be succesful then it would not have any problem with support. Imagine going to watch Rugby and having the buying power to not just sign past it imports or kids who cannot make 1st Grade in Oz.
Tradition is great and i will always be black and white but if it ever happens which i think one day it will (only my opinion). then i can honestly say i would probably end up giving it a watch.

Give your effin head a shake..

Done correctly, which it wouldn't have been, it could have been the best thing thing to happen to RL in Hull.

And Roofs you'd have spent your "rovers money" on John Cena t-shirts!

What a pile of bilge - explain your logic....

I don't have to, you haven't. All you've done is attacked others.

If the teams had merged I expect you would have seen a large percentage of supporters from either side just giving up on the game and unless the team became successful pretty quickly it would have died a death due to lack of support.
I also think if it had happened we would soon have seen the emergence of 2 amateur teams taking on the clubs names.

Lol, yeah Sheldon I guess you're kinda right. . In all seriousness though when you add the annual costs together (season pass, 1 or 2 replica shirts, away games) there's a lot of money that we each spend on Hull RL each year, so for me I would definitely have invested the surplus cash on trips to St James Park, and probably a Six Nations game here and there. In all honesty I don't think I would suddenly have become a big fan of the amateur scene (no disrespect). In the short-term perhaps the disheartened fans from both sides might have drifted to City and the Vikings? (and maybe ice hockey, who knows).

I thought a gob $hite like you may have answered in that way.

The mergers would have been fought to the bitter end and initially I think crowds numbers would have dropped but slowly when people were not getting their fix I think they would have recovered and eventually become larger than they are now, wire were to merge with widnes forming Cheshire that would have been a hard sell especially as Warrington is an overspill for Gtr Manchester/Merseyside/Lancashire as well as being in Cheshire. I think that would have took longer than HULL, you would still have some semblance of identity.