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.

I think a merged team would currently be playing at the KC stadium challenging each year for 5th/6th place in front of a season average of around 11000 fans max.

I think that whether or not it had been done properly it would have been the worst thing that could happen to RL in Hull.

It's what all of the schemes since then have been about as is the current dual reg. Logically what's needed is a pyramid structure with one regional elite team at the top. When you start school in that area you know that if you're going to play RL you will ultimately aspire to that senior team and have a series of stepping stones through the amateur and junior game to get there. All of it would be effectively controlled by the senior team and the governing body so that you don't get competition from junior teams within the area , instead everyone works to the same goal of bringing players through and lives off the kudos that that brings.
Problem is we're not starting from scratch and you can't just change hearts and geography as everyone who's tried has found out regardless of whether ultimately it would work. We'll simply never know.

Setting aside sentiment, rationalisation (done well) would have been... Well, rational.

But...
1. You can't set aside sentiment.
2. Even if you could, would there be much point to any of it?

Effin Head Shook !!!

Opinion still the same ........

I remember the discussions 20 years ago. I liked the idea that me and my FC mates would support the same club as my KR mates. I think if the franchise had been moderately successful we would have stuck with it. I was sad that I might lose my club but I thought we might gain from having more fun at matches.

20 years on and I don't see those people any more so I'm chuffed that FC still exists and are so much better than KR.

If it was done 20 years ago then there'd have been a new generation who wouldn't have known any different by now. So any merged club would probably be reasonably successful.
Problem for me is that anywhere between 17k & 20k watch RL in this city on a consistent basis, part of that for me is a lot of people are passionate about their own clubs and it's a sense of identity for some in the city, a tribal sense of belonging. You take that away and a lot of people would just drift away from the game completely. You'd end up with what StaffsFC said.

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 !