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THE OFFICIAL: "LET'S ALL LAUGH AT HEARTS"


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The reason I was talking about hearts not being important was an idealistic point based on the much longer term and on Scottish culture generally as much as on Scottish footie.

 

Just as Aberdeen have the north EAST, as examples, QoS have the south of Scotland, Inverness the north west, Morton the west towards the islands, St Johnstone the central highland and Killie have Ayrshire. All these are areas that their teams being big and successful would potentially, in a generation or two, curb the sad OF cancer's spread throughout the country and make Scottish football and Scotland itself look less of a joke. In my view the fan base of the OF being so high is the biggest problem, and hearts finishing somewhere from 3rd to 9th doesn't change that, especially given the mini-hun persona they have. If hearts went bust or fucked off to lower league and what we had instead was a geographical spread of 'big' teams, it would be much more beneficial to the SPL than a second Edinburgh team who are currently battling with Hamilton for 6th place in the central belt.

 

Hearts being successful is maybe important also (though I personally don't believe it), but much much less so. And over all the arguments that justify hearts' position as a 'successful' team already are spurious at best. They've been gash more often than good, no matter what they like to pretend.

 

ps. mad purple leaky fannies lolz

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The reason I was talking about hearts not being important was an idealistic point based on the much longer term and on Scottish culture generally as much as on Scottish footie.

 

Just as Aberdeen have the north west, as examples, QoS have the south of Scotland, Inverness the north west, Morton the west towards the islands, St Johnstone the central highland and Killie have Ayrshire. All these are areas that their teams being big and successful would potentially, in a generation or two, curb the sad OF cancer's spread throughout the country and make Scottish football and Scotland itself look less of a joke. In my view the fan base of the OF being so high is the biggest problem, and hearts finishing somewhere from 3rd to 9th doesn't change that, especially given the mini-hun persona they have. If hearts went bust or fucked off to lower league and what we had instead was a geographical spread of 'big' teams, it would be much more beneficial to the SPL than a second Edinburgh team who are currently battling with Hamilton for 6th place in the central belt.

 

Hearts being successful is maybe important also (though I personally don't believe it), but much much less so. And over all the arguments that justify hearts' position as a 'successful' team already are spurious at best. They've been gash more often than good, no matter what they like to pretend.

 

ps. mad purple leaky fannies lolz

 

500px-Geography_Fail_Part_2.jpg

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Since when is Perth classed as Central highland?

Its not even in the highland region

 

A chunk of it used to be...or still is depending on whose map you believe.

 

http://www.scottish-highlands-explorer.com/

 

or

 

http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/scotland-factfile/scotlands-regions1/

 

Pedantry aside, the point is still the same.

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I think yer underestimating the population demographics of the highland region and indeed scotland

A mere 370,000 people live in the highlands which includes 40,000 in inverness alone

 

i reckon you would struggle to find 100,000 people living in the towns and villages in the 110miles stretch of the A9 to Inverness

 

Tis interesting that you said Kilmarnock has ayrshire when Ayr has a higher population

 

You cant just do the American franchise thing and say 'oh St johnstone, that'll be the highlands team, lots of people wil flock to them if they became successfull 'because within 40miles of perth you have Dundee, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, Raith Rovers, Arbroath, Forfar Athletic.

 

The only way that would work is if you started amalgamating teams - Montrose, brechin, Arbroath & forfar suddenly become Angus Utd. St johnstone and the dundee teams become Tayside Rovers. Ayr & kilmarnock becomes Ayrshire county and so on until you have a league of about 12 teams.

 

People who are genuinly interested in the game will not suddenly switch loyalties because a new team has sprung up or a shite team suddenly becomes successful - Take Inverness Caley who had an average crowd of less than 2000 till they got to the SPL when it only increased to just under 4000 which will have been boosted by large away followings from us and the old firm. Its dropped right back down again.  The inverness football fans already have their teams and while they may look out for the caley score their hearts lie with the Aberdeens, huns etc

 

The OF cancer as you refer to it will always exist in football. The only thing that will change is the teams it infects. 20 years ago if you said people all over the UK would be wandering around in Chelsea Replica strips you would have been told no chance. But suddenly they got money and could compete so all those who had latched onto Blackburn, Newcastle and Arsenal suddenly switched to Blue.

When middlesborough signed up ravanelli, and Juniniho suddenly they had a few extra people claiming to follow them but they soon fucked off when it all went tits up.

Ive heard tell that in the 80s there were kids all over scotland wearing Aberdeen & dundee United replica kits and the crowds at Ibrox were down to less than 5000 on some occasions. Suddenly murray comes along, Splashes the cash and 40000 reappear.  Celtics were struggling to pull in 12000 as recently as the 1993/94 season, then fergus Mccan comes along, splashes the cash, moves them to Hampden for 1 season and suddenly the average crowd is 30,000 and rising.

Success on the pitch is only part of the draw. you need those big name signings every season to keep people interested and they only come with billionaire russians attached. Ill bet if St johnstone suddenly won the SPL a few years in a row with the same players and finances they've always had their fan base wouldnt increase by more than a couple of thousand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I think yer underestimating the population demographics of the highland region and indeed scotland

A mere 370,000 people live in the highlands which includes 40,000 in inverness alone

 

i reckon you would struggle to find 100,000 people living in the towns and villages in the 110miles stretch of the A9 to Inverness

 

Tis interesting that you said Kilmarnock has ayrshire when Ayr has a higher population

 

You cant just do the American franchise thing and say 'oh St johnstone, that'll be the highlands team, lots of people wil flock to them if they became successfull 'because within 40miles of perth you have Dundee, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, Raith Rovers, Arbroath, Forfar Athletic.

 

The only way that would work is if you started amalgamating teams - Montrose, brechin, Arbroath & forfar suddenly become Angus Utd. St johnstone and the dundee teams become Tayside Rovers. Ayr & kilmarnock becomes Ayrshire county and so on until you have a league of about 12 teams.

 

People who are genuinly interested in the game will not suddenly switch loyalties because a new team has sprung up or a shite team suddenly becomes successful - Take Inverness Caley who had an average crowd of less than 2000 till they got to the SPL when it only increased to just under 4000 which will have been boosted by large away followings from us and the old firm. Its dropped right back down again.  The inverness football fans already have their teams and while they may look out for the caley score their hearts lie with the Aberdeens, huns etc

 

The OF cancer as you refer to it will always exist in football. The only thing that will change is the teams it infects. 20 years ago if you said people all over the UK would be wandering around in Chelsea Replica strips you would have been told no chance. But suddenly they got money and could compete so all those who had latched onto Blackburn, Newcastle and Arsenal suddenly switched to Blue.

When middlesborough signed up ravanelli, and Juniniho suddenly they had a few extra people claiming to follow them but they soon fucked off when it all went tits up.

Ive heard tell that in the 80s there were kids all over scotland wearing Aberdeen & dundee United replica kits and the crowds at Ibrox were down to less than 5000 on some occasions. Suddenly murray comes along, Splashes the cash and 40000 reappear.  Celtics were struggling to pull in 12000 as recently as the 1993/94 season, then fergus Mccan comes along, splashes the cash, moves them to Hampden for 1 season and suddenly the average crowd is 30,000 and rising.

Success on the pitch is only part of the draw. you need those big name signings every season to keep people interested and they only come with billionaire russians attached. Ill bet if St johnstone suddenly won the SPL a few years in a row with the same players and finances they've always had their fan base wouldnt increase by more than a couple of thousand.

 

You're ignoring some things and taking other things way too literally. What region Perth is in doesn't matter, I could just've said St J have Perthsire and it would be the same point.

 

I didn't say people would switch who they support, I said that the next generation or two of new fans would be more inclined to support the local team if the local team was bigger and more successful. Aberdonians were more inclined to support aberdeen when they were successful than now, hence the increasing support for OF. Amalgamation doesn't come into it at all.

 

Killie have a stadium of SPL standard, Ayr do not. That was just a team I mentioned to illustrate the point anyway. Ayr 'should' be a big team too.

 

Your last section backs up the point I was making. 'Success' breeds support and lack of it loses support. Signings needn't be 'hollywood' type to give people some interest,just not the shite-or-nothing that non-OF teams have gotten used to.

 

The part about Chelsea replica tops is exactly what I mean. They became able to enter the market up here (and with floating voter types in eng) in a way they couldn't before and their stock continues to rise, just like the teams I mentioned (pretty much at random) could enter their own local market in a way that a well maintained SPL would allow for and encourage. That isn't happening now and originally I made the point about those other teams to show the SPL could thrive with or without a second Edinburgh.

 

You'll always have some people supporting clubs from other places (like you and i) but if the media and market share is balanced out to some degree then it wouldn't be the cancer it is now.

 

We've gone off topic though by a loooong way so maybe this should all be in a more general 'future of the spl' type thread.

 

Fuck the jambos

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I still dont think yer dream of a generation of kids suddenly turning to the local teams can ever happen.

There are too many alternatives to football (and indeed sport on the whole) which will always tempt kids away. Why bother going to watch the team when you can play as them on yer Playstation or nintendo or watch them on yer sky digital in the warm.

 

You want crowds to build then the only way i can see it happening is to return to the days when the only time you go to see yer team on the TV was the occasional cup final. Saturday night Sportscene had 1 scottish game and a couple of english premier matches. Then you had scotsport on sundays with 1 main match and the goals of all the rest plus division 1 and selected games from division 2. Those older than me will probably recount getting less selection than that.

 

Only way you got to see the team play on the day was to get of yer arse and head to the stadium. And there was no...ah its to cold to go watch East Fife, im staying in or going to the pub to watch Man United on the telly.

 

But now the clubs (or rather the players) have become reliant on the TV money cash cow to pay the bills so unless every single league in the world (or rather england, italy, germany, Holland, france, Spain and Portugal) tells sky etc to go fuck themselves, they are only getting highlights from now on then the 'other' clubs will continue to struggle and see support fall to the basic hardcore.

 

 

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I still dont think yer dream of a generation of kids suddenly turning to the local teams can ever happen.

There are too many alternatives to football (and indeed sport on the whole) which will always tempt kids away. Why bother going to watch the team when you can play as them on yer Playstation or nintendo or watch them on yer sky digital in the warm.

 

You want crowds to build then the only way i can see it happening is to return to the days when the only time you go to see yer team on the TV was the occasional cup final. Saturday night Sportscene had 1 scottish game and a couple of english premier matches. Then you had scotsport on sundays with 1 main match and the goals of all the rest plus division 1 and selected games from division 2. Those older than me will probably recount getting less selection than that.

 

Only way you got to see the team play on the day was to get of yer arse and head to the stadium. And there was no...ah its to cold to go watch East Fife, im staying in or going to the pub to watch Man United on the telly.

 

But now the clubs (or rather the players) have become reliant on the TV money cash cow to pay the bills so unless every single league in the world (or rather england, italy, germany, Holland, france, Spain and Portugal) tells sky etc to go fuck themselves, they are only getting highlights from now on then the 'other' clubs will continue to struggle and see support fall to the basic hardcore.

 

I don't really disagree with any of that except the 1st bit. But admittedly I am being idealistic. In reality I might be wrong that anyone other than the hardcore would ever give a fuck again just because the SPL (and Scottish sport generally) became a level playing field. It's all hypothetical though. I don't know for sure I'm right and you don't know for sure I'm wrong.

 

We both want the same thing for Aberdeen and we both (i think) agree that hearts are a bunch of cock munchers, arse wanks and over all creepy fucktards. Where we differ is that you're more miserable than me, and I'm more of an optimistic cunt than you.  ;D

 

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