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https://clwbpeldroed.org/2019/02/25/...ciation-wales/
Their heart says stay in England league but head says move to wales for financial reasons. Never thought id type that!
Think thats just Merthyr and wrexham left now- as well as cardiff and swansea obviously.
I think Merthyr will be next, i read recently TNS made more money in their handful of summer games in Europe last summer than Newport did in their fa cup run this year. Crazy.
They’d better get their finances properly sorted out if they want to play in the Welsh Premier League, Bangor have gone from finishing second and being by a long way the best supported club to playing home games in Conwy and Llandudno after being booted out for financial reasons, they seem to be ruthless about any financial problem,Rhyl and Porthmadog both got punished and Caernarfon Town were denied promotion because they were late with the paper work. I’m a big fan of the Welsh Prem, the standard is a lot higher than many people presume, but I do worry about those in charge.
I hope Merthyr stay in the English pyramid
I hope they do too (in part) . But realistically speaking, is a town the size of Merthyr ever going to reach any higher than the Conference......League Two tops ? Probably not. At least they haven't at any point in their history. I don't even know if it'd be good for a club like Merthyr to overextend themselves in an attempt to reach any higher.Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks
If that is the case, then maybe winning the Welsh Prem and getting games in Europe every other season, getting a regular income etc, would be the perfect outcome for that club at the present time. If there is a glass ceiling in the English pyramid, why not play at a similar standard, but actually have the chance of aspiring to some sort of glory/trophies.
..a bit of research before posting would help !!
A big step for them but hopefully a happy one; I've also read the stat about TNS making more from their Champions League run than County did this year in the FA Cup, and the local derbies on offer must be more appealing than trips to otherwise unheard of towns and villages in England.
The standards of the league is improving year on year and demands for improved facilities (and grants to help achieve that) means its become more appealing to visit as well.
When have they been above the Fourth Division ?
“Highest league position: 4th in Football Conference, 1991–92”
Why?
So do I.
Not sure where they would be allowed to start, wouldn’t be fair to parachute them into the Welsh Prem or WL/HGA
I see no point in a Welsh club below the Conference playing in the English pyramid bearing in mind the potential benefits of playing in the Welsh Prem
Is Ramsbottom United away really that much more appealing than Conwy or Llandudno?
Financially I would have thought being in the Welsh Premier would make more money than however many divisions Merthyr are away from the National League. TV rights, more exposure, chance of Europe. I would have thought that, unless Merthyr really harbour ambitions of being contenders for league football, as they were in the 80s, and fund it, their profile and bank balance would be better off being in the Welsh system.
The only issue would be where to put them? Straight into the Welsh Premier would be unfair on those battling to win promotion. Bottom of the ladder would seriously harm the club but fairer on all the other clubs.
Imagine if Newport had followed your advice. Crowds of 300, no lucrative tie against Man City but, hey, Llandudno away on S4C. FFS.
absolutely bang on
I’d argue that County are at a different level to Merthyr. Would they be better off waiting 5/10/20 years for an FA cup tie against Man City or winning the Welsh Cup or League and potentially playing some of Europe’s biggest sides. I’d even go as far as sying that they’d hve a better chance of playing Man City in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League than they would playing them in the FA cup.
Regarding crowds, if Merthyr were playing at the top of the Welsh league I think they’d get decent crowds. Probably as big as they’d have in the conference..or similiar. There would also, potentially, be more “grandstand” events with Welsh Cup and League games plus European fixtures. These would surely attract better crowds than Havant and Waterloo or Torquay.
That said, if Merthyr fans would prefer to stay in the English set-up I get it and it is not the place of fans from other sides to prescribe anything for Merthyr T. I’d just argue that the Welsh setup would offer more short term (and probably long-term) benefits, both financial and sporting.
Re crowds- Merthyr average 395 this season.
Thats lower than clubs like Caernarfon and barry. Average attendance of the welsh league is normally 350ish.
With a higher away support (barry would certainly take a couple of hundred to Merthyr) it is likely Merthyrs crowds would go up in welsh system.
I take your ‘realistically’ point on size of town but there are many similar sized towns in the English pyramid system. Burnley is a similar size for example
http://lovemytown.co.uk/populations/townstable1.asp
Not according to the 2011 census data.
Although Newport should definitely be doing better.
https://twitter.com/rhyswynne/status...17629369049088
Interesting thread on this from a Colwyn Bay shareholder.
I think you missed my point. That data backs it up. Ok Burnley is bigger than Merthyr by less than 40,000 people but Burnley is only half the size of Slough.
If you follow that logic Burnley should be a mid table 5th tier team
Burnley are doing well for their size, but to go back to the original point, there aren't many towns a similar size to Merthyr that are successful in the league, look at the names around them on that list.
Other than Burnley that is
Burnley are not around Merthyr on that list, it is almost twice the size or Merthyr
At the risk of sounding as pedantic as you - I really don’t think that in terms of being able to support a Premier League football team a difference of 37,000 people in census terms would be significantly significant. Burnley’s extra ‘total’ population over Merthyr is not even enough to fill some league 1 teams stadia.
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