waauw wrote:tzor wrote:waauw wrote:a bit contradictory isn't it? You name them 'loyal fans' whilst simultaneously mentioning they changed clubs.
If you want a thought experiment, if Man City moved to Edinburgh do you think the "loyal fans" of Man City would continue to support the team? Or Chelsea? Or any other club?
Well then, consider what happens if they were to move to (GASP) Bermuda. The Giants moved so far away from New York that they literally moved several time zones. This was the age of Radio, for the most part (1957).
As Betiko mentioned. Clubs in europe don't do that. It's deeply frowned upon and all club owners in europe know it. European teams and fanclubs are a lot more traditional than american clubs. If a club-owner would decide to move a club to another city far away, without the excuse of force majeure, it would be looked down upon not only by club fans but by fans all over the country.
I wouldn't even be surprised if such actions would lead to hooligan riots.
Not to mention that his coventry city example is shit. That s from one location to another in the same urban area... When i gave him the example of wimbledon fc that is spot on.
Another example comes to mind... About 10 years ago in spain there were 2 clubs from Murcia in second division, the Real Murcia (the traditional one) and the ciudad de Murcia (a new club that managed to go up in divisions very quickly.
The owner decided to merge it with the Granada 74 and to relocate in granada... The granada 74 being in 3rd division (it was the second club from granada, the granada cf currently in first division was in third division at the time).
So basicaly the ciudad de murcia became granada 74 in second division and granada 74 became the granada 74 B in third division. That just pissed off fans of both clubs and the entire country.
The league gave fines, the fans didn t attend games and the club disapeared.
Just have a look at what happened with the wimbledon fc story when they moved to milton keynes and changed the name....
Ps: your distance thing has nothing to do with it. Take the new jersey nets that became the brooklyn nets. Didn t they lose a big part of their fan base?
Oh and waaaw... What happened in belgium when they merged 3 clubs that became GBA with their fans?