The following is an article received by email and does not reflect the views of anyone at Dundee Mad. However we were prepared to put it on the site simply because someone had taken the time to write it for us.
So here you go..................
Transfusion required?
Is it time for a radical review of senior football in the City of Discovery?
The two senior football teams in the 4th biggest Scottish City may have to start to face the grim realities of life in the 21st Century. For many reasons attendance's at both Dens and Tannadice are in decline, with Dundee FC in particular struggling against the effects of administration on the football team, and subsequently the fans' enthusiasm for parting with their hard earned in return for a couple of hours entertainment every second Saturday or whatever day the television bosses decide.
A declining populace and an ever declining hard core of Dark Blue devotees coupled with ever increasing expenditure at the turnstiles have seen the Marr brothers despair at the sales of both season tickets and pay at the gate customers. In the first view weeks after Dundee FC came out of administration it was expected that a renewed enthusiasm could carry the club through dark days and get the bills paid at the end of each month. It now looks however that the upsurge in activity from the fans that accompanied the march into administration has given way to apathy unequalled in the proud 111-year history of the club.
The general consensus among the fans seems to be that administration was a clever con trick performed by businessmen intent on saving their own skins whilst ordinary working people scrimped and saved to give what they could to the cause. The supporters simply don't believe any of the assurances given which suggest the Marr brothers have had to cough up to the tune of £5 million to keep the wool clad bankers of the world at bay. Much to their credit the Dee4Life Supporters Trust are still organising fund raising events and thinking of new ways to get much needed cash flowing but even these events are becoming a shadow of their former self with ticket sales down and the same faces turning up time after time.
150 yards away at Tannadice Park, home of their neighbours and rivals Dundee United, things seemingly aren't much better. The club captain has consistently refused to take a pay cut to help out and the owner Eddie Thomson has stated that further investment is unlikely. A poor start to the season has seen United lie 2nd bottom of the SPL and the pressure will surely begin to mount on Ian McCall to climb the table, and quickly. A good barometer of fans' opinion will come with the visit of Stranraer in the CIS cup where cheap season tickets will not allow entry and where gate prices have been slashed to £8 and £4 in an attempt to get bums on seats. Just how many remains to be seen.
This season the Terrors had much loftier ambitions than their older and more illustrious neighbours. They had hoped to secure the much vaunted third force tag currently held by Heart of Midlothian and perhaps a run to Hampden Park in either of the national cups. However the uninspiring performances so far, which included a home Tayside derby defeat, have failed to capture the imagination of the tangerine columns where discontent is becoming rife.
So what lies in wait for the clubs who have both reached the semi-finals of Europe's most exclusive cup competition? Is it time for the great rivals to finally consider a footballing future which is based on securing a fan base for the future at the expense of the feelings of the current incumbents?
Perhaps a merger would be a step too far at present but certainly some kind of neutral groundshare looks more and more practical. The downside of this scenario being that the more successful of the two will attract the kids and that the other side may just become a side-show every second week, some kind of poor sick relation who needs putting out their misery.
With combined debts of around £15 million and severe pressure from their respective pin striped suited benefactors the fans of both clubs may need to start looking beyond their current allegiances and ask do they want top class football to remain in the city of Dundee for their children. Could they stomach the thoughts of donating their blue and tangerine blood to give a transfusion to football in the city?
That time may not be today but its coming, and its coming quickly.