Talk:Livingston F.C.
I'm proposing that the articles on Livingston's former identities as Ferranti and Meadowbank be merged into that on their current incarnation. I know that separate articles exist for Wimbledon / MK Dons / AFC Wimbledon, but that's a different scenario due to the creation of a "breakaway" club and the dispute over who can claim Wimbledon's history and honours etc. In this case, there's no such argument to consider. Meadowbank quite clearly became Livingston, whether you agree with the morality of what happened - I personally don't - and there was no "AFC Meadowbank" left behind. As far as I'm aware, a number of the Meadowbank fans ended up watching Edinburgh City who now play at Meadowbank Stadium, but this was a pre-existing club which merely took over the tenancy.
Livingston F.C. continue to give 1974 as their year of foundation. It should be noted that on becoming Livi they inherited Meadowbank's league place - they were never elected to the Scottish League as Livingston. Also, they initially played at Meadowbank under the new name before Almondvale was ready, as well as inheriting Thistle's players, management and colours.
In turn, Meadowbank were pretty much a direct continuation of Ferranti Thistle, despite the slightly perverse 1974 foundation date. Althought that year marked a change of name and ground, this was a result of Ferranti being elected to the Scottish League, and not a precursor to it.
Finally, I've noticed that on Wikipedia pages on American sports teams, where franchising of this sort is of course common, standard practice seems to be to have only one page, even for teams that have migrated across thousands of miles, e.g. the Brooklyn / L.A. Dodgers Jellyman 21:43, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
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(1) If the Wimbledon situation is a different scenario, surely reference to it should be removed from the 'see also' section.
(2) Where did you get 1974 as the year of foundation? Everything clearly states 1995 when Livingston is concerned. That's why Livingston, as a club, just celebrated 10 years of existence.
(3) This is not an American sport.
(4) While it might be a continuation, I feel it is appropriate to have different pages for the different identities of the club. After all, to some supporters they are considered completely different. It also allows future additions and more focus to be placed on the history of both Ferranti and Meadowbank at a future date.
(5) You should also note what happened during the creation of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. I'll not go into details, but there are separate pages for both Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle FC. If you do intend on making these changes to the Livingston FC page, then the same must apply across the league.
10 March 2006