Opinion STEVE FINAN: Why Dundee derby at New Year means so much to the city.

“No other event in the city generates such column inches, online comment and conversation.”

As is customary, the city celebrates the New Year with a Dundee derby.On Saturday, Arabs will face Bluenoses at Tannadice Stadium. It’s a sellout.

No other event in the city generates so many column inches, internet comments, and conversations.In these trying circumstances, neither club has a good chance of winning a national title; instead, the derby takes precedence over honours.

The “league champion” is the team that finishes first, and each derby takes on the importance of a cup final.

This is aiming low, but you’ll take what you can get. Some St Johnstone fans say they have Tayside derbies with Dundee clubs. Sorry, Saintees; we scarcely notice you in Dundee.

The games against St Johnstone, Ayr, Livingston, and Airdrie are all as crucial. Saints fans would be better off organising an A9 derby against Inverness Caley Thistle or a Kincardine Bridge game with Falkirk.

‘Celtic and Rangers fans in Dundee are glory hunters’

Celtic and Rangers fans in Dundee, on the other hand, deserve some attention, albeit disdain.

They seek glory. They aren’t Glaswegians, so they don’t “get” what a city derby is. They don’t have the sense of home or ownership that comes from living with a team every day.

The term “home” in your hometown team denotes something. They have a tainted relationship with the club they watch from afar. They are milkable customers, similar to Man City fans in South Korea.

I believe Dundee-based Rangers and Celtic fans swap allegiances to whatever club is winning, or to Manchester United or Liverpool when neither Glasgow club is performing well – what’s the difference when all they want is glory? However, the only thing United and Dundee should have in common is a dislike for other clubs’ alleged fans.

‘Dundee United foolish to give up Tannadice’

Dundee FC will soon build a new stadium, assuming the local council has any sense. It will be Dundee’s home ground. Not United’s.Because ground-sharing would be a bad idea.

Dark Blue Property Holdings is developing a housing and recreational complex, with Dundee FC on the tenant list. DFC will never own the “mixed-use” arena proposed for Camperdown.

Beware, Dundee fans: like Clyde and Hamilton Accies, not owning your ground may one day hurt you. Being another tenant in a money-making company provides United with no security.

Equally shared ownership, or equal rights at a city-owned stadium, may be considered. But United would be foolish to give up Tannadice and Foundation Park to become tenants in a profitable company.

And I’ve heard that the city of Dundee should only have one team, but I feel sorry for anyone who believes this foolishness. They do not comprehend football.

They’ve evidently never experienced the exhilaration of a Derby victory or the crushing disappointment of a Derby defeat.

No true fan would kill their team and replace it with a pale facsimile. Does the one-club concept make financial sense? Only for people who believe money is the objective of football.

To a football fan, the club is an extension of their identity. Without that identification, it’s just a game – and if you support your local football team, you understand the emotional bonds that make it more than just a game, more than just a business.

An amalgamated Dundee football entity would play to an empty stadium.

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