I never said it was unique.
Yet, whether you intend it or not, you're effectively asserting that Cronulla is...
You're saying that because of things that we agree aren't unique that Cronulla would react in a unique way, when they simply wouldn't. That's just wishful thinking on your part.
You obviously do not understand the area or its people.
There's nothing particularly special about Cronulla or it's people.
Generational change is inevitable, and no matter where you are from there's no stopping it. So you can throw as many barbs and talk all the delusional power of the people BS as you like, but if the Sharks went they'd become irrelevant within a generation or two.
It's really no different to music styles, fashion trends, etc, etc.
Souths didn't lie down and they fought their way back.
Pfft they didn't fight their way back in, they got lucky and were saved by a very dodgy court ruling that was instantly overturned and the utter weakness of the NRL in being too scared to kick them straight back out.
It was pretty typical of RL actually, everybody is full of hard talk of letting failed clubs die, then when push comes to shove they all back down. I mean how many times have the Sharks been bailed out when the league supposedly had a "survival of fittest" model? Half a dozen times, maybe more?!
I give them credit, none have changed their rugby league team support. That is more weak than anything, changing teams.
You simply don't know what weakness is if you think that being capable of carrying on after tragedy is weak...
You can put your hypotheticals out there as much as you want, you do not know the Sharks area or its people, they are not like Bears supporters thats for sure.
There're literally hundreds of examples from across the world of how markets react after a beloved sports team folds. There're many examples from RL it's self, roughly half a dozen (depending on how you want to measure it) from the NSWRL/ARL/SL/NRL, and
all of those fanbases and markets reacted to losing their teams in roughly the same way.
So if anybody is playing in hypotheticals it's you with your emotional driven BS.