Careful, or you'll also get blamed on playing the blame game. {XD} On a serious note, I can verify the drought of your club. The drought is genuinely true.
I know you've tried a lot of remedies for your club. I assure you, your efforts aren't forgotten. Otherwise you wouldn't be part of the Elite Four!
The perks on merging clubs is the influence of each others types. Let's say if Psychic, Ghost and Fairies merged into one club the older fans will be introduced to the relatively new type. On the contrary belief on losing identities whatnot, a merge actually gives all three types a unique branding as well as providing wider conversations, uniting different people and so on.
Merging shouldn't only exclusive for your club, there are 18 types of club and they can be merged like 3 types in a club. :)