In Retail they haven’t been able to merge realms for a number of years now, despite some servers suffering with low populations. Therefore I don’t know if merges will be possible in Classic. My best guess would be that if it’s not possible in Retail, it’s not possible in Classic. However, if they overcome the issues and can do it in Classic then that bodes well for Retail and they might finally get back to doing more merges there too.
I have not seen any information on merges at all but if I do I’ll try to come back and post it.
We are about to get another round of FCM on Classic
Hopefully more people will make the move, but you need to make it sound inviting to entice people over. Doom and gloom threads on the forums will only serve to deter others. There are always pros and cons to moving.