The Calm After The Melbourne Storm
When the Melbourne Storm run out for every remaining game this season, the term Storm couldn’t be further from the truth. More like the Melbourne Tumbleweeds.
Everything they need for survival will have likely deserted them. And the question remains: Where to from here?
Every aspect a professional sporting club needs for survival will be gone:
Why would any fans want to turn up and support a club that can’t win any premiership points? Especially a club that has betrayed their fans by leading them to believe they were a genuine team of superstars making sacrifices to stay together and achieve the ultimate.
And why, then, will any sponsors want to stay or get on board. Firstly for the simple fact that no organisation wants to be associated with a cheat. But secondly, if there’s no real interest in their games – if no fans are turning up to watch, and none of their games are covered, there clearly won’t be any value from a marketing perspective.
Next, how will the brand new Bubble Stadium react? They’re left with a tenant that won’t bring anyone through the gate. Where’s the benefit for them if one of their four main teams can’t help pay off the stadium? If anything, they’ll be losing money to keep the Storm on board.
Finally, what will become of their most important resource, the players. On top of repaying their $1.1m in prize-money, and the fine of $500,000, they somehow have to squeeze this list of guns under the cap. Guns that will be expected to put their body on the line all season for no reward. Guns taking pay cuts through no fault of their own. Something will have to give, and the lure of a trade may be impossible for the Storm to refuse.
The timing of the impending arrival of the Melbourne Rebels might be too convenient for rugby lovers in Melbourne looking to get off the Storm bandwagon.
Sure, the punishment handed down by David Gallop this afternoon might seem severe, but the future ramifications for this club would appear to be far, far worse. Indeed, the Storm may have passed altogether.
A sense of calm after the Storm as the reigning premiers fade into obscurity.
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I don’t know if they will be destroyed. There doesn’t appear to have been much movement by fans to stop listing the team as an interest and the team as picked up over 800 fans on their official Facebook page since early April. Sure, some of this is naval gazing of watching a train wreck and inertia of not updating dead accounts… but I’d speculate at some point, they’ll get a bump from people who want to see what happens. The trick will be to keep the new fans that come to watch the LULZ.
I agree that they haven’t taken a hit at all yet. But the real test will probably come when they are forced to squeeze their list under the salary cap. I know the players have said they’ll take a cut to stay together. But with so many opportunities overseas and in other codes, are they all really going to stay and play for so little. Therefore I think the list will be stripped back a little, and I’ll be interested to see if they can maintain on-field success, and the support of big sponsors and fans.
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