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Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy overseeas a training session in Melbourne, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Melbourne Storm will play the Parramatta Eels in this weekends NRL Grand Final. AAP Image/Julian Smith
The independent commission is almost upon us – the annual NRL CEO meeting focused on developing a core set of values within the clubs; and the fantastic 2009 NRL season provided growth in TV ratings, crowd figures and memberships. Things seem to be moving in the right direction for rugby league.
Yet there is one question that still troubles rugby league like an itch you just can’t scratch: what to do with the Melbourne Storm?
In their relatively short twelve year existence, the Storm have had incredible success on the field.
Five grand final appearances, with three wins and a regular at finals time, ensure they have been undoubtedly the team of the decade.
The irony is not lost on many Rugby League fans that their own teams, some whom have been in existence since 1908, can not beat a team from the AFL capital of Australia.
While the NRL hierarchy could not have dreamed of such immediate on field success for their expansion team, the success off the field is less flattering.
The Storms crowd figures still hover around 13K, and most people in Melbourne still get confused as to which rugby code – apparently there are two of them – the Storm represents.
To try and calculate how successful the Storm have been, you can try to compare them to the two AFL expansion teams – the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions.
The main ingredient for expansion appears to be time, and the Swans and Lions have been in existence for longer than the Storm; 27 and 22 years respectively.
The AFL must feel pleased with the great inroads these teams have made into rugby league heartlands.
This year, the Swans had average crowds of 30K and an average Sydney free to air TV audience of 86K. The Lions, considering the smaller population of Brisbane, had more success with average crowds of 29K and an average Brisbane free to air TV audience of 90K.
Of course these figures are put into perspective when compared to the accumulative rugby league crowd and TV viewing figures in Sydney and Brisbane, but they represent a considerable lead over the figures that the Storm produce for the NRL in Melbourne.
Worryingly for the NRL, the Storm is reported to record annual losses of $6 million.
Part of the process that allowed rugby league to finally get an independent commission is that News Ltd will sell the Storm and leave the game. However, they will still keep a 66% ownership in the highly profitable Brisbane Broncos.
Storm CEO, Brian Waldron, has been given the task to find private investors to become the new owners of the Storm.
Reports state that part of the transfer of ownership will have News Ltd drip feed about $20 million back into the Storm over the next 5 years.
This will encourage potential buyers for the viability of the Storm in the short term, but leaves no guarantees for the long term.
One change in the Storm’s fortunes will be their move into the new rectangular stadium at the Olympic Park precinct next year.
Leaving the old 1956 Olympic training venue for a state of the art modern stadium will most certainly help, but cautious estimates have predicted that this may only cut the Storms annual losses in half to approx $3 million.
The one area where the Storm must improve to ensure their survival is in free to air television broadcasting.
One of the many examples of how poorly the NRL negotiated its last TV broadcast rights deal is that Channel 9 does not show regular Storm games at prime time in Melbourne.
Conversely ,the AFL have negotiated TV contracts that has forced Channels 7 and 10 to show Swans and Lions games in prime time to Sydney and Brisbane audiences, which has greatly incresed their exposure.
How the curious Melbournian – who may wish to see what all the fuss is about regarding Inglis and Slater – is then expected by the NRL to stay up to watch a midnight Storm broadcast is anyone’s guess.
The fact that the Storms on field success has not been backed by free to air prime time coverage can only been seen as a real opportunity lost by the NRL.
Promisingly for the Storm, on the rare occasion Channel 9 risked a primetime broadcast of a Storm game in Melbourne – as in round 2 against the Broncos – the Storm posted a decent TV audience of 203K.
The next free to air primetime Storm TV broadcast into Melbourne was not until the preliminary final – again against the Broncos – and the Storm posted an audience of 324K. And this on the day of the AFL grand final.
However, only four other Storm games were shown by Channel 9 in Melbourne during the entire NRL season. They were shown outside of prime time and recorded average viewing audiences of just 21K.
How the NRL have still not managed to negotiate a fairer TV deal for the Storm in Melbourne after twelve years is mind boggling.
Worryingly for fans, when David Gallop was asked a question at the annual fan forum in regards to improving the TV situation for the Storm, he answered that the NRL had to be careful to avoid the “Swans / Master Chef situation” where the AFL finds the Swans games in Sydney regularly out rated by an SBS cooking show.
Hopefully, this was nothing more than a little verbal backhand directed at a rival code.
Is the Storm’s future better placed by the NRL setting the immediate goal of free to air primetime Storm games in Melbourne,with an average audiences of 100K – even if they are out rated by Master Chef – or by continuing with midnight games getting average audiences of 21K?
How can the NRL expect the people of Melbourne to get a better understanding and appreciation of rugby league if they never get to see it?
Thankfully the independent commission has stated that the next TV broadcast rights deal will be a priority.
Surely negotiating free to air prime time Storm games into Melbourne will be recognised as one of the main areas for improvement.
With the new HD digital channels such as One HD, 99 and 7 Two now available, this should be a much easier task.
And most interestingly, the fact the NRL has suggested they will join the AFL by implementing a fixed season schedule to coincide with their next TV rights deal suggests that they plan to schedule Storm games so they won’t clash with any AFL fixtures.
Only time will tell how quickly the Storm can become profitable, if at all.
With the introduction of the Super 15 rugby franchise – the Melbourne Rebels – Melbourne will be set to join Sydney and Brisbane by being an increasingly crowded sporting market, represented by all four football codes.
However, if the enduring presence of the Swans and Lions are expansion models to be followed, then it would seem obvious that a decent stadium, prime time free to air coverage and a significant increase in marketing and junior development, obtained from lucrative TV broadcast rights deal,s is how to ensure the growth and survival of the Melbourne Storm.
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