Melbourne Storm breach worse than first thought

King, there are plenty that believe that the Storm has a massive future in the NRL. Just ask the NRL and News Limited for starters. Tell us who is going to fund this team if it was to be re-located to Perth... No one has come up with a business plan yet that says that going to Perth will be successful. I have my doubts but see the massive potential. It will be Melbourne mark II though with a massive need for corporate backing until this becomes profitable. Probably take 10years minimum to be self sustainable. Melbourne is now starting to see the fruits of a long and hard road in a non rugby league state. You have no common sense if you think the league is going to drop them. Out of all clubs in the NRL (excluding Brisbane and NZ) this team has the most potential for massive revenue. It is not a matter of if the Storm will rival Brisbane it is when. As stated above, with the right investment and support from the league, this will be sooner than people think. Why do you think the Victorian government has got behind this team and helped build them a new stadium. It has nothing to do with the massive interest in Origin, Tests and Club games which have been played in bleak city has it...... :) Go take a pill and have a lie down. The Storm will live on and prosper. You don't need to worry for them. They will be fine. If I were you I would worry about how the Rebels will survive in a very competitive market. Maybe they should close down and save themselves the hassle and relocate to Adelaide or Darwin. I hear they are crying out for a rugby team to support.... not! :)

The game has learnt from the past...the Storm arent going anywhere, the juniors are just around the corner - the game wont axe them and lose these juniors

..cities who will appreciate it. Like Who, Perth? Ipswich, Logan, Redcliffe, Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Mackay, Cairns would all appreciate an NRL team more than Perth, and that is just cities in Queensland.

You do realise they have not played 1 game at olympic park this season KOTGG's? That means they were getting these bigger crowds at the Dome before their stadium opened in April. Another fail for you, what's the next excuse? Matter of fact, for them to be averaging this number still after all that has gone on says to me you should start eating your words now. Is you day time job a goal post mover by chance? Also KOTGG's, the olympic park ground for RL only held around 15k because of the screen, so 12k in that is not bad, better than most RU/RL clubs world wide.

This season crowds do not count. they were inflated by a new stadium, games at dockalnds, and an initial surege after there cheating was found out. i was referring to there 2009 crowds. heres the link. http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/2009.html if they can average 16K in 2011 then i will eat my words. the fact is- they wont. lets end the nightmare that has been the Melbourne storm and grow RL into cities who will appreciate it.

King of the GG's, he didn't lie, the Storm are averaging 16,731 this season and at one stage before the cap scandal, they were averaging over 22,000 after 4 games. We can see what you want and it looks quite pathetic really, if you want the Storm to move so it opens up any market for Union, you're sadly mistaken, as I said before, stop taking us for fools. Now here's the damn link to Rob. C's so called lies, pot, kettle blab blah blah.. http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/2010.html Stop trolling for goodness sake.

Yeah, fair enough, they need a clean-out, like they are doing. They have just sacked all the board. Look, the Storm might be alot of things, but as a brand, they are now recognised throughout the country. You dont throw away a strong brand. Rugby league is making inroads into Melbourne, they have there under 20's also to worry about, plus junior comps. They are backed by news. News are backing them 100%. Its play money to news, maybe they have bigger plans for the Storm. The storm is a great brand, my dad loves them. If i say anything bad about them, he goes off his head. They have 12 thousand loyal supporters, this will only grow in time. I will be buying him a away membership next year, he wants a new cap.

Rob C, Your lies continue......... 15K- try 12K. stop picking random figures out of the air. A supporter base to rival Brisbane- sure Rob. That is not going to happen. i dont think you could find one reasonable person who actually believes that. face the facts- the storm are a spent entity. the corruption runs deep- players, coaches, head office. the only way for the NRL to rid itself of the parasite known as the Melbourne Storm is to kick them out of the comp or relocate them to perth. people over here in the west are crying out for a RL team, and it annoys us that a city that does not care or support RL get a team which has bred arrogance, violence and corruption. I for one will not be upset when the Storm meets its inevitable end. Oikee, as discussed before, i am not coming from a Melbourne Rebels perpective. i beleive that it would be best for the Rebels if the storm is still around. it will help both rugby codes. however, my moral compass tell me that the storm are rotten and are required to be removed forever from the NRL.

Just watched the entire press announcement on-line. Hardly a vindication and more like a total whitewash by a compromised and corrupt News Limited.

I think he wants a free run for the rebels.

I have re-cut this from an earlier posting because you still haven't addressed my question as to why you are still preaching about why Melbourne should be re-located.... "Can you please provide an argument as to why Melbourne should be relocated. Everything about Melbourne being in the NRL (excluding the salary cap rort) is positive. Consider this: Rugby league never had a presence in Melbourne before the Storm (unlike Perth). Starting from a base of zero, they now have a reasonably good and ever improving domestic league, a strong SG ball side, a NSW Cup team and a NYC Premiership winning team. Not to mention the fact that they average over 15k a game which is better than the crowd in Perth for the one off just recently and most sides in the NRL. The majority of promotional work done in Vic is funded by the Storm. The ARL does not provide large amounts to development to this market (I am sure this is SL driven) and the Storm dip into their reserves to drive this bottom up development. This is why the Storm has had considerable losses over past years. If we exclude the additional football and promotional costs the club is doing well. In fact the club itself has just recorded a reasonable profit for the year. Melbourne currently has over 9k ticketed members which is better than all of the western suburb heartland clubs (exc Bulldogs). They have no leagues Club to prop them up and run a very smart business in my opinion. The final and most important note is that Melbourne has one of the strongest brands in the NRL and Australian sport. They are a very valuable commodity to the NRL and attract large TV viewing numbers when they play. If the NRL gets its act together and sorts out the free to air issues in Melbourne than in 5 years time I believe Melbourne will have a spectator base to rival the Brisbane Broncos (not speculating either when you consider their success to date with very little support from the league). Everything is there to gain from pushing Melbourne harder. As for Perth, it will be a success no doubt. I do think it will have its own hurdles to overcome mainly logistical (costs involved) and the level of established competition within its market. So please stop rubbishing the Storm. Without them the NRL would not have anywhere near the current revenues that it currently generates from its game. Clubs like Melbourne, Warriors, Broncos and other future non NRL expansion areas like Perth, Adelaide, PNG and NZ South Island are where league will significantly drive tv viewing numbers and commercial returns. Other areas like CC and CQLD may not have a large uptake in tv viewing numbers but will help drive commercial revenue through solidifying core markets and building / re-establishing rivalries within those markets (limiting the ability of other codes to gain a strong hold)".

as ive been espousing for the last 18 months- mlebourne storm MUST be relocated to Perth. They have outlived there usefullness in Melbourne and will surely crumble withing 12 months.

If Chairman Moodie genuinely didn't know that this rorting was going on, then shouldn't he resign for being an utterly incompetent Chairman? There has been plenty of Storm talk about sticking together, but it looks like 10 blokes are getting chopped so the 'big four' can stay together. The big guys might claim to be loyal, but spare a thought for the guys on the chopping block.

Possibly, but if they were banned, then the Super League would be hard pressed to play them as they seem to have reciprocal agreements to stop banned players from shifting competitions. I don't know how binding they might be but it would cause a bit of a stink I would guess.

The conspiracy theorist amongst us might think that the Storm may have well done their own audit... But aren't willing to release the results. Like I said it would only be the conspiracy theorists....

Yes a joke, and i mention this at least once a week, sometimes more. Until the game gets rid of these fossils running the game, and you see how hard they fight, QRL, they are even prepared to fight our own code in order to hang onto the past. Its 2010, we have now got spacecraft landing on Mars, as yet rugby league has not advanced past QLD and NSW.

They dont necessarily need to shed players to remain under the cap, they just need to 'shift' the payments across forthcoming years - just as the Dragons have done to fit Gasnier in this year. Theoretically, why can't the "big 4" all play for vertially nothing next year (a significant drain on caps funds gone!) and then pick up the slack over subsequent years as the Storm shuffles their roster. They only need lose another topliner via natural attrition and suddenly there's plenty of moola to go into the mix. It made me laugh on the news tonight when Weidler reported that David Gallop was prepared to consider the option players took pay cuts next year to stay at Storm. Isn't Gallop merely the administrator of a "competition" (NRL) .. how the hell could he, or anyone for that matter, restrain what a particular player earns. Helloooo, restraint of trade!! The whole NRL setup is a joke!!

Why is it the players responsibility to adhere to the salary cap? Isn't it the responsibility of the Club to manage this. I personally couldn't care less what a player was receiving. At the end of the day it is the Club's responsibility to ensure that their accounts are in order. All the players have to do is play football. If anybody tells me that they would knock a boat back or whatever if it was offered to them then you are seriously in denial. I don't see players going around to their clubs demanding that they see verification of their contract payments within the clubs submitted salary cap before committing to a club. No club currently does this! All this ganging up on the players is a joke and it is getting old. Lets move on... If anyone has an issue than take it up with the football club not the players. Afterall, they pay the bills and have the duty of care to make sure their books are in order!!!!

That is most of the league given genuine third party agreements are cap exempt and there is an allowance for related third parties

Why do you care Redb, you can't stand the team or the code, anything you say in regards to RL and the Storm should not be listened too, thanks for trying to start a code war as usual.