The Storm will play to win the crowds
Daniel Lane
September 18, 2011
MELBOURNE Storm chief executive Ron Gauci has revealed he advised television executives his club was prepared to play on Saturday afternoons next year if it would help build a stronger audience.
The Storm's offer came after last weekend's ratings showed - at a time when ratings were considered the game's billion-dollar resource - only 86,000 Melburnians tuned in to the live free-to-air telecast of the Storm and Knights qualifying final last Sunday.
Those ratings, which came after Channel Nine decided late in the week to screen the game live, provided extra ammunition for the critics who believe there should be a team in a traditional rugby league area, such as Gosford or Ipswich, ahead of the Victorian capital.
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That's despite the Storm going great guns on the field heading into a Saturday night home preliminary final against the Warriors this week.
Gauci says Melbourne is prepared to do whatever is necessary to build a strong television audience in Melbourne, even if it meant showcasing superstars Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk on league's long-defunct Saturday afternoon timeslot. ''From our perspective we were prepared to work with [Nine and Fox],'' he said. ''One of the slots we discussed was the Saturday and it's something we're prepared to look at. We have an exciting product, we're an exciting club and all we want is support from the broadcasters and the game in general to build up that audience.''
Gauci said one of the greatest drawbacks in developing a free-to-air television audience in AFL-mad Melbourne was not having a consistent timeslot. ''We haven't said the games necessarily need to be live,'' he said. ''But if we could have our games shown in Melbourne at a regular time on a regular basis we'll build up an audience over time.
''[In the case of last weekend] the game was televised with very little announcement of the timeslot. We believe our supporters, and lovers of sports in general, need to know where to find us and when to find us, so they'll get a regular dose of sport at a consistent time.
''We do that, there's no question we'll get a following. I have had a number of conversations with both the broadcasters and said to them the Storm would be quite flexible when we played and when the game was broadcast if it helped develop their television audience.''
NRL chief executive David Gallop said Melbourne remained of strategic importance in selling the game to TV executives. ''Melbourne plays a really important role in the game's blueprint,'' Gallop said.
''More than half the population of Australia lives in New South Wales and Queensland and rugby league dominates there. Melbourne is the second biggest city in the country and there are a lot of people there who love sport and who are prepared to get behind the game.''
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