There's always plenty of purple in the crowd wherever they play, and to be rating so highly in tv audiences when Melbourne audiences are small would suggest they have a broad geographical following outside of the state of Victoria. Some clubs have a much broader geographical following, Souths and Warriors would be 2 others.
Mate they have a small actual fan base that watches them because they like and follow them. Otherwise their actual ratings in their own City and State would be much larger for the week to week games. The main reason for the high ratings is because they are the most consistent and winning team of the last couple of decades so it forces people to watch them more whether they like to or not.
Unfortunately I wish I was wrong and they actually had hundreds of thousands of real glued on supporters but they don't. They have a lot of interstate secondary supporters who like them for varying reasons like QLDers because of the QLDers in the team. But not all that many hard core Storm supporters relative to their success and ratings.
They are still by enlarge a non entity within their own City. I bet you at least 9 out of 10 people couldn't pick out any storm player from a lineup. They would be clueless. That is the reality and until that changes and they actually start to develop kids into juniors, they will remain invisible. People will only know and be truly engaged when you see their little ones wanting to play the game and at the moment every kid aspires to have a Sheridan in his and her hands.
That must change if the Storm and the NRL want to be truly successful in Victoria. Doesn't seem like they do otherwise they would have done the ground work decades ago and not just relied on scouting the best available far and wide. Sure it is a winning model if to an extent, but a very short sighted one. When they lose the freak do whatever it takes cheating coach what will happen then? No base to fall back on. There will be more competition for Qld players then ever once the new franchise is up and running and if NZ also get their shit together, where will their players come from?
So where and what is their long term Victorian strategy? Much easier to grow and keep your own one would have thought. If they worked harder on this while it was sunny the last 15 odd years, maybe I wouldn't be seeing the Storm clouds brewing in the nest 2-3 years. And I guarantee you they are coming. For example where will their engine room forwards come from in a couple of years?
Anyway they and the NRL have made their bed.
