They've never had a losing season (i.e. lost more games they have won) in the entire time Bellyache has been there, including the year they ran last.
And they still can't fill out a modern 30K stadium or produce and quality juniors. Epic fail if you ask me as far as progressing the game down there.
Look at the Swans. 30K+ crowds often and when they were playing at the Olympic Stadium over 40K and as far as juniors and participation go they have been killing it compared to the Storms abysmal record.
My fear is that once Bellyache retires and the Storm have the inevitable decline and stop being semi final and GF mainstays they will quickly lose any standing they have in that city and have no relevance whatsoever. They barely do now ffs!
Juniors and crowds at home games is where it's at. That is the true barometer of how well a club or sport is followed. Fickle TV fans that will only tune in to whoever is winning at the time means nothing in regards to the underlying strength of a club or sport.
Swan supporters turn up every home game and kids are plying that abomination in enough substantial numbers in both NSW and QLD to be producing AFL standard players. Bellyache and Storm have almost no Victorian NRL standard players at all and the handful that they have given a jersey to over the years have all been either Maoris or Pacific Islanders which means that they didn't have to convert them to our game at all.
No as great and enviable as the Storm have been from their beginning at the NRL level of things, nothing that they have done underneath that suggests that it will continue long term once the master coach is gone. I still get a sense that if the Storm were to vanish tomorrow almost no one in Melbourne(except a hardy 15-20K supporters) would even notice or care. If you can't capture the kids then you don't have true long term support that can take you into the future and grow.
The future is the children and especially the girls and mothers too. The boys will always follow.
Oh and if anyone wants to bring up the often touted massive supporter base of 1.2m, the most in the NRL, yeah sure and if they asked me which Rugby Union team do I follow my answer would be the Wallabies, but I haven't watched a game in over 15 years probably longer and couldn't careless if they played or ceased to exist really. So I bet the same applies to the Storm. Loyalty to their State and or City is what is driving that answer not actual support or real passion and love of the team like rusted on fans have.