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The Case for Adelaide.....

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8,480
Not to derail the thread, but i reckon Adelaide should be the next locale as the 18th team, rather than Perth, dont get me wrong WA is a great idea, but so far away, if we lock up club no.17 in QLD, we'll pretty much cover all the heartlands then we can slowly spread west to the cities we haven't got any presence, first place is Adelaide, then Perth, then go north to either NT/PNG or NZ2 within the next 30 years, the population is only getting bigger in both SA & WA, makes sense to start in SA before leaping to WA

Agreed.

Biased as I might be, it's the reason I started this thread - Adelaide should be a legitimate option for expansion and it needs to be in the discussions. If only there was more talk in the media about it.
 
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13,937
Says Perth Red,..
V'landy's said no point wasting money, on rusted on AFL states, you can still bid and not waste money and still get a licence, and still play.. V'landy's probably would never have accepted a Melbourne team if we never had the Storm, but having a successful team deep in AFL centric city must make him wet most days, im sure that they have a GOLDEN EAGLE type plan to invade both Adelaide and Perth, but not until brisbane2 starts making money, im not sure we can afford to justify expansion out west without QLD being strong, at the moment its pretty piss weak, only the Titans are gaining any momentum, cowboys are stagnant, and bronx are backwards ass spooners, maroons however we gifted a series, those ref calls at the buzzer were atrocious, still blues should have done better.
And i reckon NRL are doing bucketloads better at the moment with Abdo and Vdog than the past 2 decades of garbage admin.
Melbourne Storm are successful because News Ltd/ARLC spent nearly $100 Million between them to give the team a chance of a) surviving and b) succeeding on field. It's been well reported in the media. News Ltd didn't sign away their 50% stake in the game in 2012 until the ARLC agreed to provide $26.5M in funds to the Storm over the next 6 seasons. Before 2012, it's estimated that News Ltd were sinking an extra $2-4 million per year into the Storm, above what every other club, bar the Broncos, spent on football operations.

When PVL says there's no point wasting money on rusted on AFL states, I have no doubt in my mind he is referring to how much money it cost to a) keep the Storm on the field and b) make a dent in that market. The Storm were gifted the luxury of being created from the remains of the Reds, Mariners and Crushers and were able to pick up more great talent from the Chargers when that club was booted out of the competition. Marcus Bai was a Charger before he was a Storm player. Bellamy came around in 2003 to save the club after they spent a couple of years outside the top 8, with crowds declining down to 9K at the time. They were in a precarious position. Withiout Bellamy and astute recruitment from SE Queensland, namely picking up superstars like Cam Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and Israel Folou, they may very well have folded.

A bit of Googling reveals a Melbourne Storm were in debt to the tune of $100M. It was published by The Courier-Mail, who are owned by News Ltd. The same mob who owned Melbourne Storm from 98-12. I have no doubt they know exactly how much money was sunk into the joint, as they're the ones who funded them.


StormDebt.png

Can anyone on this forum say that Adelaide and Perth will be able to assemble a star-studded roster full of great young talent, just like the Storm did, and be super-competitive from day 1?

Brisbane 2 and Titans will make it much harder for Adelaide, Perth and the Storm to poach players from south-east Queensland.

I cannot see any scenario where teams from Adelaide and Perth will be successful on the field without a significant amount of funding and leg-ups provided to them by the ARLC. No businessman in Adelaide or Perth who likes RL has the funds to do what News Ltd did with the Storm between 98-12.

That rules out Adelaide and Perth getting the 18th, 19th or 20th licence. I'm afraid for the expansionists pushing the Adelaide and Perth wagon, the most likely scenario is the Dolphins and Firehawks are given the 17th and 18th licence over the next 10-15 years.
 
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Would be interesting to see if that new Adelaide rectangular stadium alters the NRL's expansion views. Could be an ace up their sleeve if Adelaide are really keen and want to get the jump on Perth....

If it gets off the ground I can't "not" see Rugby League being brought here for more games than the regular Storm Roosters yearly fixture.

One of the main drivers of the Riverbank West Project is to have one, multipurpose stadium to host the 36ers, Adelaide United, Thunderbirds etc (whos current stadiums are at varying stages of age & quality - even though Hindmarsh is shceduled for a refurb leading into the 2023 WC). These teams play in Summer - so it would look to have winter sport occupation. It would also effectively replace the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for concerts and the like.

It's a crying shame Covid kyboshed sports (and economies this year) - as the Adelaide SOO match scheduled in June would have been the perfect barrow to push this proposal further in the media and in the minds of sporting bodies - primarily the NRL. Instead we got a half-full stadium in November with next to no promotion of the sport & teams in the city due to the FIFO needs, and pretty much a dud game to watch.
 
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13,937
The entrepreneurs who saved Melbourne Storm
John Stensholt
Former Rich Editor
Sep 28, 2017 – 11.00pm

The entrepreneurs who saved Melbourne Storm (afr.com)

Melbourne Storm chairman Bart Campbell calls it the "alliance of the insane".

Campbell laughs when asked why he and his fellow Storm owners would buy a rugby league club located in AFL-mad heartland. But behind the decision is the steely business resolve that has turned the club around and made it one of the most successful NRL teams on and off the field.

On Sunday evening in Sydney, the Storm will be warm favourites to beat the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL grand final.

While the Cowboys, playing without star halfback Johnathan Thurston and co-captain Matt Scott, provide the fairytale, the Storm finished the season as minor premiers, crushed the Brisbane Broncos 30-0 in last week's preliminary final, and their players and coaches won several individual awards this week.

Almost as impressive is how Campbell and his ownership group have the Storm in a position to break even financially next season, given they are in a league in which teams collectively lose tens of millions of dollars each year.

It will be the culmination of a five-year business plan the owners brought with them when they purchased the team from News Corporation in May 2013 for several million dollars and the promise of additional funding for a few years.

The plan was supposed to – and will – end with the Storm in its healthiest ever financial position. And hopefully also with the owners' first premiership win.

Home crowds, including two finals, have averaged about 19,800 this season, second only to the Brisbane Broncos. And Campbell says research shows when the Storm can convince a non-rugby league fan to attend a match, they are 80 per cent likely to come again.

"At the end of year five we wanted to have north of 20,000 members. Now we are 21,000 today. We wanted to continue to be a high-performing team but not spend the most. We have gone from No.1 in football department spending to 5 or 6.

"We have grown revenue across all facets of the business, from membership to sponsorship and so on. And broadly speaking we have met that [five-year] plan."

Campbell, the executive chairman of London-listed sports management group TLA Worldwide, CrownBet chief executive Matthew Tripp and Financial Review Rich List member and Jayco founder Gerry Ryan now own the Storm after another investor, theatre entrepreneur Michael Watt, sold out earlier this year.

"Matt has the data acumen, Gerry has a good marketing brain and is very financially literate and I've got the sports marketing expertise," Campbell says. "So it has come together well.

"While we are a rugby league club, I don't think we are in a traditional sense. If you're a brand, we will be a good custodian of your brand. If you're a fan we will give you a great experience that is good value, and slowly we have made some steps. We're an entertainment brand really."

A month after the Storm had beaten the Canterbury Bulldogs to win the club's last premiership in October 2012, then London-based Campbell was in Melbourne attending that year's Melbourne Cup (coincidentally, Ryan's Americain finished second).

The night before the race, Campbell dined with long-time friend and Storm football manager Frank Ponissi. "Frank picked me up from his hotel room for dinner at Crown and parked the car at the club. Obviously I learnt later the geographical fallacy of doing that as I had to walk [2.3 kilometres] to dinner, but he showed me around ... the world-class facilities and that piqued my interest given it was known News was wanting to sell."

Campbell called News before he flew back to London, only to be told it was close to clinching a deal with another buyer: Ryan. But Ryan was also busy setting up his Orica-Scott professional cycling team. Former Australian international player and one-time Super League and later Melbourne Storm boss John Ribot was to later broker a Christmas-time dinner at trendy restaurant Coda between the duo and Tripp, who has also expressed interest in the Storm.

"I tried to convince them it was not sheer lunacy to progress with this and we formed the alliance of the insane," Campbell says. "We commenced serious due diligence in January 2013 and by May had announced the deal."

The Storm had been born during the Super League upheaval of the mid-1990s, which had split the game in two after News had established a rebel competition that was played at the same time as the then Australian Rugby League in 1997.

Melbourne entered a hastily combined competition the following year under News' ownership, and won the 1999 grand final. But it was losing up to $10 million annually, and was later estimated to have cost News $75 million in 15 years.

All hell was to break lose in April 2010 when it was discovered the Storm had been rorting the salary cap. It was stripped of its 2007 and 2009 premierships, forced to play the 2010 season for no points, fined more than $1.7 million and several executives were sacked.

It was a huge embarrassment and the club was effectively told to stay on the straight and narrow or News would shut it down. News began looking for buyers and while the club's finances started turning around under new CEO Ron Gauci, it was still losing more than $5 million annually by 2013 when the new owners arrived.

Ryan has been involved with the Storm the longest, firstly with his Jayco caravans business as a major sponsor and then as a non-executive director before he and the board were dumped by News in 2010 during the club's worst days.

"The people kept me [involved]," he says. "I think it is the best culture in any organisation, sporting or business, I have seen. The quality of the characters there, from the coach [Craig Bellamy] and Frank to the players. Frank and the football department don't tolerate dickheads. There's just no big heads there."

Tripp says the club, both its management and the players, have learnt plenty of lessons from losing last year's grand final to Cronulla. This year's season decider will be last for star halfback Cooper Cronk, and there will soon be the challenge of replacing ageing superstar captain Cameron Smith and fullback Billy Slater.

Until then, there's the biggest match of the season to win and while Tripp admits he will be a bundle of nerves, he says: "The feeling around the club is now more a feeling of excitement than nervousness, and people are looking forward to it."
 
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8,480
View attachment 44533

Can anyone on this forum say that Adelaide and Perth will be able to assemble a star-studded roster full of great young talent, just like the Storm did, and be super-competitive from day 1?

Brisbane 2 and Titans will make it much harder for Adelaide, Perth and the Storm to poach players from south-east Queensland.

I cannot see any scenario where teams from Adelaide and Perth will be successful on the field without a significant amount of funding and leg-ups provided to them by the ARLC. No businessman in Adelaide or Perth who likes RL has the funds to do what News Ltd did with the Storm between 98-12.

That rules out Adelaide and Perth getting the 18th, 19th or 20th licence. I'm afraid for the expansionists pushing the Adelaide and Perth wagon, the most likely scenario is the Dolphins and Firehawks are given the 17th and 18th licence over the next 10-15 years.

Yep.
Indeed there would need to be financial investment & concessions for an expansion team by the ARLC. But those numbers for the Storm were of a different era, where broadcast deals were minute compared to today - and under management of an era still steaming from the Super League war. With a PVL in-charge, and a clear strategy - such investment & concessions would be nothing like the Storm moneypit.

Competitive from day 1 doesn't infer they can win the comp. But getting a competitive team on the park wouldnt be as big an issue as some might say.

As for where are the player pools to fish in..... there will be a number of them such as

Pacific Islands.
PNG
England
New Zealand


I'm more looking ahead.... thinking that a reborn Rams team wouldn't happen for another 10 years or so. So by this time, with International Rugby League being fostered further (post-covid), systems/structures/strategies in place to identify and develop talent - particularly in the Pacific & PNG - the quality of players will be there in volumes. There could even be investment in Perth juniors to provide pathways to the NRL, linking them to Adelaide potentially as a feeder club... which ultimately could lead to a stronger case for the Reds to come back after that..

The playing talent isn't around at the moment for 18 teams IMO. However with PVL leading the ship, guys like Gus Gould dedicated to looking at pathway development internationally over an extensive period of time... player volume and quality wont be an issue. We are a way off investing in this until the financial disasters of Covid are overcome... but fast forwarding to 2030, I think we could get there.
 
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MugaB

Coach
Messages
13,108
Yep.
Indeed there would need to be financial investment & concessions for an expansion team by the ARLC. But those numbers for the Storm were of a different era, where broadcast deals were minute compared to today - and under management of an era still steaming from the Super League war. With a PVL in-charge, and a clear strategy - such investment & concessions would be nothing like the Storm moneypit.

Competitive from day 1 doesn't infer they can win the comp. But getting a competitive team on the park wouldnt be as big an issue as some might say.

As for where are the player pools to fish in..... there will be a number of them such as

Pacific Islands.
PNG
England
New Zealand


I'm more looking ahead.... thinking that a reborn Rams team wouldn't happen for another 10 years or so. So by this time, with International Rugby League being fostered further (post-covid), systems/structures/strategies in place to identify and develop talent - particularly in the Pacific & PNG - the quality of players will be there in volumes. There could even be investment in Perth juniors to provide pathways to the NRL, linking them to Adelaide potentially as a feeder club... which ultimately could lead to a stronger case for the Reds to come back after that..

The playing talent isn't around at the moment for 18 teams IMO. However with PVL leading the ship, guys like Gus Gould dedicated to looking at pathway development internationally over an extensive period of time... player volume and quality wont be an issue. We are a way off investing in this until the financial disasters of Covid are overcome... but fast forwarding to 2030, I think we could get there.
Player talent is subjective, if penrith couldn't fit matt burton into its top 17 run on squad, consistently then its not about "player talent" its about salary cap management and how to intice fringe players to join YOUR franchise, the better run sides are not all stacked with "talent", they have a few marquee, bulk average, and rookies in depth, what you wont get is a "marquee" signing in the first few years, just a mix of plodders and journeymen.

Al that whilst add in also patience, as no expantion team has ever managed to make finals first year, (barr storm/SL mergers) this won't be replicated ever, and to think that a star studded team in Sa or Wa will be anything but, is jusr fanciful, we need to get it started so that in 5-10 year they could be, and make sure its affordable for the rest of the league to expense to.
 
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Messages
13,937
Yep.
Indeed there would need to be financial investment & concessions for an expansion team by the ARLC. But those numbers for the Storm were of a different era, where broadcast deals were minute compared to today - and under management of an era still steaming from the Super League war. With a PVL in-charge, and a clear strategy - such investment & concessions would be nothing like the Storm moneypit.

Competitive from day 1 doesn't infer they can win the comp. But getting a competitive team on the park wouldnt be as big an issue as some might say.

As for where are the player pools to fish in..... there will be a number of them such as

Pacific Islands.
PNG
England
New Zealand


I'm more looking ahead.... thinking that a reborn Rams team wouldn't happen for another 10 years or so. So by this time, with International Rugby League being fostered further (post-covid), systems/structures/strategies in place to identify and develop talent - particularly in the Pacific & PNG - the quality of players will be there in volumes. There could even be investment in Perth juniors to provide pathways to the NRL, linking them to Adelaide potentially as a feeder club... which ultimately could lead to a stronger case for the Reds to come back after that..

The playing talent isn't around at the moment for 18 teams IMO. However with PVL leading the ship, guys like Gus Gould dedicated to looking at pathway development internationally over an extensive period of time... player volume and quality wont be an issue. We are a way off investing in this until the financial disasters of Covid are overcome... but fast forwarding to 2030, I think we could get there.

It would probably cost $200M to run a team out of Perth.

"The Perth Origin match is a guaranteed financial success but any plans to base an NRL team in the Western Australian capital would involve a significant contribution from the state’s richest man, mining magnate Andrew ‘‘Twiggy’’ Forrest, to supplement any commitment from the WA government.

"Unless Twiggy finds another $200m, a second Brisbane team is ahead of Perth," was the observation of one ARL commissioner."
State of Origin 2019: Perth a success but Brisbane most fertile ground for expansion (smh.com.au)

Cost of living is much more expensive now. The $13M grant would only leave $4M for a Perth side to spend on football operations after players are paid their salary. Where's the other $25M-$35M going to come from?

The club would need to invest heavily in the infrastructure that has made the Storm a powerhouse. It cost News Ltd $100M to build this infrastructure at the Storm before they sold them in 2013. With PVL saying no money will be wasted on Adelaide and Perth, that means private investment would have to provide the cash, up front. Who has that sort of money?

The Pirates don't have anything in regards to infrastructure. They will be leasing a poor stadium and need to build their HQ from scratch. PVL also mentioned the 5 hour plane flight being a burden on player welfare.
 
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8,480
It would probably cost $200M to run a team out of Perth.

"The Perth Origin match is a guaranteed financial success but any plans to base an NRL team in the Western Australian capital would involve a significant contribution from the state’s richest man, mining magnate Andrew ‘‘Twiggy’’ Forrest, to supplement any commitment from the WA government.

"Unless Twiggy finds another $200m, a second Brisbane team is ahead of Perth," was the observation of one ARL commissioner."
State of Origin 2019: Perth a success but Brisbane most fertile ground for expansion (smh.com.au)

Cost of living is much more expensive now. The $13M grant would only leave $4M for a Perth side to spend on football operations after players are paid their salary. Where's the other $25M-$35M going to come from?

Thats a very round number pulled out of the air by an un-named NRL commissioner..

COL is indeed Higher - however of the major cities - Adelaide is the most affordable of them all in spades - especially in terms of housing/property. I'm in a 4BR house 30 mins from the city - and I'd have to pay almost triple to get something of the same quality in Sydney/Melb.

As for where those $ estimates of yours come from... to be determined from any number of investment sources.

The club would need to invest heavily in the infrastructure that has made the Storm a powerhouse. It cost News Ltd $100M to build this infrastructure at the Storm before they sold them in 2013. With PVL saying no money will be wasted on Adelaide and Perth, that means private investment would have to provide the cash, up front. Who has that sort of money?

Simple - Get rid of the Donkeys and move em to Adelaide...

But seriously no doubt the infrastructure will be a necessary investment but that's effectively the same with any new club.. Brisbane, New Zealand, Perth, Adelaide... so anything were would be on a relatively equal footing. Even for Redcliffe - who'd have existing infrastructure to start with, they'd need huge cash injection to get them to "NRL standard".

The Pirates don't have anything in regards to infrastructure. They will be leasing a poor stadium and need to build their HQ from scratch. PVL also mentioned the 5 hour plane flight being a burden on player welfare.

Enter Adelaide... less than a 2hr flight from Sydney... A refurbed stadium on the edge of the CBD, and/or Riverbank West win the CBD.... Much lower cost of living, large number of east coast expats...

It's a no brainer!!

Until your next reply on this thread I'd suggest...
 
Messages
8,480
Player talent is subjective, if penrith couldn't fit matt burton into its top 17 run on squad, consistently then its not about "player talent" its about salary cap management and how to intice fringe players to join YOUR franchise, the better run sides are not all stacked with "talent", they have a few marquee, bulk average, and rookies in depth, what you wont get is a "marquee" signing in the first few years, just a mix of plodders and journeymen.

Al that whilst add in also patience, as no expantion team has ever managed to make finals first year, (barr storm/SL mergers) this won't be replicated ever, and to think that a star studded team in Sa or Wa will be anything but, is jusr fanciful, we need to get it started so that in 5-10 year they could be, and make sure its affordable for the rest of the league to expense to.

Agreed it needs to be sustainable - not a flash in the pan. And I'm not suggesting an expansion team would have immediate "success" - more that there's no reason why they can't be competitive from day 1, with multiple sources players can be "farmed" from. Not just the ones we have now, but we will have in ten or so years time with investment in international pathways.

They cant do what the ARL (and SL) did years ago in plonking teams in new places and letting them sort it out. All wallowing at the bottom of the table for seasons on end. That's investment suicide.

Any new team must have a strong business case & effective strategy to grow and sustain a successful sporting club. To do that the NRL / ARLC need to have strong involvement and input to ensure a club dovetails into the direction of the sport they are aiming for.
 

MugaB

Coach
Messages
13,108
Thats a very round number pulled out of the air by an un-named NRL commissioner..

COL is indeed Higher - however of the major cities - Adelaide is the most affordable of them all in spades - especially in terms of housing/property. I'm in a 4BR house 30 mins from the city - and I'd have to pay almost triple to get something of the same quality in Sydney/Melb.

As for where those $ estimates of yours come from... to be determined from any number of investment sources.



Simple - Get rid of the Donkeys and move em to Adelaide...

But seriously no doubt the infrastructure will be a necessary investment but that's effectively the same with any new club.. Brisbane, New Zealand, Perth, Adelaide... so anything were would be on a relatively equal footing. Even for Redcliffe - who'd have existing infrastructure to start with, they'd need huge cash injection to get them to "NRL standard".



Enter Adelaide... less than a 2hr flight from Sydney... A refurbed stadium on the edge of the CBD, and/or Riverbank West win the CBD.... Much lower cost of living, large number of east coast expats...

It's a no brainer!!

Until your next reply on this thread I'd suggest...
Bring back the Rams?
 
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8,480
Bring back the Rams?

giphy.gif


giphy.gif
 
Messages
13,937
Thats a very round number pulled out of the air by an un-named NRL commissioner..

COL is indeed Higher - however of the major cities - Adelaide is the most affordable of them all in spades - especially in terms of housing/property. I'm in a 4BR house 30 mins from the city - and I'd have to pay almost triple to get something of the same quality in Sydney/Melb.

As for where those $ estimates of yours come from... to be determined from any number of investment sources.



Simple - Get rid of the Donkeys and move em to Adelaide...

But seriously no doubt the infrastructure will be a necessary investment but that's effectively the same with any new club.. Brisbane, New Zealand, Perth, Adelaide... so anything were would be on a relatively equal footing. Even for Redcliffe - who'd have existing infrastructure to start with, they'd need huge cash injection to get them to "NRL standard".



Enter Adelaide... less than a 2hr flight from Sydney... A refurbed stadium on the edge of the CBD, and/or Riverbank West win the CBD.... Much lower cost of living, large number of east coast expats...

It's a no brainer!!

Until your next reply on this thread I'd suggest...
Dolphins have the infrastructure needed to compete in the NRL right now. Firehawks are in the process of bringing their facilities at Langlands Park up to standard. Ipswich is not ready.

I think teams in Adelaide, NZ and Perth can work if they're given assistance, I just cannot see the ARLC agreeing to introduce and fund them. The way the ARLC was set up gives the current clubs and state bodies way too much power on decisions like expansion, and they'll never agree to it as they will view it as a threat.

Relocation might be the only way to get a team in either Adelaide or Perth until the ARLC changes its structure. SA Gov could incentivise a struggling Sydney team to relocate by giving them concessions that will make them more profitable and successful. In return the SA Gov gets 12 NRL games a year, bringing money into the local economy.
 
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mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,632
The entrepreneurs who saved Melbourne Storm
John Stensholt
Former Rich Editor
Sep 28, 2017 – 11.00pm

The entrepreneurs who saved Melbourne Storm (afr.com)

Melbourne Storm chairman Bart Campbell calls it the "alliance of the insane".

Campbell laughs when asked why he and his fellow Storm owners would buy a rugby league club located in AFL-mad heartland. But behind the decision is the steely business resolve that has turned the club around and made it one of the most successful NRL teams on and off the field.

On Sunday evening in Sydney, the Storm will be warm favourites to beat the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL grand final.

While the Cowboys, playing without star halfback Johnathan Thurston and co-captain Matt Scott, provide the fairytale, the Storm finished the season as minor premiers, crushed the Brisbane Broncos 30-0 in last week's preliminary final, and their players and coaches won several individual awards this week.

Almost as impressive is how Campbell and his ownership group have the Storm in a position to break even financially next season, given they are in a league in which teams collectively lose tens of millions of dollars each year.

It will be the culmination of a five-year business plan the owners brought with them when they purchased the team from News Corporation in May 2013 for several million dollars and the promise of additional funding for a few years.

The plan was supposed to – and will – end with the Storm in its healthiest ever financial position. And hopefully also with the owners' first premiership win.

Home crowds, including two finals, have averaged about 19,800 this season, second only to the Brisbane Broncos. And Campbell says research shows when the Storm can convince a non-rugby league fan to attend a match, they are 80 per cent likely to come again.

"At the end of year five we wanted to have north of 20,000 members. Now we are 21,000 today. We wanted to continue to be a high-performing team but not spend the most. We have gone from No.1 in football department spending to 5 or 6.

"We have grown revenue across all facets of the business, from membership to sponsorship and so on. And broadly speaking we have met that [five-year] plan."

Campbell, the executive chairman of London-listed sports management group TLA Worldwide, CrownBet chief executive Matthew Tripp and Financial Review Rich List member and Jayco founder Gerry Ryan now own the Storm after another investor, theatre entrepreneur Michael Watt, sold out earlier this year.

"Matt has the data acumen, Gerry has a good marketing brain and is very financially literate and I've got the sports marketing expertise," Campbell says. "So it has come together well.

"While we are a rugby league club, I don't think we are in a traditional sense. If you're a brand, we will be a good custodian of your brand. If you're a fan we will give you a great experience that is good value, and slowly we have made some steps. We're an entertainment brand really."

A month after the Storm had beaten the Canterbury Bulldogs to win the club's last premiership in October 2012, then London-based Campbell was in Melbourne attending that year's Melbourne Cup (coincidentally, Ryan's Americain finished second).

The night before the race, Campbell dined with long-time friend and Storm football manager Frank Ponissi. "Frank picked me up from his hotel room for dinner at Crown and parked the car at the club. Obviously I learnt later the geographical fallacy of doing that as I had to walk [2.3 kilometres] to dinner, but he showed me around ... the world-class facilities and that piqued my interest given it was known News was wanting to sell."

Campbell called News before he flew back to London, only to be told it was close to clinching a deal with another buyer: Ryan. But Ryan was also busy setting up his Orica-Scott professional cycling team. Former Australian international player and one-time Super League and later Melbourne Storm boss John Ribot was to later broker a Christmas-time dinner at trendy restaurant Coda between the duo and Tripp, who has also expressed interest in the Storm.

"I tried to convince them it was not sheer lunacy to progress with this and we formed the alliance of the insane," Campbell says. "We commenced serious due diligence in January 2013 and by May had announced the deal."

The Storm had been born during the Super League upheaval of the mid-1990s, which had split the game in two after News had established a rebel competition that was played at the same time as the then Australian Rugby League in 1997.

Melbourne entered a hastily combined competition the following year under News' ownership, and won the 1999 grand final. But it was losing up to $10 million annually, and was later estimated to have cost News $75 million in 15 years.

All hell was to break lose in April 2010 when it was discovered the Storm had been rorting the salary cap. It was stripped of its 2007 and 2009 premierships, forced to play the 2010 season for no points, fined more than $1.7 million and several executives were sacked.

It was a huge embarrassment and the club was effectively told to stay on the straight and narrow or News would shut it down. News began looking for buyers and while the club's finances started turning around under new CEO Ron Gauci, it was still losing more than $5 million annually by 2013 when the new owners arrived.

Ryan has been involved with the Storm the longest, firstly with his Jayco caravans business as a major sponsor and then as a non-executive director before he and the board were dumped by News in 2010 during the club's worst days.

"The people kept me [involved]," he says. "I think it is the best culture in any organisation, sporting or business, I have seen. The quality of the characters there, from the coach [Craig Bellamy] and Frank to the players. Frank and the football department don't tolerate dickheads. There's just no big heads there."

Tripp says the club, both its management and the players, have learnt plenty of lessons from losing last year's grand final to Cronulla. This year's season decider will be last for star halfback Cooper Cronk, and there will soon be the challenge of replacing ageing superstar captain Cameron Smith and fullback Billy Slater.

Until then, there's the biggest match of the season to win and while Tripp admits he will be a bundle of nerves, he says: "The feeling around the club is now more a feeling of excitement than nervousness, and people are looking forward to it."

You realise most NRL clubs are "losing" millions and are topped up by their Leagues clubs and or private owners yearly right?
 
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13,937
You realise most NRL clubs are "losing" millions and are topped up by their Leagues clubs and or private owners yearly right?
The difference is they have a guaranteed revenue stream, in the form of Leagues Clubs, to pay back their debts, so they're not really losing money. Storm didn't have that and would have folded in the early 00s without News Ltd sinking $100M into them.

It was borderline criminal and an attack on the integrity of the game how News Ltd were able to do all of this at the Storm while having a 50% stake in the game.

Adelaide and Perth will not be owned by a super rich company that has a 50% stake in the game who can throw hundreds of millions of dollars at them.
 
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Dolphins have the infrastructure needed to compete in the NRL right now. Firehawks are in the process of bringing their facilities at Langlands Park up to standard. Ipswich is not ready.

I think teams in Adelaide, NZ and Perth can work if they're given assistance, I just cannot see the ARLC agreeing to introduce and fund them. The way the ARLC was set up gives the current clubs and state bodies way too much power on decisions like expansion, and they'll never agree to it as they will view it as a threat.

Relocation might be the only way to get a team in either Adelaide or Perth until the ARLC changes its structure. SA Gov could incentivise a struggling Sydney team to relocate by giving them concessions that will make them more profitable and successful. In return the SA Gov gets 12 NRL games a year, bringing money into the local economy.

All good mate, appreciate your view.
 
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In the long run it would be good to have teams in Adelaide and Perth. It could add 100k to 200k viewers to major events like Origin and the GF, which will add value to the broadcast rights.

Indeed mate.

If it does happen, I'll be the first bloke to get a membership, plonk my backside on a grandstand seat for the first game, with a stupid smile on my face to watch the reborn Adelaide Rams run out to play again in the city of churches.

I'll never hand in my Dragons passport but honestly I could not think of anything more I'd love to see in Rugby League.
 
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Indeed mate.

If it does happen, I'll be the first bloke to get a membership, plonk my backside on a grandstand seat for the first game, with a stupid smile on my face to watch the reborn Adelaide Rams run out to play again in the city of churches.

I'll never hand in my Dragons passport but honestly I could not think of anything more I'd love to see in Rugby League.
Adelaide Dragons.
 

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