Be interesting to see how many people go to the game on the weekend, or even for the rest of the year.
I can understand what you are saying Duckman, but I think he went to far to the point that he has locked out the supporters from the rest of the year.
The NRL shouldn't be seen as responsible for locking out and disappointing supporters. The administrators of Storm took on that responsibility with each illegal transaction they oversaw.
The NRL realised it would be a complete sham if the Storm beat any team home in 2010. How can you possibly penalise a team for a systemic, deliberate and unhanded manipulation of the salary cap over a 5 year period, and then invite them back into the competition with the list that had been built on corruption!!
The heavy handed approach makes me wonder if there are more to come and the NRL know it and are setting the benchmark.
The level of support for League will be a concern for the NRL in the long term. In my opinion I think the Storm will get some strong support from the diehard fans for the next few weeks, but you have to question what the support is going to be like in the middle of August on a freezing wet and cold night in Melbourne. Are the supporters still going to be behind a club, just going through the motions?
People forget that while Melbourne has been a successful club over the past decade, it has mainly been on-field. The club still only averages crowds of 11,000 to 13,000, despite premiership successes, drawcard players like Slater, and a dominant home ground record. It was heavily subsidised by News Ltd and questions already existed about its viability under the new era of an independant commission. It is hardly what you would call a strong foothold in Victoria.
If this is the amount of ground Rugby League has made in Victoria after 10 years of success, what ground will it lose with, reduced funding, reduced marquee players, reduced on field success and reduced credibility over the next 10 years?
There has always been a question mark over the Storm franchise. While Melbourne has been an "expansion" into another market, it has always been seen as an artifical expansion. How "artifical" will now be fully tested by the grass roots level of support Storm will need over the next 5 years. I'm not prepared to put Melbourne Storm in the same basket as the Western Reds and the Adelaide Rams, and for people like Phil Gould to call for the franchise to be moved to Brisbane are crazy, but the glory days are a long way behind them that's for sure.
Duckman