Melbourne Boycotting Rest of NRL Season 2010?

[ssar]

There's some rumor that the Melbourne Storm Cheats team / team management are considering spitting the dummy and not heading over to New Zealand for this weekend's NRL: round 19 match against the Warriors (5:30pm Sydney time this Saturday).

*Boggle*

It looks like some media beat-up actually going on with some crap about boycotting the rest of the season.

Sounds dodgy.

Oh to be a Storm Cheats supporter.

 

[Dan]

I would say a beat up. The NRL would go after them even more if they were to do that.

 

[fLIP]

If they boycott the rest of the season kick them.

They would clearly be showing they still hold no respect for the laws of our game. The biggest cheating scum team on earth playing innocent and hard done by.

Please remove this digrace of a club. The only way they are advertising NRL to Melbourne now is as a circus. Cut your losses and pull out.

 

[Guest]

I hope they do it.

Bigger reason to get rid of the cheating **** for ever

 

[mosto]

Apparently a caller rang 3AW in Melbourne claiming he'd heard from a 'reliable source' they would boycott the rest of the season.

Sounds like Sherlock has been ringing Melbourne radio stations

 

[ManlyBacker]

Glad I tipped the Warriors this weekend.

 

[clontaago]

I hope they boycott the next 10 seasons.

 

[Av8r]

I'm hoping the big four stay at Melbourne and have to take the field with 9 guys on the minimum wage and get smashed every week for the next few years. I'll enjoy that!!

 

[clontaago]

Ditto

 

[abnc]

Come on all, we have to look at the bigger picture here. Melbourne is one of the most important links in the competition when it comes to revenue like NRL sponsors and tv rights. Without a Melbourne team we will never compete with AFL in regards to TV rights and sponsors and the game we love will be worse for it. Less dollars means less money for juniors and all clubs. Not a good situation at all.

Why do you think they throw big money at Melbourne every year to cover the losses? Because they know how important they are to the overall scheme of things. We need to pull our heads in and stop this over-the-top Melbourne bashing because it is better to have a Melbourne team in the comp then not.

Yes they deserve the punishment and everything else, but at the end of the day we still need them, especially with the TV rights negotiation coming up soon.

 

[Av8r]

Na, I say we keep up with the over-the-top melbourne bashing, they made their bed now they have to lie in it

 

[Dan]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,27414353-5018866,00.html

 

[Matabele]

I reckon they should tell any player who boycotts that they'll not play in the NRL again.  Stuff them - it's time they realised no player of club is bigger than the game.  Latest reports though are that they will not boycott. 

 

[vidmar]

Come on all, we have to look at the bigger picture here. Melbourne is one of the most important links in the competition when it comes to revenue like NRL sponsors and tv rights. Without a Melbourne team we will never compete with AFL in regards to TV rights and sponsors and the game we love will be worse for it. Less dollars means less money for juniors and all clubs. Not a good situation at all.

Why do you think they throw big money at Melbourne every year to cover the losses? Because they know how important they are to the overall scheme of things. We need to pull our heads in and stop this over-the-top Melbourne bashing because it is better to have a Melbourne team in the comp then not.

Yes they deserve the punishment and everything else, but at the end of the day we still need them, especially with the TV rights negotiation coming up soon.

All well and good in in the grand scheme of things you'd be right in the point that the NRL need a strong presence in Victoria.

That said, their average home gate is around 16/17k which is not bad (6th rated as per last weekend for the NRL) but compared to the lowest AFL Melbourne based teams average gate so far in 2010 after 15 rounds (Kangaroos with around 26,700) or amazingly the highest AFL average gate in Melbourne (Magpies with around 54,600 people) they are plainly well behind.

In addition the distinct lack of free to air coverage and negligable exposure in the local press is doing nothing to promote the code or the team.

A wander around the streets of Melboure will let you find all manner of sports stores or supporter shops awash with every type of merchandise that you could stick an AFL club logo on but little or in some cases none for the Storm.

It's well documented they are losing around $6mill a season (plus the latest episode will have a massive impact on that with the loss of ME Bank and Host Plus) and you would have to wonder how long any team/business can afford to carry that loss with little in way of momentum building or support from TV/media?

(an interesting article here re TV ratings and viewer numbers)

http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/06/21/2010-tv-ratings-and-the-magic-billion/

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

14 Million (is what News Ltd will put in next year)

BUT

I can see where they are comig from...to have an NRL (that does stand for National) they have to be at least in the major three states.

So the Storm are here to stay, and to be honest now that they have to "play ball" I quite like that...there's nothing better than a trip to Olympic Park and beating those bastards and now (or should I say in 2011) they will have to do it with the same quality as the other 15 teams and that then means the whole thing will be much fairer.

 

[eagles2win]

14 Million (is what News Ltd will put in next year)

BUT

I can see where they are comig from...to have an NRL (that does stand for National) they have to be at least in the major three states.

So the Storm are here to stay, and to be honest now that they have to \"play ball\" I quite like that...there's nothing better than a trip to Olympic Park and beating those bastards and now (or should I say in 2011) they will have to do it with the same quality as the other 15 teams and that then means the whole thing will be much fairer.

AAMI stadium now Mark

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Yes but it's still at Olympic Park (it's what the area is called)

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

It is a media beat up, but in a way would love it to happen and see some of this mob thrown on the scrapheap along with their scummy club

The Radio Sport guys rang up Steve Kearney earlier to ask him if they will be here and he replied "Come out to the airport tonight and see for yourself"

 

[abnc]

[quote author=abnc link=topic=184091.msg275659#msg275659 date=1279241959]
Come on all, we have to look at the bigger picture here. Melbourne is one of the most important links in the competition when it comes to revenue like NRL sponsors and tv rights. Without a Melbourne team we will never compete with AFL in regards to TV rights and sponsors and the game we love will be worse for it. Less dollars means less money for juniors and all clubs. Not a good situation at all.

Why do you think they throw big money at Melbourne every year to cover the losses? Because they know how important they are to the overall scheme of things. We need to pull our heads in and stop this over-the-top Melbourne bashing because it is better to have a Melbourne team in the comp then not.

Yes they deserve the punishment and everything else, but at the end of the day we still need them, especially with the TV rights negotiation coming up soon.

All well and good in in the grand scheme of things you'd be right in the point that the NRL need a strong presence in Victoria.

That said, their average home gate is around 16/17k which is not bad (6th rated as per last weekend for the NRL) but compared to the lowest AFL Melbourne based teams average gate so far in 2010 after 15 rounds (Kangaroos with around 26,700) or amazingly the highest AFL average gate in Melbourne (Magpies with around 54,600 people) they are plainly well behind.

In addition the distinct lack of free to air coverage and negligable exposure in the local press is doing nothing to promote the code or the team.

A wander around the streets of Melboure will let you find all manner of sports stores or supporter shops awash with every type of merchandise that you could stick an AFL club logo on but little or in some cases none for the Storm.

It's well documented they are losing around $6mill a season (plus the latest episode will have a massive impact on that with the loss of ME Bank and Host Plus) and you would have to wonder how long any team/business can afford to carry that loss with little in way of momentum building or support from TV/media?

(an interesting article here re TV ratings and viewer numbers)

http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/06/21/2010-tv-ratings-and-the-magic-billion/
[/quote]

Well, i think that article says it all. If the networks actually did their job in Melbourne the next TV deal for NRL would be astronomical. Considering the worth of ads in NSW/QLD are more than VIC, i would suggest are price should be significantly higher then AFL. We only seem to struggle with the crowds. But i know the reason for this.

A lot of my friends that support AFL tell me that they would rather watch an NRL game on TV then an AFL game. NRL is made for watching on TV, AFL is made for watching live. The networks and Foxtel aren't stupid, they already know this. And the average ratings prove it.

My point simply is that no matter how much it costs the NRL to keep the Storm, the benefits far far outweigh the cost. The storm will never ever be able to compete with the AFL teams for the gate takings, but if the next tv deal is done in the right way, we will be in a strong position tv wise.

They are here to stay..

 

[mozgrame]

There is no way they just won't turn up to play sides, but imagine the mayhem and congestion they could cause in the lead up to the finals.  For the remainder of the season they face the warriors, panthers, raiders, manly, rabbitohs, sharks, tigers and knights.  It would be interesting to see what would happen if they allowed all these sides put 50 on them.  In a way, they could   control the lead up to the finals.  Their players could make a killing at sportstab.  Not that they would gamble on game results of course.