Storm confident of a return to profitability

So confident were the Storm’s owners about the club’s business plan this year they had budgeted for a multi-million-dollar profit.

Melbourne Storm owners Tom Carroll, Bart Campbell and new chairman Matt Tripp

So confident were the Melbourne Storm’s owners about the club’s off-field business plan this year that they had budgeted for something rare in rugby league: a multimillion-dollar profit.

The group, who outgoing chairman Bart Campbell once dubbed the “alliance of the insane” for buying an NRL club in AFL’s heartland, had doubled membership, increased sponsorship and found other vital sources of non-football revenue in recent years to put the Storm on a better financial footing that almost all other longer-established rugby league clubs.

But then the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, throwing their plans for 2020 and the NRL season in general into disarray.

Instead, incoming Storm chairman Matthew Tripp and his four other shareholders have tipped “several million dollars” into the club in recent weeks and kept paying their staff at least part of their wages during the shutdown.

While some staff were stood down, most have been paid 50 per cent of their wages for two months, rising to 75 per cent this month and then back to full pay in June.

“We’ve got a good team of people here and an outstanding executive led by (chief executive) Dave Donaghy. We wanted to look after these people and while it has meant we’ve all had to dig into our pockets for an extra several million dollars, so be it,” said Tripp, who assumes the chairman role from Campbell on Friday.

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The date also has significance, being exactly seven years since Tripp, Campbell, caravan magnate Gerry Ryan and former part-owner Michael Watt took over a club that had plenty of success on the field but was losing $7m annually.

Tripp, Campbell and Ryan brought in two new investors earlier this year in Jet Couriers owner Brett Ralph and Tom Carroll, a former executive alongside Tripp at bookmaker BetEasy.

The Storm’s annual revenue is usually more than $30m, but the prospect of no crowds, and especially no corporate hospitality guests, will cut income this year. Tripp said the Storm has had to work hard to service existing sponsors and ensure as few members as possible have asked for refunds.

But Tripp, the former BetEasy boss and part-owner, said the club is well positioned to get back to that profitable status once some sort of normality returns to sport, given the club has doubled membership in five years and invested in data and content management systems. “We were pretty strong leading into COVID-19 and I think any club or business that was, should be better positioned to emerge in a stronger position than others on the other side of this.”

Although Tripp backs ARLC chairman Peter V’landys’ move to cut costs he says clubs need more say in the game’s strategic future — potentially including a structure where the league is run separately from the governing body in a partnership.

“ There’s also got to be a better alignment between the clubs and the NRL and there’s some very talented people in clubland who could have a greater say in how things are run,” said Tripp.