New Jersey

[Surandy]

Great idea, don't sell jerseys to supporters.

Great way to reduce merchadise sales.

[absentee]

i read a couple of months ago something about redbull being interested in sponsoring the club. i personally think red bull on the front would be pretty cool!!

I imagine Red Bull would just be replacing Mother as a lower level sponsor. You could do much worse than the Red Bull logo on the front of a jersey but I really don't see it happening. They own several soccer clubs around the world so I suppose it's not impossible that they'd want to get in on Australian sport in some capacity - but still, I don't see it happening.

[glennb]

"Great idea, don't sell jerseys to supporters.

Great way to reduce merchadise sales."

I was thinking the same thing. Do these people have any idea how to run a business or are they trying to kill the club.

Call me dumb, doesn't it mean by not selling merchadise you do not make money and if you do not make money, the club does not run.

[LESStar58]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/melbo ... 5993839214

MELBOURNE Storm could start its fightback season without a major sponsor as the club continues to rebuild its commercial credibility. As negotiations for the right deal continued, club chief executive Ron Gauci conceded the team could run on AAMI Park in Round 1 in jerseys devoid of sponsors' logos. And Storm will not make its 2011 strip available for sale to fans until a sponsor is found.

Storm's position in the sponsorship market has changed markedly since last season's salary cap scandal, when several long-term backers withdrew support. Gauci said he had been looking outside the "traditional" sports sponsorship market for backers and, while increasing club revenue remained a priority, he would not settle for a second-rate deal.

"We want to get the right sponsor at the right level for the right term," he said. "We are prepared to take to the field without a sponsor logo if that means taking the time to get it right. "It's no different to what we did with the memberships or anything else. We are building internal systems and all these things take time if you want to get it done correctly the first time, and we are prepared to take that time."

Storm released its 2011 membership packages and slogan "Playing for Everything", a reference to having played last season for no premiership points after being stripped of eligibility.

Gauci said the theme had been endorsed by the coaches and players, and reflected many of the football department's aspirations for the coming season.

Without revealing specific numbers, Gauci said there had been solid interest from would-be 2011 members and the club still hoped to pass its record of 10,360, which was set last year.

What the lima lima lima duck?! It wasn't so long ago that we had Crown wanting to sponsor us! Get your lima lima lima duck act together Ron!

[Ice]

I was thinking the same thing. Do these people have any idea how to run a business or are they trying to kill the club.

Call me dumb, doesn't it mean by not selling merchadise you do not make money and if you do not make money, the club does not run.

It won't kill the club and will run as normal. The only affect it'll have is on News' bottom line where they'll lose even more so there's a silver lining in everything i guess. If we were a "normal" club that wasn't privately owned by clowns worth billions of dollars, having no sponsor this close to the season would be disaterous and the financial losses would severely affect the bottom line but us having no sponsor now won't affect the running of our club whatsoever.

We're still going to have the same team running onto the park, nobody will be sacked or have to take pay cuts, there won't be less money given to the football department to make up the short fall etc Nothing will change whatsoever in that respect so the situtaion isn't anywhere near as bad as what it could/would be if we were other clubs. Sure, i'd love a sponsor and can't wait to see who it'll be but i'm not going to fret over it because it's not really that big a deal IMO.

[Diehard_Storm]

Disagree - not having a sponsor means the club still has not overcome last years scandal in corporate Australia's eyes and is stil a damaging brand.

Gauci needs to work harder to create a perception that's all in the past. Announcing a new major sponsor is an important milestone that we have made a fresh start. The longer it drags on the more damage done.

[Ice]

There's no doubt the brand is still damaged from the scandal and a major sponsor will go a long way to repairing it but that's not what i was questioning. I know it's important to get a backer sooner rather than later and is very important to repair the Storm brand but I was referring to the fact that the club won't die and stop running just because we haven't got a sponsor yet. On field it will be business as usual and the financial side of it in regards to losses incurred by no sponsorship dollars or merchandise sales will be taken up by our esteemed owners. In that way it won't affect us at all which is solely what i was getting at.

[J-Storm]

I agree with Ice. I don't see any of this as a major thing as we are salary-cap legal so we will out there palying football competitively for points. The rest I'm not as worried about. We could run out in pink uniforms with pink ribbons in the players' hair for all I care in that regard. It won't effect the on-field performance...

The only problem I have with it is that like others I believe they have had time to get the sponsor situation done & dusted by now. To me it smacks of pure laziness/arrogance in a way. So whoever it is, Gauci &/or others need a blast for that aspect alone. The 'Storm' brand is far from damaged. They just obviously aren't in a hurry to get things sorted...

[Bourbon Rat]

No 'new' game wear for fans to kick start the season ?
NO PROBLEM !! This is mine for 2011

[sallymay]

i loved that shirt until i relised that it was created by the NRL...so pretty much just stuffing it all back in our faces with what happened last year

[MENACING*STORM]

In the meantime we can put a charity organisation on our jerseys just like Canterbury or FC Barcelona

[estormboy]

I agree with Ice. I don't see any of this as a major thing as we are salary-cap legal so we will out there palying football competitively for points. The rest I'm not as worried about. We could run out in pink uniforms with pink ribbons in the players' hair for all I care in that regard. It won't effect the on-field performance...

The only problem I have with it is that like others I believe they have had time to get the sponsor situation done & dusted by now. To me it smacks of pure laziness/arrogance in a way. So whoever it is, Gauci &/or others need a blast for that aspect alone. The 'Storm' brand is far from damaged. They just obviously aren't in a hurry to get things sorted...

Listen to you lot !!!!!! Why haven't they found a major sponsor; they've had plenty of time in the off season; it smacks of pure laziness/arrogance!!! WTF

As much as you and I would like to imagine and see Sponsors clamouring over one another to get their logos on the front of the Storm jersey, it just aint gonna happen that easily. In case you've forgotten (and I don't see how you could have) we didn't just rort the cap by a small amount - we committed the biggest fraud in Australian sporting history. The Storm brand is damaged as most of you have acknowledged and will take some time to repair. Like it or not, and I hope I'm proven wrong, but a new organisation will not want to associate itself with the Storm until it get's a feel for how they're being received by the greater RL audience - that is, is there still significant anger directed at us, are they sympathetic towards us etc. etc. Unless a sponsor is truly, truly brave ... it will not subject itself to the unknown and risk it's reputation in the short term!

Call me pessimistic, but IMHO, I personally believe we will not get a major sponsor until half way through the season. By then potential sponsor will have gauged general public & member support levels and how the club is tracking performance wise. Even then the sponsorship deal we get will be considerably inferior $ wise to what we've known in the past.

[Tigger]

I agree with Ice. I don't see any of this as a major thing as we are salary-cap legal so we will out there palying football competitively for points. The rest I'm not as worried about. We could run out in pink uniforms with pink ribbons in the players' hair for all I care in that regard. It won't effect the on-field performance...

The only problem I have with it is that like others I believe they have had time to get the sponsor situation done & dusted by now. To me it smacks of pure laziness/arrogance in a way. So whoever it is, Gauci &/or others need a blast for that aspect alone. The 'Storm' brand is far from damaged. They just obviously aren't in a hurry to get things sorted...

Listen to you lot !!!!!! Why haven't they found a major sponsor; they've had plenty of time in the off season; it smacks of pure laziness/arrogance!!! WTF

As much as you and I would like to imagine and see Sponsors clamouring over one another to get their logos on the front of the Storm jersey, it just aint gonna happen that easily. In case you've forgotten (and I don't see how you could have) we didn't just rort the cap by a small amount - we committed the biggest fraud in Australian sporting history. The Storm brand is damaged as most of you have acknowledged and will take some time to repair. Like it or not, and I hope I'm proven wrong, but a new organisation will not want to associate itself with the Storm until it get's a feel for how they're being received by the greater RL audience - that is, is there still significant anger directed at us, are they sympathetic towards us etc. etc. Unless a sponsor is truly, truly brave ... it will not subject itself to the unknown and risk it's reputation in the short term!

Call me pessimistic, but IMHO, I personally believe we will not get a major sponsor until half way through the season. By then potential sponsor will have gauged general public & member support levels and how the club is tracking performance wise. Even then the sponsorship deal we get will be considerably inferior $ wise to what we've known in the past.

[heraldsun1]

Hey estormboy

Go and fuuuck yourself you little kuunt

[Bourbon Rat]

i loved that shirt until i relised that it was created by the NRL...so pretty much just stuffing it all back in our faces with what happened last year

It's actually done by a firm called J G Sports & the only connection to the NRL is the licence they have to buy from them to make/sell merchandise.
They sell to Best & Less.One of the few chains that actually stock Melbourne Storm gear that hasn't got inflated price tags