NRL grand final 2017: Melbourne Storm owners want to be No.1 sporting club in Australia

There’s Melbourne’s “big three”, then Melbourne’s “bigger three”: the men behind the men of the Melbourne Storm who have turned a perennial loss-making NRL club in an AFL town in to a sporting juggernaut.

It is no fluke when some of the sharpest business minds in Melbourne – sports management entrepreneur Bart Campbell, Jayco founder Gerry Ryan and bookmaking guru Matt Tripp – said they wanted the club to wipe its own face five years after taking over the Storm it will achieve just that. Might even turn a small profit next year.

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Yet if Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk are the Storm’s holy trinity, what of the men who have dragged a club back from its salary cap-stricken days to be red-hot premiership favourites against the Cowboys in the grand final on Sunday?

In an era where NRL clubs are slowly moving towards greater private ownership, three faces mostly anonymous this side of the border have provided a perfect blueprint. And they don’t want to stop at that.

“Our next board meeting is to map out our next five-year plan and our goal is to become the No.1 sporting organisation in this country in that period,” CrownBet boss Tripp said.

“I think a lot of clubs in both AFL and NRL could learn from the Storm blueprint, and I’m not just saying that to give ourselves a pat on the back. We tested a lot of theories and I think we have the right model.

“You talk about inroads from where we were five years ago to where we are now, it’s a vastly different organisation. We’re not going to sit on our hands and rest on our laurels. We want a premiership this year to be the first of many.”

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It would cap a remarkable year for the Storm, whose affiliate Super Netball franchise, Sunshine Coast Lightning, won the competition’s inaugural title. Whatever they touch seemingly turns to gold – and it’s no co-incidence.

Yet, it is hardly the bigger three’s most enviable success. They’ve taken a club sniggered at by the NRL’s northern cynics in the wake of its cap rorting ways, uncovered in 2010, and made them one Victorians can boast proudly as their own.

The Storm trumpet the fact they’re the No.1 ticketed club in the NRL. Best game-day experience. Average home crowds have soared. Membership tops the ambitious 20,000 target Campbell, Ryan and Tripp wanted five years ago when they took control of the club. And there’s more to come.

“The salary cap issue was a turning point,” Ryan said. “We stuffed up on the salary cap. [But] what it did to the Victorians was unite them because everyone felt the Storm was wrong done by. At the end of the day your product is football and if you’ve got a good product people want to see it.”

And when the product is being put on by three of the game’s modern greats with Craig Bellamy pulling the strings, it’s not hard to see why the turnstiles are ticking.

Campbell, Ryan and Tripp knowingly keep their hands off Bellamy and Frank Ponissi’s football department, which has lowered its spending in that area in comparison to the NRL’s cash cows and still has a recipe for sustained excellence.

Tripp can’t remember a better man manager than Bellamy, in sport or business. It’s some compliment. But that’s not to say the three owners – New Zealand philanthropist Michael Watt sold his stake earlier this year – haven’t helped formulating a wider strategy.

They claim there has never been an argument in five years about the Storm. Debate? Always. But Smith’s cool head on the field is replicated in the boardroom.

“Unbelievably there has not been one cross word,” Tripp said. “The beauty of it is even though we’re all from different business backgrounds, everyone’s pretty cool and calm when it comes to key decision making.

“The lesson is never take anything for granted. I’m not out there busting a gut, but I feel like I’ve played a game just watching sometimes.

“It’s taken me out of my betting bubble and it’s been a great extra-curricular hobby – and has brought together family and friends and created new friends. I would now consider Bart a lifelong friend, as well as Gerry.

“And there was never any sunset date on an exit [for us]. I’m certainly not in it to get rich. I’m in it because it’s a passion of mine. I’m really enjoying the journey. My mission, and I know it’s Bart’s and Gerry’s as well, is to make it a genuine powerhouse of all the sporting clubs in this country.”

Article source: http://smh.com.au/afl/richmond-tigers/afl-grand-final-2017-tigers-fans-don-temporary-tattoos-and-minimohawks-in-tribute-to-dustin-martin-20170928-gyqoii.html