Fark, that didn't take long.

AFL will use it to push into Western Sydney and the Gold Coast.

They're in for a shock ....

And as for a certain someone spouting off on another thread about there being over 60,000 (60,20icon_cool.gif at Twickenham yesterday for the rugby union match between London Wasps and Bath, you have to ask how much it costs to play there. Saracens for example have had two or three 'vanity' games at Wembley this season and have lost money each time. The break even attendance figure is 60,000 at Wembley and the last game there only attracted 47,106.

lol

Unfortunately, they are yet to crack the 90,000 mark in London...

Where they claim to be some sort of top dog...

Found that so called article from the spitz files. www.smh.com.au/sport/corporate-c ... -tj65.html Quote Corporate creatures will die unloved PETER FITZSIMONS April 24, 2010 Illustration: John Shakespeare So many points, so little time. As it happened, I was in the Victorian capital on Thursday night, at a swish dinner with le tout Melbourne, and was struck by how many people were talking about the Storm debacle. No one. Far from the city as a whole being on fire with it, all I could see from the top floor of the Rialto Towers was a tiny flicker out there in darkness of Melbourne's boondocks, a mere candle in the wind. When I asked the Melburnians about it, one woman responded, hopefully: ''Does this mean they'll go away now?'' If by ''go away'' Madam, you mean ''down the gurgler'', then the answer is yes. The point is that when the Storm do disappear, they will be unmourned. They are a corporate creation, living off corporate largesse as opposed to community passion, and will die by their own corporate malfeasance. I couldn't help but compare their mood with Cronulla, where I happened to be at lunch. The Sharks are in trouble, too, but they have the entire Shire behind them and in terms of sorting out their woes that genuine community support will count for everything. TOO MUCH RED INK Oh, so you don't think the death of the Storm is a certainty? Consider this. Last year, they won their second grand final, in their fourth successive GF appearance - and lost $6 million. They've now been exposed as cheats, with nothing to play for this year, a disgusted fan base and a deeply embarrassed half-owner in News Ltd screaming for the exits of rugby league generally. So you tell me. If the Storm lost $6m in a fantastic year, how much are they going to lose this year and next, and for how much longer will News write that cheque? And what on earth would they get back for their money? With the dawn of financial reality, the Storm must die. TALENT GLUT You know I have to say it. I know I have to say it. Told yers! On October 10, in this space, I wrote: ''Bravo, the Melbourne Storm, and they really did play a cracker game to win the grand final last Sunday evening. One thing, however … on the much-vaunted 'level playing field' provided by the salary cap, how the hell do they do it? As in how does one club have seven Kangaroos, two Kiwis internationals and three Origin players on top of that, all in the one side?'' Now, of course, we know. But is it all that surprising? Surely, it is just one more sign that not only doesn't the salary cap work, but that it never has worked and it never will work. The truth is that whatever artificial restraints you put on market forces, those market forces will always find a way to win in the end. The contention of Brian Waldron that ''all clubs do it'' remains to be proved - though, if so, it will surely be on a lesser scale - but either way, sooner or later the cap has to go. Every other profession in Australia has a minimum wage. It is only sportsmen who are bone-headed enough to have agreed to a collective maximum wage. My pound to your peanut, thus, says that apart from being the death knell of the Storm, this scandal will ultimately see the end of the salary cap. If once the players themselves can launch a class action against the salary cap on the grounds that it is an unreasonable restraint of trade, they will win hands-down and that will be the end of it. And for the record, I have heard a whisper to that effect, that that is exactly what the Storm players themselves are considering. WINDS OF WARIn the beginning there was rugby union, and it was good, and yea, it was great. And then along came rugby league, and yea, verily, it was, whatever else, a better spectacle. And for many and many a'moon league held sway until … rugby went professional and league went crazy. For about six years from 1996, elite rugby was itself suddenly a fantastic spectacle, even as rugby league turned dull by comparison - further hindered by the overwhelming disgust many felt in the wake of the Super League debacle. To anyone that knew anything, it was obvious that league would eventually be domestically exactly what it was internationally - little more than a pimple on a gnat's . But then an unexpected thing happened. As the years passed, league got better and better and ever more spectacular, even as rugby fell away into a shemozzle of collapsed scrums, endless up-and-unders, enough penalty kicks to make your nose bleed and wave upon wave of forwards taking the ball up-field anything up to three inches at a time. People stopped going, and it looked like rugby - incapable of changing its rules - would simply fade into its own dreariness. Until … '" Quote Melbourne Storm. And so, the end. Rugby league is dead in Melbourne and the experiment hasn't worked. The NRL penalty is, among everything else, a mercy killing.'" Quote WHAT THEY SAID Gag doing the rounds yesterday: ''Channel Nine New Series: Set in Melbourne about fraud and corruption. Called - Underbellamy - A tale of two books.'' It doesn't take long, does it? Storm chairman Rob Moodie warning that the club, who played their first game in 1998, was in a dire position: ''We are back at point zero, or even behind the eight-ball in building interest and support for rugby league in Victoria.'' Storm fan Glen Logan when asked about the drama: ''I'll be standing by the club. But these autographs … they're probably worthless now.'' Brian Waldron, the architect of the whole sorry Storm mess: ''There were people on the board who knew about everything that was going on. It's happening everywhere. This is a joke. All clubs do it.'''" There's other BS from this mekin, but don't bore yourself as he's not worth reading or clicking on his link..

Found that so called article from the spitz files. www.smh.com.au/sport/corporate-c ... -tj65.html Quote Corporate creatures will die unloved PETER FITZSIMONS April 24, 2010 Illustration: John Shakespeare So many points, so little time. As it happened, I was in the Victorian capital on Thursday night, at a swish dinner with le tout Melbourne, and was struck by how many people were talking about the Storm debacle. No one. Far from the city as a whole being on fire with it, all I could see from the top floor of the Rialto Towers was a tiny flicker out there in darkness of Melbourne's boondocks, a mere candle in the wind. When I asked the Melburnians about it, one woman responded, hopefully: ''Does this mean they'll go away now?'' If by ''go away'' Madam, you mean ''down the gurgler'', then the answer is yes. The point is that when the Storm do disappear, they will be unmourned. They are a corporate creation, living off corporate largesse as opposed to community passion, and will die by their own corporate malfeasance. I couldn't help but compare their mood with Cronulla, where I happened to be at lunch. The Sharks are in trouble, too, but they have the entire Shire behind them and in terms of sorting out their woes that genuine community support will count for everything. TOO MUCH RED INK Oh, so you don't think the death of the Storm is a certainty? Consider this. Last year, they won their second grand final, in their fourth successive GF appearance - and lost $6 million. They've now been exposed as cheats, with nothing to play for this year, a disgusted fan base and a deeply embarrassed half-owner in News Ltd screaming for the exits of rugby league generally. So you tell me. If the Storm lost $6m in a fantastic year, how much are they going to lose this year and next, and for how much longer will News write that cheque? And what on earth would they get back for their money? With the dawn of financial reality, the Storm must die. TALENT GLUT You know I have to say it. I know I have to say it. Told yers! On October 10, in this space, I wrote: ''Bravo, the Melbourne Storm, and they really did play a cracker game to win the grand final last Sunday evening. One thing, however … on the much-vaunted 'level playing field' provided by the salary cap, how the hell do they do it? As in how does one club have seven Kangaroos, two Kiwis internationals and three Origin players on top of that, all in the one side?'' Now, of course, we know. But is it all that surprising? Surely, it is just one more sign that not only doesn't the salary cap work, but that it never has worked and it never will work. The truth is that whatever artificial restraints you put on market forces, those market forces will always find a way to win in the end. The contention of Brian Waldron that ''all clubs do it'' remains to be proved - though, if so, it will surely be on a lesser scale - but either way, sooner or later the cap has to go. Every other profession in Australia has a minimum wage. It is only sportsmen who are bone-headed enough to have agreed to a collective maximum wage. My pound to your peanut, thus, says that apart from being the death knell of the Storm, this scandal will ultimately see the end of the salary cap. If once the players themselves can launch a class action against the salary cap on the grounds that it is an unreasonable restraint of trade, they will win hands-down and that will be the end of it. And for the record, I have heard a whisper to that effect, that that is exactly what the Storm players themselves are considering. WINDS OF WARIn the beginning there was rugby union, and it was good, and yea, it was great. And then along came rugby league, and yea, verily, it was, whatever else, a better spectacle. And for many and many a'moon league held sway until … rugby went professional and league went crazy. For about six years from 1996, elite rugby was itself suddenly a fantastic spectacle, even as rugby league turned dull by comparison - further hindered by the overwhelming disgust many felt in the wake of the Super League debacle. To anyone that knew anything, it was obvious that league would eventually be domestically exactly what it was internationally - little more than a pimple on a gnat's . But then an unexpected thing happened. As the years passed, league got better and better and ever more spectacular, even as rugby fell away into a shemozzle of collapsed scrums, endless up-and-unders, enough penalty kicks to make your nose bleed and wave upon wave of forwards taking the ball up-field anything up to three inches at a time. People stopped going, and it looked like rugby - incapable of changing its rules - would simply fade into its own dreariness. Until … '" Quote Melbourne Storm. And so, the end. Rugby league is dead in Melbourne and the experiment hasn't worked. The NRL penalty is, among everything else, a mercy killing.'" Quote WHAT THEY SAID Gag doing the rounds yesterday: ''Channel Nine New Series: Set in Melbourne about fraud and corruption. Called - Underbellamy - A tale of two books.'' It doesn't take long, does it? Storm chairman Rob Moodie warning that the club, who played their first game in 1998, was in a dire position: ''We are back at point zero, or even behind the eight-ball in building interest and support for rugby league in Victoria.'' Storm fan Glen Logan when asked about the drama: ''I'll be standing by the club. But these autographs … they're probably worthless now.'' Brian Waldron, the architect of the whole sorry Storm mess: ''There were people on the board who knew about everything that was going on. It's happening everywhere. This is a joke. All clubs do it.'''" There's other BS from this mekin, but don't bore yourself as he's not worth reading or clicking on his link..

The copies of those articles at guttertroll's house are a little sticky...

Sniff, sniff...