National Rugby League side Melbourne Storm "is set to become the first privately owned sports club in the country to sell shares to its fans," using a model similar to the one used by the NFL Green Bay Packers, according to John Stensholt of THE AUSTRALIAN. Investment bank Greenhill was appointed by the club to "explore selling a slice of the club to fans" as early as this offseason, in the belief that "having thousands of fans owning the team would put it in safer hands than being solely reliant on its three business-identity owners." Based on other recent transactions of NRL clubs, any move to sell a minority stake of the Storm to fans could value the club at close to A$30M ($21.4M). The ASX-listed Brisbane Broncos, with about 67% of its shares held by News Corp, is the most valuable NRL club, with a market capitalization of A$50M ($35.6M). But Storm Chair Bart Campbell said that the Storm’s "potential fan ownership would differ, given it would give fans and owners a stake." Campbell: "We want to take advantage of the power of a larger network. Today, we have three shareholders. Imagine what 30,000 shareholders could unlock. If done well, it could provide the club with a competitive advantage over our peers in professional sport." The Storm "are likely to sell only a minority stake to fans unless demand is overwhelming," but it would still be the first Australian sports club to do so, though A-League teams such as Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers "have explored the option." Campbell said that the club was on "solid financial footing" -- it is among eight NRL clubs to "at least break even" in '18 after the renegotiation of the club funding model that now delivers each team about A$13M ($9.25M) in central funding annually -- and "had doubled its membership to about 25,000 in five years" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/3).
