Storm thank loyal fans with free membership offer

Melbourne Storm CEO Justin Rodski said the club stands to lose "millions of dollars" in revenue next season but were overwhelmed with feedback following their free membership drive on Tuesday.

The defending premiers have offered the ultimate goodwill gesture to ticketed Storm members from Victoria between the 2020 and 2021 seasons with a free membership offer to redeem for next year.

Melbourne's AAMI Park has hosted just five home games in two years with the Storm shifting base to Queensland amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The club released a letter on Tuesday evening to announce "the next season was on us" with ticketed members who live in Victoria to get their 2022 membership free.

The Storm broke through a club record of more than 28,000 members this season while they plan to also accommodate around 3000 members who didn't renew their membership last year.

Rodski said the club had "carefully planned" for the financial loss that will come with the decision.

"The financial support of our members in the last two years has been critical to us being able to continue to operate at the level we have," Rodski said.

"This is a Melbourne Storm initiative and something we believe we can cover and something we as a management team have worked really hard on ensuring we can cover the gap of revenue that we're going to be missing out of.

"We're taking on that challenge. We understand people have been going through various different challenges in their lives – financially and otherwise.

"It's been a tough few years. We sat down as a club, chairman Matt Tripp, and we thought about all the options.

"We thought this was the most appropriate thing for us to do. The message that has come through from the club to the members and people who aren’t even members of the club have been overwhelming for us."

Rodski was hopeful that the current COVID-19 vaccination drive in Victoria would help ensure the Storm and fans were able to return AAMI Park next season, possibly as back-to-back champions.

"It's going to be a massive build-up, really exciting," he said.

"After two years of barely any games, Melbournians love their sport. Melbourne Storm members love coming to AAMI Park, it's an incredible atmosphere.

"Hopefully we've got some form of normality back and with vaccinations and other protocols, we're able to have a full house at AAMI Park in round one."