Potential new Warriors owners singing

If you’ve ever read a fantastical story on April 1 and suddenly clicked, you’d know exactly how I felt when reading the news that a US consortium was poised to buy the Warriors and take them to America.

Except I checked the date on the top of the page and we’re still six weeks away from the that day of year.

So if this story is true, and it appears to be a genuine scoop sourced largely from the mouth of the horse, then alarm bells should be ringing not just in the offices of the NRL, but in every league-loving household in Auckland.

The potential new owners sound, well, bonkers.

Warriors owners and administrators have a short and spectacular history of over-reaching and under-delivering.

Trace a wobbly old line from foundation chief executive Ian Robson’s financial excesses, to Tainui’s singular disaster where their idealistic vision ran smack-bang into the NRL’s corporate realism, to Owen Glenn’s vision of a Marvel Comics-like superclub stacked with super players.

In those madcap traditions follows Richard Fale and his NFL-backed consortium who want to conquer America and make “the championship game in six or seven of the next 10 years”.

Here’s an idea: Try first to win back Auckland.

The Warriors need Auckland; America does not need the Warriors.

The Warriors are a damaged brand in the only town that should really matter to them.

They are stuck in a six-year onfield performance rut and membership is shrinking faster than Fletcher Building’s reserves.

Auckland is where the Warriors’ past, present and future lies.

Any club vision that involves taking games away from the city should be viewed with something between suspicion and disdain.

This is a club that doesn’t need high-profile owners and it doesn’t need high-profile management.

It needs that most difficult of balancing acts: a short-term on-field strategy that will deliver obvious improvement married to a long-term sustainability.

The Warriors came into the competition with all the inherent advantages of a one-team town but many of these advantages have flipped 180 degrees and are now distinct disadvantages.

It has been a long time since the Warriors were the first- or even second-choice destination for the oval-ball talent that comes off the Auckland schools talent train.