Wollongong could lose the Dragons
- Doust

St George Illawarra CEO Peter Doust admitted that the Dragons' NRL future on the south coast was under threat due the dire financial straits of the club's southern arm.

The Dragons today announced an extension of their deal to play half their games at WIN Stadium, but Wollongong fans have had the quota cut back from seven games to just six next season to bring it in line with the amount of matches played in Sydney.

But the deal will be for 2006 only, with the future of top flight rugby league in the Illawarra dependant on an improvement in the financial standing of the Steelers club and in the facilities at WIN Stadium in Wollongong.

The Steelers club, which entered into a joint venture with the St George Leagues club when St George Illawarra was launched in 1999, has debts in excess of $NZ8.7 million, which will only be exacerbated by the NSW state government's poker machine tax.

While hopeful that the red and whites would continue to play out of Wollongong for many years to come, Doust said there was a chance the Dragons could be lost to the region.

"Well certainly that's a threat, there's no doubt of that," Doust said.

"I wouldn't say its a worse case scenario, it's just a threat to our business that the poker machine tax and the development of facilities down here have become (too much of) a reality for us not to do something.

"We did bring the home semi down here (last weekend) to demonstrate our commitment to the region."

Former Illawarra Steelers chief executive Bob Millward, who is a director with both the Dragons and the Steelers, said the southern arm of the club had to do more to pull its weight.

"The Steelers club has been struggling, the poker machine tax is not going to help it," Millward said.

"We're providing the bulk of the players but they're providing all of the finance at the moment and that's got to change.

"They're (St George Leagues Club) not putting any great pressure on us, but we're just not living up to our responsibilities. We've got to start and pay our way."

Doust said he couldn't see the Steelers club continuing to back the Dragons without a change in the poker machine tax legislation or a change in the way the Steelers generated money.

"It certainly will become impossible in the way we've been doing it," Doust said.

"But at the same time we'll be one of the last licensed club-associated NRL teams standing because of the depth of (financial) reserve that we've got and the quality of the operations.

"We might not be playing against too many other licensed club teams come 2008."

Another issue for the Dragons is the redevelopment of WIN Stadium, with the ageing western grandstand in urgent need of replacement.

Government funding could be hard to attract though, with the Dragons the ground's only regular tennant.

The Dragons' five-year deal to play seven games a years at WIN Stadium, which has now ended, helped shore up government support for the completion of the northern grandstand, but Doust said the Dragons were in no position to do the same again.

"It's a bit like the chicken and the egg situation," Doust said.

"While I can understand people might say 'well if you played your whole twelve games here you might get a big venue', that wouldn't fit the loyalty that we have to our grassroots to the north as well.

"This real issue about this venue is getting multi-discipline use, not just relying on NRL.

"No business model for the (Wollongong Sportsground) Trust will work on six or seven games of NRL."

Trust chairperson Chris Christodoulou said they were looking to increase the use of WIN Stadium, with NSW Waratahs rugby union matches and motorcross some of the other sports set to grace the field.