Steel Saints
Juniors
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W, you are ignoring the fact that Illawarra couldn’t stand alone, they were broke.
They couldn’t even fund a seperate Reserves and U20s team past the first year of the JV and could not contribute their half of the agreed funding arrangement going forward.
Hence after St G financially carrying their burden plus extending them a $6mill loan (at less than market rates) they eventually sold out to WIN.
They were not viable to standalone and unless someone bought them out or paid their bills for them couldn’t survive.
To be fair to the Steelers, they were only in the comp for 17 years. The last four of those years were impacted by Super League, which would've severely dented their bottom line. In relative terms, the Steelers were still a fledgling club. When the 90's hit, they were becoming competitive on the field. By mid 90's, sadly Rupert Murdoch came on the scene.
Sure some clubs progressed faster than others during a duration of 17 years, but it is not enough time to build an asset portfolio and cash reserves.
If the Steelers went to Super League, they may had funding for reserves and under 20's. But the Steelers remained loyal to the ARL much to their own detriment.
Sorry off topic..
I am glad the comp is firing over the last few years with average attendances of around 20k, and maybe push towards 25k one day. Just need to fix the scheduling around origin, and improve a few grounds to help increase attendances.
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