It's all speculation, and little bit of fishing... I get that. But let's be fair dinkum.
Do you honestly think a new NRL franchise called the Southern Dragons owned by a Wollongong-based corporation would inherit a majority of the St George fan base?
Quite frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if your hypothetical has already been discussed and perhaps shelved for future reference. I sincerely hope not, because what a betrayal it would be to those supporters who have been here the longest.
May not inherit the entire legacy St George fan base but would take the majority of the current STGI supporter base..
Why do I believe this? A number of reasons, not limited to fan loyalty to the jersey & logo, which has strong pulling power.. Heritage, as you say..
In addition you have a supporter base that is accustomed to having games played down south.. 20 years of the JV means that there is now a generation of fans that have only known the Dragons as a part Wollongong team..
Add to that a further 18 seasons of Steelers and you have close to 40 years of 1st grade footy being played out of the gong.. Half a lifetime for the average punter..
I look at examples in that inferior code where they moved the South Melbourne Bloods to Sydney and the Fitzroy Lions to Brisbane.. Both clubs still have strong support down here, with new generations following family lines of support, even though the teams are based up north..
I even believe that the sharks will still have a strong following in Cronulla after they move them to Perth.. Even people from Bondi still follow the Roosters after they moved all the way from the Eastern Suburbs to Sydney City..
Ideally you don’t want it to happen as it would disenfranchise a number of people, but if such a situation arises, I believe a southern team would keep most of our current fan base..