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WIN TV 50% Dragons/Illawarra

colly

Juniors
Messages
1,015
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au...-means-for-wolves-a-league-and-the-illawarra/
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Kings of the hill: Dragons fans at WIN Stadium this year. Picture: Adam McLean


Rewind 18 months and – in a wide-rainging interview – Bruce Gordon delivers emphatic support for a Wollongong A-League team.

Not so much in the blank cheque book sense, but certainly that the region could support one and he could be involved. And Gordon rarely talks publicly, so his words carry significant weight.

"We are very happy to support something … an A-League team,” he said in an interview with colleague Greg Ellis in February, 2017.

“That will happen sooner or later. Probably sooner more than later."

Read more: ‘A larrikin, life of the party’- Dragons great Matt Cooper pays tribute to former teammate

This week, WIN Corporation ended the long-running saga over the Dragons ownership by buying the Steelers 50 per cent share.

The figure is in the ballpark of $10 million, of which $5.8m was repaid to the NRL, as a final loan repayment.

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Playing to WIN: Bruce and Andrew Gordon. Picture: Greg Totman

Bruce’s son Andrew, already serving as a Dragons director, will take over the as the club chairman.

Andrew Lancaster and Craig Osborne, on the Wolves steering committee, sit in the board room as WIN representatives and the announcement is a victory for rugby league in the Illawarra.

Read more: A-League expansion debate heats up

As much as it maintains the status quo of a 50-50 split of games with Kogarah, the situation was far less certain in Steelers territory just months beforehand.

WIN had walked away from the table, the St George Leagues had shown its interest in buying out the share, while another party also loomed on the distant horizon.

It will be denied, but the other offers on the table were far less supportive of the Illawarra’s cause and long-term future at the NRL table.

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Net gains: Wolves forward Peter Simonoski in the NPL. Picture: Adam McLean

“Illawarra were in serious trouble, it had to be saved and I don’t say that lightly at all,” a high-level source told this column. “It could have been very different.”

The doubt around the Dragons deal came because of the debt involved and the confidentiality agreements between the interested parties, the St George Illawarra establishment and the NRL Commission. The Illawarra end were cap-in-hand.

But now with WIN officially onboard, the Dragons have form in making life difficult for the Wolves, who have been second-class citizens ever since leaving Brandon Park, now occupied by the University of Wollongong innovation campus, then bottled the Lysaghts Oval development, now Collegians Sports Centre.

The Wolves have been extremely quiet about the A-League bid since chief executive Chris Papakosmas was sacked.

The unification of the two south-western Sydney bids has changed the whole A-League expansion dynamic.

The south-western bid has all the momentum, if a NSW bid is to gain approval, with Southern Expansion and Wolves languishing, assuming an announcement goes ahead at all, given FFA’s governance troubles.
 

Front-Rower

First Grade
Messages
5,297
To start it off Win Tv should start 'covering ' NSW cup games WHICH should be played before the 4 pm Sunday game

They probably can not due to them being affilated with Channel 10 now and rights are with Channel 9.
 

Diesel

Coach
Messages
19,918
Slightly OT, but 9/Gem/GO should be showing lower grade games on Sundays as well as the Sat arvo games
 

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