NRL
St George Illawarra are expected to release the dates of their Wollongong home games next month, even though they are yet to sign off on a new deal to play at WIN Stadium.
While the NRL has placed no obligation on clubs to announce the venues when the dates are released for the first 20 rounds of next year's draw, the Dragons are set to reveal the split between Wollongong and Kogarah.
The Dragons are locked in the final stages of negotiation with Illawarra Venues Authority and WIN Sports Entertainment Centre, but are yet to come to terms on an agreement for 2013.
St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said a resolution was imminent.
"We have been in discussions with the IVA, as part of venues NSW, on a new venue hire agreement for a number of months now and are looking to finalise this as a matter of priority," he said.
IVA and WIN Stadium officials have also claimed there are no major issues preventing the agreement from being finalised.
The NRL is due to release the draw next month. In previous years, the draw has been released incrementally to allow television rights holders Channel Nine and Fox Sports to choose which games they want to show, particularly in the Friday and Monday night and Sunday afternoon timeslots.
However, next year the NRL is moving towards the AFL model, where they will lock in the dates for the first 20 rounds of the season, including the days each club will play.
The NRL this week confirmed the Dragons were under no obligation to release which games will be held at WIN Stadium and WIN Jubilee Oval when the draw is revealed.
But St George Illawarra are poised to allocate their fixtures to their two home grounds next month in a bid to boost their membership numbers.
Doust has previously called for flexibility in hosting games, leaving the door open to take games to bigger venues at ANZ Stadium and Sydney Football Stadium, but yesterday confirmed all fixtures will be played at their Sydney and Wollongong home grounds.
"Due to the upgrades to both WIN Jubilee Oval and WIN Stadium over the past three years, the Dragons have not been able to deliver a balanced season across the two venues and we are committed to making this happen in 2013," Doust said.
"However, it is important that our stakeholders understand that our decision to decline the financial offers to play particular marquee home games at a bigger venue under the ARLC's 'right game right venue' strategy has a commercial impact which we are looking forward to being exceeded by the support of our Red V membership program in 2013."
