St George Illawarra have confirmed plans to build a new $50 million home in Wollongong, with the NSW government allocating funds for a new high performance centre at UOW.
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While WIN Stadium has been the primary training base for the joint-venture's NRL and NRLW squads, UOW has a been a regular training base for junior and development teams.
Funding allocated in the NSW government's upcoming budget will see the creation of two full-sized training fields on the old Brandon Park site that was the home of the Wollongong Wolves.
The rest of the set-up that includes a state-of-the-art gym, lecture theatre, media studio and recovery pool facilities is the type of home fast-becoming the norm for NRL clubs.
Penrith's run to NRL benchmark status has largely coincided with the shift of its $22 million Academy digs.
Wests Tigers' own $75 million mega base at Concord is also nearing completion, while Parramatta and Canterbury also confirmed funding for planned $60 million bases at Kellyville and Belmore respectively on Friday.
The Dragons current training and performance facilities at WIN Stadium are bare bones in comparison and club chairman Craig Young said a truly elite facility was "overdue" for the joint-venture.
"If we want to be a top-four club and develop those pathways, which we do, we need the facilities to do that," Young said.
"A lot of clubs have already got these types of facilties and at the moment we haven't. If we want to compete going forward we need to have one.
"We've been working at this for two years and there's been a lot of work go into it up to this point in conjunction with the University. We value that partnership.
"The sports science base is increasing everyday in rugby league and we have to have the facilities to keep pace with that.
"It helps you with your recruitment and retention, your development pathways and it's a must if you want to keep competing."
The 'Community and High Performance Centre' will be the full-time home of the club's NRL squad, while the facility will also be used for various community and UOW education and research programs.
With tentative plans to see the facility completed by the end of 2024, Dragons CEO Ryan Webb said the move reaffirmed the club's commitment to its regions.
"This is the boldest project the Dragons have ever undertaken, and our vision is to build a centre that delivers tremendous value for both our club and community," Webb said.
"With the support of the club's shareholders, this project has progressed over the last year through the design and stakeholder engagement process.
"The next steps involve community engagement activities which will act as an important component to the project's development application which we hope to lodge shortly."
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