As preparations are finalised for the Steelers 40-year anniversary next week, are we ready to let another slice of Illawarra history go?
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For WIN Stadium to be a truly world-class venue, there's little choice but for the beachside hill to be redeveloped into a boutique corporate and function facility and grandstand.
There are few greater pleasures in sport and life than shielding your eyes to the sun, while standing on the grass watching the footy.
But international sporting governing bodies only count the number of seats at the ground and while ever the hill remains, Wollongong will continue to lose out on securing the rights to major events.
And there'd be a new charm to having a beer enjoying the waves roll in, before moving to the other side of the room for kick-off, assuming you can afford the ticket.
The ball finally started rolling this week when $3.5 million was put into the NSW Government budget to develop a business case for the WIN Sports and Entertainment Centre precinct.
It came off the back of the announcement of a whopping $50 million commitment, to build a new high performance centre for NRL club St George Illawarra and the University of Wollongong.
This of course ensures the Dragons are committed to Wollongong until your children's grandchildren are old enough to graduate from university themselves.
Rugby league, through the announcements of high performance centres for St George Illawarra, Parramatta and Canterbury, has flexed its financial and political muscle in an election year.
The flipside is the reminder of the ugly recent history for the beautiful game in the Illawarra.
It happens every decade.
Almost 20 years ago, Brandon Park was demolished.
Almost 10 year ago, Labor took a $7.5 million pledge to build a Home of Football at West Dapto to federal election, only to be booted out of office and the plan scrapped.
Now the Dragons new digs are going to be built at - ding, ding, ding! - the old Brandon Park, to allow movement on the WIN Stadium plans.
Throw in the faliure to develop Lysaghts Oval now the home of Illawarra Rugby League club Collegians and missing out on the Port Kembla lease money and soccer remains a second-class citizens in the region.
And this year the La Nina weather patterns have exposed the lack of community facilities in the region, as many sportspeople, particularly young people come to grips with physical and mental health and fitness in this post-COVID world.
Wollongong City Council don't want to build synthetic pitches on the Wolves current training base because it's Aboriginal Land Council land. Shellharbour have come to the table with two proposed synthetic pitches at Myimbarr, but it's still some way before they might be rolled out.
Wollongong Wolves chief executive Strebre Delovski wedged his foot in the door of the Dragons high performance centre meeting room, calling for the A-League aspirants to be included in discussions of development at their spiritual home.
The Wolves do, I repeat, do have investors ready to commit to establishing an A-League club if further expansion is given the green light.
But they'll need the Stingrays and Football South Coast to be willing participants to make it happen.
While the Dragons have 50 million reasons to look to the future, football in the Illawarra needs to learn from the past.
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