By Paul Suttor
Illawarra Mercury
9 June, 2005
AN apparent drop in crowd figures at WIN Stadium this season won't help Wollongong Sportsground Trust's bid to keep seven Dragons home games next year.
Despite a healthy attendance of 14,479 for last Saturday's game, the 2005 Wollongong average is still around 400 per match down from last
season.
Dragons chief executive Peter Doust was overjoyed with the higher-than-expected turnout for the 32-18 win over the Warriors, who are traditionally not the biggest drawcards.
Doust said he appreciated the strong support and added that captain Trent Barrett made mention of it when addressing his troops in the dressing-room.
But questions have been raised about whether attendances have actually dropped at the joint venture club's southern venue this year.
It is understood that the number of fans coming through the turnstiles is similar to 2004 but the methods used to calculate the final official figures have come up with different tallies.
Negotiations for a new lease at WIN Stadium between the trust and the Dragons began in March and the latest round of talks was held on Friday.
Neither party is commenting on the progress; however it's a fair bet that next year's split of home games will be 6-6 between Wollongong and Kogarah, with WIN Stadium possibly getting a pre-season trial to make up for the loss of a regular season fixture.
