Cronulla have pledged “full support of the Southern Expansion bid” including allowing a Southern Expansion side, if successful, to play “a number” of home matches at Southern Cross Group Stadium.

The 22,000 seater rectangular stadium would be made available to Southern Expansion’s prospective A-League and W-League sides. Southern has also arranged to play some of its matches at Jubilee Oval in Kogorah. 

Bid Chairman and former New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma, said the partnership was part of the bid attracting support at the grassroots level.

“The Southern Expansion Steering Group is thrilled that one of our NRL neighbours, the Cronulla Sharks, are fully supporting our bid to deliver professional football to Southern Region,” Iemma said.

“We are focused on grassroots engagement with our local community and this MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) means we can work with the Sharks in order to best-utilise the Stadium and provide our local fans and visitors, with a complete match-day experience when they come to watch Southern.”

The news comes weeks after Southern Expansion named a similar partnership with a technology brand, aimed at modernising A-League ticket and merchandise sales.

If successful, Southern would become the fifth A-League club based in NSW.