Crawford said the venue's five wooden courts were no longer sufficient to satisfy demand and another two were desperately needed.
The Dunedin Indoors Sports Venues Trust made a request for a $250,000 grant in the Dunedin City Council annual budget but the submission was lost in a close vote during a council meeting yesterday.
Crawford was disappointed with the decision and said the trustees would need to meet to plan the best way forward.
"I know they are all keen for us to have two extra courts so we'll have to look at other avenues to press ahead," he said.
"For the Edgar Centre to maintain its position as one of the leading indoor sports venues in the country we have to find the funds.
"Other centres are getting more wooden floors and we will fall behind them."
Dunedin City Council community life general manager Graeme Hall said discussions would continue and he was hopeful a satisfactory solution would be found.
While the Steel mopped the floor with the Melbourne Vixens at the Lion Foundation Arena on Sunday night, it was Edgar Centre staff who were doing the mopping up earlier in the week.
Following heavy rain, the $10.8 million extension sprung a leak on Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of two women's senior basketball matches.
Saturday club netball was also affected, with games interrupted while rain water was wiped from the court.
Crawford said there has been an ongoing issue with leaks since the Lion Foundation Arena was opened in February 2005.
"There has always been a slight issue with the roof since the arena was built," he acknowledged.
"City Property, our landlords, have been excellent. Mowat's, who are their subcontractor, come out and try and fix things straight away.
"So we can't complain about the attention to it."
Crawford is confident the problem can be corrected, but said when you have four days of heavy rain the moisture tends to find a way through.
"The leaks that affected us were on Tuesday night.
"There were a couple of drips on the court and we had to cancel a couple of senior women's basketball games.
"But it was more a safety issue. It wasn't flooding or anything like that.
"On the Saturday morning, when we had the torrential downpour, it found every little hole.
"But, by lunch time, when it had eased, it was fine."
There were no disruptions to Otago Nuggets' game on Saturday night or the Steel's match on Sunday.
