Rugby Union: Waterloo move closer to leaving Blundellsands

Mar 26 2008 by Geoff Lightfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

THE possibility that Waterloo might move from Blundellsands, its home for 125 years, took a further step forward after a meeting of club members held at the clubhouse last Tuesday evening.

A working party will be set up with immediate effect to look into the pros and cons of such a move as well as other matters relating to the club.

It will report to the board who will then put proposals to the membership as a whole.

The meeting was very well attended and discussion lively with arguments both for and against moving to a new site but also, and of equal importance, the future of the Waterloo club as a whole.

Despite a few contrary opinions the general consensus was the first team should remain as a semi-professional outfit, but the club only paying within its means.

The mounting costs of travel, which could rise considerably next season, is an issue which affects all clubs at this level and, despite the RFU looking likely to agree a funding package at least until the relationship between the National One clubs and Premier Rugby, the financial implications of a further campaign in National Two are of immediate concern. However it was emphasised that Waterloo is much more than a first team but a club that is there to serve the community through four seniors teams, women’s and with over 300 hundred youngsters it has one of the best junior sections in the whole of the northwest if not further a field.

Whatever is decided it must in the end be a ‘whole club’ decision.

“We have a great history and that needs to be preserved,” said club president Colin Fisher.

“We realise that we are only the custodians of this heritage and we have a duty to those who went before who built this great club up and also, perhaps more important, to those who come after. We cannot therefore afford to fail in this mission.”