Rugby Southland Supporters Club awaits independent report on clubrooms

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Southland Supporters Club has been removed from its Rugby Park clubrooms because of toxic mould at Rugby Park.

The Rugby Southland Supporters Club is awaiting an independent report which they hope will suggest its clubrooms can be reopened.

The Invercargill City Council, who owns Rugby Park, advised the Supporters Club earlier in the year that it could not return to its clubrooms under the grandstand at the venue.

The decision was made for safety reasons after toxic mould was found because of leaks under the grandstand.

It followed Rugby Southland, which is a separate entity to the Supporters Club, having to move out of its Rugby Park offices in April for the same reason.

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As a result, waterproof paint has been applied to the bleachers directly above the rear wall of the Rugby Southland offices and the Supporters Club.

Council has also indicated that all materials which have been contaminated, including wall linings and carpet, will be required to be removed.

The walls would need to be rebuilt, and the removed materials replaced, council chief executive Clare Hadley stated.

However, Rugby Southland Supporters Club president Tony Rabbitt says the club has engaged a lawyer to work through the situation and they also have a Christchurch-based firm carrying out its own independent tests at the clubrooms.

Rabbitt believes the toxic mould problems, which Rugby Southland has with its offices at Rugby Park, do not extend to the adjacent Supporters Club clubrooms.

He hopes the independent report will be available in the coming weeks which will help provide a different perspective on the situation.

Rabbitt admits it has been a tough Mitre 10 Cup season for the club given they have not been able to use its clubrooms at Rugby Park.

Instead, the club has hosted aftermatch functions at Club Southland.

The Rugby Southland Supporters Club is the second largest rugby supporters club in New Zealand, behind Counties Manukau, but membership numbers had dropped this year on the back of the clubrooms closure.

Rabbitt is confident those numbers will pick back up if they can return to the clubrooms next season.

The Stags final game of the 2019 season is against Bay of Plenty on Thursday night.

For many years the Supporters Club was based in a building at the Elles Rd end of Rugby Park.

However, in 2001, when Rugby Park was upgraded, the Supporters Club moved under the grandstand.

The club spent $180,000 fitting out the clubrooms and signed a 99-year lease with previous owners of Rugby Park, the Southland Outdoor Stadium Trust.

The council took over ownership of Rugby Park in 2016 after the Southland Outdoor Stadium Trust found themselves in a financial hole.