A request for funds by the local rugby club to complete a detailed design of a rugby centre has been deferred by town council and is now destined to be one of the first items before the new parks and recreation board.

The Bow Valley Rugby Club (BVRC) has its eye on developing a 16-acre site on the edge of town and sought $17,500 to help prepare a detailed design. It has recently completed a geotechnical assessment of the site that determined it is suitable.

BVRC secretary Jason Lowe, backed by a large delegation, presented an overview of the club and their aim to establish a rugby centre on the corner of Tower Trail and Rolling Range Drive. Estimated to cost $4.5 million to complete all phases of the project, it would include two game fields, a practice field, clubhouse and parking. It would be developed in stages and would initially include two playing fields and gravel parking lot.

The club is quickly outgrowing its Mitford Park home and will be competing in Calgary's Premiere Division due to its dominance of Tier 2 play in recent years. To do so, they need the regulatory approval of its rugby pitches and require changing facilities, currently unavailable at Mitford Park. The club is working with Rugby Alberta and wants to show they have a plan going forward to resolve facilities deficiencies.

The land they are pursuing is owned by the town and should it proceed would be leased to the club on a similar basis to the arrangement with the Cochrane Rangers Soccer Club.

Council recognized the need for better rugby facilities but were reluctant to give the funds in advance of the creation of the new parks and recreation board.

Making the pitches multi-purpose was discussed as was the possibility of considering developing on land the town is currently in the processing of annexing from Rocky View County north of Heritage Hills and possibly working in partnership with other sporting organizations on such things as the clubhouse to help share costs.

Council will be selecting the members of the new board in the near future.

BVRC has come a long way since it was formed by 11 people in 2005. It had 107 registered players in 2012 and in 2017 had a total of 328 registered players in its winter and summer programs. That number doesn't include students involved in their high school programs. It has extensive youth programming that starts at U7 and last season saw the creation of its first U18 team. They have two men's teams and one women's team. A key to making the sport inclusive is keeping registration fees under $200, a principle they adopted in 2011.

The Bow Valley club was named the second best rugby club in Alberta following its 2017 season and what a year it was. The Tier 2 Men's Grizzlies team was provincial champions and their U17 team was the Southern Alberta Champions as was their 7s team. They have had several players on southern Alberta teams, tri-provincial teams and one player was on Canada's U18 team.