Parents were “devastated’ after hearing that Airborn Academy would be axing one of its programmes
A furious row has broken out after a Liverpool sports centre axed a programme affecting hundreds of children. For the last eight years, Airborne Academy on Boundary Street Vauxhall has held a cheerleading programme attended by girls from ages eight to 18.
However, in a meeting on Monday night (May 12), the academy’s directors told parents of children on the programme that it would be shutting down soon. The news has come just two weeks before half its members are set to travel to an international Cheer competition in Barcelona.
Though the team are still set to participate, parents, who have spent hundreds of pounds to go on the trip, say the news will damage their kids’ preparation. The cheerleading coaches will no longer be needed at the academy when the programme finishes. There was further uproar when Airborn published a link to a fundraiser for a new dance studio on its socials on Monday.
A spokesperson for Airborne however has insisted that, despite its best efforts, the cheerleading group is not sustainable financially and has been run at a loss for years.
They say that the post about the dance studio fundraiser was meant to be published on its socials two weeks ago but it decided to wait until it had some funds to boost the post so it would be seen by more people.
The academy added it wanted to finish the cheerleading programme on a “a positive note” with the tournament but admitted that the news and the post going out on the eve of the tournament was “bad timing” on its part.
Andy Fairclough, 46, from Aigburth, spoke to the ECHO yesterday to say that his daughter Gabriella, 17, is one of several who have been left upset by the news.
Andy said: “The cheer arm of the business has been run down for a while. But it was communicated (on Monday night) that they wanted to dissolve it.
“It was devastating. A lot of the kids were upset. Some of the parents were frustrated and angry. My wife was there. I used to play football. We have a lot of team sports for boys, but for my daughter to be involved in team sports for girls at such an early age, it’s been fantastic.
“The camaraderie that comes from being part of a team and the confidence that these girls have got is great. Some of these girls teams travelled to the US for it.
“My daughter has been in tears. She was up until 12.30am last night. She’s been speaking to her teammates as well who are devastated. She’s worried if they’re going to see each other again.
“It’s heartbreaking. To think they’re going to put a game face on in two weeks and compete at the highest level in Barcelona, it’s just sickening.”
Andy claimed that the academy has received funding from Sport England for the dance studio, but Airborn have insisted this is not the case. It hopes that, if £8,310 is raised for the dance studio, the organisation will match the donation.
When contacted for a response, a spokesperson for Airborn told the ECHO: “We’ve acknowledged the passion, the loyalty and the community that the cheer program has given us. But the long and short of it is that this program isn’t sustainable.
“It needs a certain amount to be sustainable and it’s just not getting that. We have tried our best to salvage all parts of it. We’ve spoken to our coaches.
“We wanted to maybe have a smaller program, but it means it needs to go to a recreational, but no one wants to coach recreationally. We can only offer the cheer program for three days because we also run free running, tumbling, break dancing, we run all sorts.
“It’s not sustainable and we’ve tried everything. We’ve run it for eight years now at a loss. One of the reasons the programme wasn’t sustainable financially is because a lot of the time we were chasing outstanding training fees.
“Unfortunately, we can’t provide a service if fees are not being paid to cover the programme’s operational costs like staff wages and the rent.
“There’s got to be a time when you call it a day. Cheerleading has been a massive part of our heart and soul at the academy and it’s not gone unnoticed. We can see it from the parents’ point of view and it is a shame that post has gone out at the same time.
“We are not in the best of places. We are a struggling sports centre and we need to explore new revenues just to keep the academy going. Last week we were looking at doing yoga classes, but we can’t do that unless we have a dance studio.
“It is a massive shame to the younger athletes. We just want everyone to know that efforts were made to salvage the cheer programme. We looked at every single opportunity.
“We will help people with information towards other clubs. If things pick up, then maybe we can start a new program. We could speak to other people about it, maybe parents who might be interested in running the programme and renting the space out.”
