So much for building upon the legacy of the nation’s greatest ever sportsman. There will be no tennis balls hit at a proposed £20 million sports centre close to Andy Murray’s hometown of Dunblane, after the cancellation of the tennis star’s project this week.
More than a decade of wrangling, planning system headaches and complaints about development on green belt land conspired to end the ‘legacy’ project, led by Judy Murray. It’s game, set, and match for the naysayers.
The Park of Keir site was meant to have 12 tennis courts, a six-hole golf course and four-star hotel, along with a museum and restaurant.
The idea was to celebrate the significant achievements of Murray and clan at a flagship venue for tennis training and competition. An economic impact assessment found the project would have created around 170 jobs and delivered regional benefits worth almost £5 million.
But this week, the Murray Play Foundation confirmed that it had pulled the plug on the project because of an unpleasant cocktail of planning and financial issues.
The charity pointed to ‘a lengthy and uncertain planning process, and protracted discussions with governing bodies’, along with the impact of surging construction and labour costs.
Murray himself greeted the news on Twitter with a ‘what a surprise’ accompanied by an eye-roll emoji. This sums the situation up well. The decision serves to highlight why he felt forced to move to Spain as a teenager to develop his tennis.
When Murray hung up his racket after hobbling to defeat in the men’s doubles at this summer’s Olympics, he closed the curtain on a truly glittering career. He has two Olympic gold medals, three Grand Slam titles (two at Wimbledon and one at the US Open) and spent 41 weeks on the trot as world number one.
These successes can’t be underplayed in the era of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the top of the game.
