Scotland has failed Andy Murray

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.

Creating a legacy in Scotland for this national sporting hero shouldn’t be difficult. Spain has the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre. Belgium has the Kim Clijsters Tennis Academy. Apparently, it’s a step too far for Scotland to have an Andy Murray facility. Why?

Our convoluted planning system is much to blame. The original planning proposal was rejected by Stirling Council back in 2015 because housing development plans, key to funding the sports facilities, were determined to be incompatible with green belt policies. Despite adjusted plans slashing the number of properties from 100 to 19, criticism remained fierce. Never afraid to take the opportunity for some political posturing, Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell complained about the horrors of ‘an exclusive luxury housing development’ as part of ‘an inaccessible private sports centre’. After Scottish ministers overturned the council’s decision in 2021, 22 planning conditions were attached to the proposal, covering issues from hotel room number limits to badger protection plans. 

Local concerns about green belt development are certainly understandable. Those upset about urban sprawl, and an increase in traffic and noise, are by no means necessarily reprobate Nimbys. Justified fears about the loss of natural beauty in Perthshire should, of course, not be dismissed out of hand. 

Still, important projects need to be built somewhere. Fundamentally, the cancellation represents a peculiar lack of ambition. 

Some perspective is needed here. Murray is no longer just a simple Dunblane boy, but a global sport superstar who has put Scottish tennis on the map. The construction of a landmark sports facility, helping to inspire the next generation of players, is completely appropriate. Sure, we could just slap a new name on some existing nearby facilities (Stirling University is home to the National Tennis Academy) but is that really the best we can do?

Tennis matriarch Judy Murray is right on this one. The plans were supported by both the tennis authorities – the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) offered £5 million towards it – and luminaries of the sport such as Billie Jean King. This wasn’t some sort of family vanity project.

So, the question now remains – where is the next Murray coming from? Tennis in Scotland isn’t doing that badly in terms of participation in the aftermath of the pandemic. According to the LTA, 324,000 adults played in the year to August 2023, the best result since 2017. But all the active leading British players, from Jack Draper to Katie Boulter, hail from south of the border, other than exceptions such as Andy’s doubles expert brother Jamie and wheelchair maestro Gordon Reid. 

If Scotland, and indeed Britain, wants to produce more world-leading tennis stars then the Park of Keir project is the sort of thing that needs to get off the ground. Otherwise, the next Andy Murray may never appear.