Why failure to build on Sir Andy Murray's legacy will cost Scotland dear

When Judy Murray first announced plans for a major purpose-built tennis facility near Dunblane, her youngest son was at the peak of his powers. Less than a year earlier, he had ended Britain's 76-year wait for a male Grand Slam singles champion with an epic victory over Novak Djokovic in the US Open final, and in the weeks that would follow, he would secure his first Wimbledon triumph and an Olympic gold medal. 

Eleven years on, Sir Andy is slipping into his baffies, while the centre that was envisaged as both a fitting legacy to his storied career, and a catalyst to encourage others to follow in his footsteps, is dead in the water. Perhaps in years to come, other nations around the world will look to Scotland for a world-class example of how to squander a gift-wrapped opportunity. 

Given how long the development remained mired in planning purgatory, the Murray Play Foundation’s announcement that it has scrapped plans for the £20 million tennis centre at Park of Keir is not entirely surprising. In order to raise capital funding, the charity, which counts Ms Murray among its trustees, also wanted to build a hotel and 19 luxury homes. This, added to the fact that the entire scheme was earmarked for greenbelt land, proved insurmountable. 

Record high club membership

Regardless of your opinion on that project, it seems to me incredible that the duty of building a state-of-the-art complex should fall upon a charity, and collapse because of a lack of funding options. Its demise belies the wholly insufficient efforts by authorities in Scotland to capitalise on the success of Sir Andy. 

As things stand, the afterglow of his storied career is still being felt. Club membership levels in Scotland reached a record high of 78,618 last year, and there is growing participation among adults and children. That momentum, however, will be harder to maintain without a homegrown star. The Murray effect is real, but it is not indefinite. If not maintained, it is not just the prospects of Scotland producing another top level player that will be impacted, but the wider health benefits.

Sir Andy Murray’s effect on participation in tennis is real, but it is not indefinite | Getty Images

An expensive game

Key to this is the provision of all-year-round facilities. In a north European nation that has just endured one of the wettest Augusts on record, it remains almost incomprehensible that there are so few indoor courts. Tennis Scotland, sportscotland and the Lawn Tennis Association are delivering the Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis Fund, which is committing £15m over ten years to develop new facilities. 

In isolation, that is a not-insignificant sum, but when you consider that the six-court Oriam Indoor Tennis Centre at Heriot-Watt University, which was officially opened earlier this year to much fanfare, cost the princely sum of £4.5m, it shows that pot will only stretch so far.

And even if the number of covered courts can be ramped up significantly – an unlikely scenario given the state of the public purse – it is just as important to ensure they are affordable. Want to hire an indoor court at Craiglockhart Leisure and Tennis Centre, which is run by a council-funded arms-length organisation? A ‘casual’ hour-long visit will set you back £30.

This is not how to grow tennis, and it is certainly not how to sow the seeds for future generations of champions.