I’ll drum up the funds if we get go-ahead
Judy Murray has pledged to look far and wide for the funds to build her tennis academy.
She has stressed that housing is required at Park of Keir to ensure that the sports facilities she is planning will be built debt free.
If planning approval is granted, the leading coach said she is sure that she can access the funds that will deliver the project and keep it accessible to local families.
Judy said:“I would find a way to finance the rest of it. I can’t go to anybody till I have a plan. There’s no point going to people right now.
“I think there will be a number of philanthropists, businesses, sponsors, benefactors. And on the tennis side, the LTA who have quite a big facility budget.”
It is estimated that around £6 million will be raised by the sale of the housing plots, with a similar figure required to complete the ambitious project.
Judy said that she does not want to build a facility for top players– instead focusing on families and beginners – and that she will not make money from the development.
“I would hope that people will understand what it is I am trying to do,”she said.
“I think what I do with Tennis on the Road , my tennis outreach programme, over the last three years would show people that I am working really hard to grow tennis across Scotland.”
The former Fed Cup tennis coach was approached by developers the King Group about putting a facility at Park of Keir – and both parties want to see the project come to fruition.
Judy said:“I paid a company to carry out a site search across most of the Central Belt, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, to see what came up and was available.
“The bottom line for me is that this is an expensive project, and it is an ambitious project, I need somebody to work with me. It wasn’t as simple as someone saying we have got a site, then it is all about tennis not working on its own and needing to work with other sites and other people.
“Duncan King (board member of the Auchterarder-based King Group and owner of the Park of Keir site) was the only person I spoke to who when I explained to him my philosophy of it, he completely got it and wanted to work with me to try to make it happen.”