A total of six bidders will battle it out for the right to host Scotland's first national performance centre for sport, the Sunday Herald has learned.
Half a dozen local councils and other interested parties met Friday's deadline to submit Stage One bids to play a part in the scheme, which has been granted £25 million of Scottish Government funding to develop a state-of-the-art sports facility along the lines of the new St George's Park complex operated by the Football Association at Burton-upon-Trent.
Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan heads the steering group charged with making the project a reality, while 12 of Scotland's other sports bodies have expressed an interest in being part of the plan.
Although Glasgow City Council took an interest in the early stages of the procedure, Scotland's biggest city and the west coast in general are notable absentees from the bidding going forward.
Instead it was two Tayside bids which were first to go public. Dundee City Council's bid – in partnership with University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee, NHS Tayside, Dundee United Football Club, Dundee Football Club, Dundee College, and Leisure & Culture Dundee – is based around Camperdown Park.
Perth & Kinross Council is working in partnership with former St Johnstone owner Geoff Brown and has set aside a 30-hectare site at Ruthvenfield to the west of the city.
The are four other bidding parties: the University of St Andrews; Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh; a combined bid between Midlothian Council, to the south of the capital, and Buccleuch Property; and a heavyweight approach from Stirling Council and the University of Stirling.
A shortlist will be invited to thrash out the fine print and work up Stage Two applications on March 29. A preferred bidder should be announced by summer 2013 with the facility operational by early 2016.
The facility must include a full-size indoor 3G synthetic pitch for football and other sports, three floodlit outdoor football pitches, a nine-badminton-court sports hall, a state-of-the-art fitness studio, and three or four-star hotel accommodation. But it could also include an indoor beach volleyball hall, and a dojo for martial arts.
"We are pleased with the number and quality of bids received," said Stewart Harris, chief executive of funding body sportscotland. "This multi-sport centre will provide world-class facilities."
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