Memberships at Marion Tennis Club double since Council’s shocking bulldoze vote

A tennis club destined for demolition has aced its statement to stay alive – with memberships doubling since the council’s bulldoze plans were announced.

A tennis club destined for demolition has made a massive statement in their bid to stay alive as membership double.

It comes more than a month since Marion council held a behind-closed-doors meeting where they voted to bulldoze the 90-year-old Marion Tennis Club to make way for a new five-court basketball centre.

Club president Kym Morgan said there will now be eight Marion Tennis Club teams participating in the Tennis SA winter competition this season, and is confident that membership could double yet again ahead of the summer season.

Kym Morgan, top right, was recently informed by council of plans to demolish the 90-year-old club to re-zone community sporting land for commercial use. Picture: Matt Turner

“We’ve seen an amazing response from the community and our social and junior programs have exploded. Overall, we now have 112 members – this has more than doubled since the news about our future being uncertain broke,” Mr Morgan said.

“I’m confident we can get to 16 teams by summer.

“It has been amazing to see the community rally around us the way they have. The other night we had three people just walk into the club on a Monday night and have a hit. They loved the feel of the place so much they have all joined as social members and have brought some friends along.

“The club is buzzing at the moment. I’m really confident that with the friendly, welcoming and inclusive atmosphere we have created, we can retain the vast majority of our new members and continue to grow.”

New members include 21 players, who joined as part of a partnership with the Nepalese Tennis Club of Australia – Adelaide.

They started their own club about five years ago but didn’t have a facility to call home – until they found the Marion Tennis Club.

Now, six play with the club’s competition teams while the rest joined as social members.

Nepalese players Jagendra Khadka, Balu Bhandari, Umesh Budhathoki, Resham Gurung and Vesh Thapa with children Aarya Bhandari and Aaryush Khadka at the Marion Tennis Club. Picture: Matt Turner

New member Balu Bhandari, 37, has been playing tennis for about 10 years and said he and his friends recently joined the club to “be fit” and “hang together”.

“We just wanted to be together, we just wanted to hang together,” Mr Bhandari said.

“They (the club) are very welcoming and very happy. My friends are so, so happy to be there.

“Sometimes we bring our children to the tennis club and they can play inside the club house which is very good – I was very happy about that.

“The Marion Tennis Club is very important, not only for their existing members but for us and all the other cultural backgrounds as well. It’s very important as well for us to grow together.”

In addition to the Nepalese players, the club has also welcomed groups of Colombian, Indian and Chinese players – with Mr Morgan noting the “excellent blueprint for how sporting clubs should engage with their communities”.

“Our youngest member is 4 and our oldest member is 82, and we have so many people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. They are a beautiful group of people.” he said.

“We remain very much in limbo though. One of the challenges we’ve got is we don’t have a guaranteed home for all of the next summer season.

“To chief executive of Marion council Tony Harrison’s credit, we had a good conversation this week. I believe he recognises the value of the club to the community (and) council is expressing a willingness to work with the club so I take them at their word.

“(The club) is getting people from all backgrounds and age groups to do a physical activity – I think that’s just such a valuable asset to the community. I would hope that council will recognise this value and work with us to ensure the club has a strong future.”