Dubai had plans to build world’s first underwater tennis court costing $2.5 billion

There’s no such thing as extraordinary in Dubai.

From a gigantic 4,000-foot glass pyramid city with no cars, to underwater suites in ultra-luxurious hotels, it’s a city of many world firsts.

However, plans for the world’s first underwater tennis court back in 2015 sadly never came to fruition.

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8+8 Concept Studio’s Krzysztof Kotala envisioned a groundbreaking idea of an underwater tennis complex.

According to Forbes, the complex was to be situated offshore in the Persian Gulf, between the Burj Al Arab and the Palm Jumeirah islands in Dubai.

As well as housing an incredible variety of fish and marine animals, the complex would boast seven tennis courts with a distracting rooftop coral reef.

The part-aquarium, part-sports complex was said to cost $2.5 billion nearly a decade ago.

However, the monumental cost of constructing the tennis complex wasn’t the only hurdle that prevented Kotala’s dream from becoming a reality.

There were obvious concerns like leakage, in addition to ensuring the structure could withstand earthquakes and tsunamis.

With a sizable portion of water and aquatic animals hovering above, there was the complexity of light refraction, too.

Then there was the task of managing to create a stupendous piece of glass that would cover the roof and withstand the water weight.

All in all, these challenges prevented the project from even getting beyond the concept stage.

“There is not an investor but I would like to get interest as I think it is a good idea,” Kotala told Arabian Business in April 2015.

Apparently, the Polish designer even started a website to raise investor awareness, however, it’s now offline.

Plans died down and in spite of Kotala divulging that he was in talks with investors in the United States, nothing took shape.

In other Dubai-related news, an architect wants to build a 550-meter-high ‘Downtown Circle’ around the Burj Khalifa, whilst the city also has plans to construct a $5 billion Moon-shaped resort.