Around £1 million is needed if plans to create a national curling centre in Kinross are to become a reality.
Despite being given the green light in 2009, work has yet to begin on the new facility.
Since then, the project has suffered a series of setbacks, with a legal issue relating to the proposed site at Market Park resulting in a hold-up spanning 15 months while it was resolved.
An adjacent landowner launched an objection to the development, relating to a stipulation in the 1938 title deeds for the site, decreeing that building work is prohibited on the southern half of the currently vacant plot.
As well as trying to overcome this legal wrangle, members of the Kinross Curling Trust have also had to spend the last two and a half years making a concerted effort to meet their fundraising target of £5 million.
A grant worth £1.5m has already been provisionally offered by sportscotland, while various events and pledges have further boosted the total.
More recently, however, the work of the trust has stalled as the economic climate has deterred potential supporters from investing.
Chairman Bob Tait this week urged organisations and individuals to come forward and back the ambitious project.
”The local curling community has done a fair bit of fundraising already, but we still need more to push ahead,” he said.
”We have been to Perth and Kinross Council to get advice on financial support, as well as getting an independent report on what can be done, but we’ve done almost everything we can.
”We are quite keen to keep curling going in Kinross, but the initial eagerness to have a national curling centre has undoubtedly been dampened by this two-year delay.”
Although the existing facility at the Green Hotel remains the home of Kinross Curling Club the oldest in Scotland, established in 1668 the building is dated and has a ”limited lifespan”.
Built in 1975, most of the rinks and equipment have not been replaced or upgraded in recent years.
Mr Tait said that there were no immediate plans to invest in the venue because of the possibility that it could become defunct within the next two years.
He continued: ”We hope to have it up and running by September 2014, when the curling season begins. This is now at risk because of the problems we are having with fundraising.
”We have already had to change the plans slightly so we can save some money, but we have prepared a business plan and we know what we can afford.
”We also know what the centre is going to be a viable business proposition.”
The current venue boasts a peak ice occupancy of 95%, with around 1,000 curlers from 35 clubs making regular use of it. Apart from the Dewar’s Centre in Perth, there are no other curling rinks in the local authority area.
Mr Tait fears that if Kinross were to lose this opportunity of being home to the national centre, the sport could eventually disappear from the town.