Wimbledon set for expansion
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As the All England Lawn Tennis Club ( AELTC ) awaits a planning decision on its proposed new 39-court development on a golf course adjacent to the worldfamous SW19 home of the Wimbledon Championships , Access spoke to its head of estate development Justin Smith about the vision behind the project
: Christopher Barrett
The All England Lawn Tennis Club ’ s Justin Smith says its ambitious plan to build a new 8,000-seat show court , along with 38 other grass courts , is far more than an opportunity to simply expand the Wimbledon Championships ’ daily capacity from 42,000 to 50,000 . Its aim is to improve the event ’ s broadcast delivery , host the qualifying tournament in SW19 and bring the event ’ s facilities in line with the everimproving standard of the other Grand Slam tennis tournaments .
If successful , the AELTC will build 39 new grass courts on land used by the Wimbledon Park Golf Club . AELTC purchased the freehold for the site from Merton Borough Council in 1993 for £ 5.2 million , it leased it to the golf club on a deal due to expire in 2041 but in 2018 agreed a £ 65m deal to buy out the lease .
Stronger service Central to the plan is the construction of the new 8,000-capacity “ parkland show court ”, which would be roughly half the capacity of Wimbledon ’ s Centre Court and be set within a ring of ancient oaks .
The ability to grow the event ’ s capacity by 8,000 per day will bring Wimbledon closer to the attendance numbers achieved by other Grand Slams such as the Australian Open and US Open . The Australian Open had 812,174 fans at the 2020 event , while at the US Open in 2019 there was a record 737,000 fans . With Wimbledon limited to 42,000 spectators per day , in 2019 its attendance was 500,397 over the 13 days . From 2022 onwards , Wimbledon will be a 14-day event , so the new court would enable it to accommodate up to 112,000 more people per event .
Smith says the motivation for building the court goes well beyond simply increasing the number of attendees and tickets sold : “ It is also about providing a really good experience for guests . Court No . 2 currently doesn ’ t provide the best experience as we have some restrictions in how we can let people in and out of the court .”
If built , the new court will be the third largest behind Centre Court and Court No . 1 . Like the other two , it will have a retractable roof , enabling play to continue whatever the weather .
“ It will mean we can offer a more consistent overall experience for those who are watching the action on TV as well as those who are experiencing it live at the venue ,” says Smith . “ Obviously it means we can have more people arriving at the venue and , yes , that will result in more ticket revenue but the project is more to do with the overall Wimbledon experience and that includes the experience for those who are looking at it on the TV as well as those who actually experience it in real life .”
The plan for the other 38 courts , which will have temporary seating , is to enable the Wimbledon qualifying tournament to be staged in SW19 . It is currently held at the Bank of England Sports Centre ; a vast multisports facility four miles up the road in Roehampton . Last summer , the AELTC struck a 15-year deal to lease the facility from the Bank of England .
Smith says that the hope is that the construction of qualifying courts in Wimbledon Park will be complete by 2026 and they will be in use , once the grass has suitably matured , two years later .
He says , “ These courts will be an extension of a super high-performance machine , they will not be general everyday tennis courts . We need to be able to use them for enhancing grass court tennis , which is what their purpose will be . That might be by linking in with other grass court tennis tournaments from around the world , and bringing people in locally to benefit the grass court season in the UK .”
Playing the opposition Naturally , there has been a lot of public interest in the project . The fact the new courts will be constructed in parkland landscaped by Capability Brown , for the first Earl Spencer in 1768 , is among the reasons the AELTC ’ s planning submission has met with more than 1,200 objections from local people .
The organisation has tried to
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