By James Steel
On a wet Thursday night in the Merton Borough Council chamber, ten local councillors held the fate of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in their hands. Before these individuals were the long awaited expansion plans for the AELTC, plans that would see the Championships extend well beyond its current boundaries along with the building of a showcourt that would replace Court 2 as the third largest show court in the grounds.
The meeting started at 7.15pm and ran on for nearly 5 hrs until the vote took place. For hours, councillors discussed and asked questions on a range of topics to do with the planning application. Topics included the need for the numbers of new courts being asked for, the building materials to be used to build the new player houses and show courts, how many trees will be cut down for the development, and what will be planted in their place, and finally, how the biodiversity with be improved due to work in the parkland area and the Wimbledon lake. After all that and as the clock struck midnight, the committee voted. Six voted in favor, four voted against. With this one vote a major obstacle was finally overcome for the AELTC, the expansion can finally get underway.
So what are the plans?
The expansion plans are incredibly ambitious. So ambitious, in fact, that Sally Bolton (CEO of the Club) stated that this is the biggest sporting transformation project in London since the 2012 Olympics. The club seeks to extend the Championships site over Church Road and into the Wimbledon Park adjacent. With this expansion, the major bit of infrastructure visitors will notice will be the creation of the Parkview Show Court. This show court will hold a capacity of 8,000 seats, and will probably have a retractable roof (AELTC are still not fully committing to this yet but it’s an aim for them).
Why Parkview show court is important is mainly down to the placement of the whole site compared to the other three Grand Slams. Wimbledon’s third court (Court 2) has a capacity of around 4,000 spectators and although the court is a wonderful stadium to be in, it’s overshadowed by the John Cain areas at the Australian Open (Capacity 10,300), Grandstand at the US Open (Capacity 8,125) and Court Simone Mathieu at the French Open (Capacity 5,000). The building of Parkview show court as the third court for the Championships would see an equaling with US Open Grandstand in this list and bizarrely an overtaking of the Australian Open’s second court, Margaret Court (Capacity 7,500).
The next major development on site would be the creation of 38 grass courts. Of these, eight grass courts will be designated for players to practice on. Some will be match courts with banked seating along the side of the courts and a minimum of seven courts made available to members of the public so that grass court tennis can be made accessible to as many people as possible. Because of these increased courts, it means Wimbledon can finally bring qualifying onsite for the first time.
Currently, Wimbledon holds a lease agreement with the LTA National Tennis Centre in Roehampton to hold qualifying. Wimbledon is the only one of the four grand slams that hold qualifying off site due currently to the conditions of the grass courts and the strain an extra week of professional tennis action would have on the Wimbledon grass. Holding qualifying at the championships opens up many more opportunities for the club to bring in more visitors to the venue and possibly host more events over the weekend before the Championships begin.
There are other elements to the development as well, there will be the creation of two new player buildings. One in the northern part of the new site and one in the south (which will be themed around a boathouse). There will be accessible walkways, toilets and doors throughout (although not fully everywhere in the Parkview show court) and the lake will be redesigned to flow through a major chunk of the park.
It is incredibly important for the Championships to keep up with the other grand slams. Looking to Australia a couple years ago, they opened a fifth show court with the KIA Arena [3] along with plans in 2024 to open a courtside bar next to court 6 which will allow 400 spectors the ability to sit at a bar, order food and drink and watch some of the world’s best tennis player play. This will be coupled with a redesigned Garden Square, which will give a shaded area for fans to sit and watch tennis on a big screen [4].
At the French Open a couple years ago, they opened a new third show court at Roland Garros. Court Simone Matheiu was designed like the greenhouses of the botanical gardens the court surrounds [5]. This will be joined by the completion of the roofing of Suzanne Lenglen [6], which will see a second court in Roland Garros getting a cover if it starts raining during the grand slam.
The US Open also developed in the recent past with the building of the new Louis Armstrong Arena, a second court that could rival Rod Laver, Philippe Chatrier and Centre Court in terms of capacity [7].
Keeping up with the other Grand Slams is key. Wimbledon is unique in the tennis world, it is the one Grand Slam touted above all other by players and fans alike. Many of the general public know more about Wimbledon than anything else in tennis. For the sake of keeping this going, these plans will be vital to ensuring this. There are more roads ahead, Wandsworth Borough Council and the Mayor of London will also need to sign off with the plans and so let’s see how the following development unfolds over the coming years.
References
[1] London | Wimbledon expansion plans under fire | Tennis Threads Magazine
[2] Wimbledon Qualifying at Roehampton • A Tennis 10sBalls Extravaganza – 10sBalls.com • TennisBalls.com
[3] Melbourne Park’s stunning Kia Arena opens – Coliseum (coliseum-online.com)
[4] AO Courtside Bar and Finals Festival to reach new heights at AO 2024 | AO (ausopen.com)
[5] Insider’s guide to Court Simonne-Mathieu – Roland-Garros – The 2023 Roland-Garros Tournament official site (rolandgarros.com)
[6] Roland-Garros 2024: A retractable roof on Court Suzanne-Lenglen – Roland-Garros – The 2023 Roland-Garros Tournament official site (rolandgarros.com)
[7] New Louis Armstrong Stadium officially opened – Official Site of the 2023 US Open Tennis Championships – A USTA Event
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