Simon Briggs (The Telegraph, 27 January 2025) noting the 1.1million attendance at this year’s “sprawling” Australian Open, suggests that Wimbledon “desperately needs to catch up”. He claims that “the All England Club is being left behind”.
This is not the full story. Melbourne’s attendance figures, from a significantly larger site, may double those in SW19 but they offer a very different event where Tennis, albeit the main attraction, is part of a major entertainment programme. Wimbledon’s focus is on Tennis, the only Grand Slam played on grass where the emphasis on tradition and "Tennis in an English Garden" rightly celebrates that difference. Is that why Wimbledon continues to attract the biggest TV audience (and its associated revenues) of all the Grand Slams?
Simon Briggs criticises the campaigners who are opposing the AELTC’s expansion plans for saying that as tennis’s oldest tournament and the only grass-court major, Wimbledon’s future is assured without the need for expansion.” He suggests: “that’s because they don’t work in tennis.” He is right that it has been a core point of the campaigners’ opposition case that the AELTC have failed to establish that there is a need for the expansion proposed. He is also right that those who work in tennis are well placed to understand the challenges of competition between the Grand Slams.
And Save Wimbledon Park does have someone ‘in tennis’ because we have been fortunate enough to have as a key spokesman tennis master planner Richard Rees RIBA, the design team leader at BDP for the AELTC’s 1992-1997 Long Term plan, their New Number 1 Court, and Henman Hill; he was also consultant tennis architect for the Tennis Centres at four Olympic games. His credentials are set out on pages 5 and 6 of his submission to the GLA on 16th January 2024. In the paper, Richard Rees made a very clear case that “need” for the expansion, which Simon Briggs is effectively endorsing on the AELTC’s behalf, has not been shown.
In this impressive paper, Rees offers a detailed analysis and comparison of the courts and stadia at every Grand Slam venue, and of tournament play and players’ requirements. Below are some highlights from this paper addressing Simon Briggs’ comments, with Richard Rees’ quoted words in italics:
1. The unique status of Wimbledon as the only grass court Grand Slam:
“Wimbledon has no real rivals as a summer grass court tournament. It is crucial for the pattern of different surfaces provided by the four Grand Slams to give players a fully mixed season on different surfaces.”
2. The justification adopted by other Grand Slams for their expansion approach and extensive facilities reflect pressures which do not apply to Wimbledon
“The US and Australia Grand Slam sites are much more subject to pressure from potential hard-court rivals in the Middle East and elsewhere. The French Open, which is played on clay, is under pressure from rival and more extensive facilities in Madrid.”
3. Response of players to Wimbledon
“As the historic home of tennis, Wimbledon is beloved of all tennis players as they want to be part of its rich history, and it will remain the pinnacle of a player’s ambition to win the Championships for the foreseeable future. Players will put up with a lot to be in SW19 although they don’t have to as they are generally treated like royalty.”
4. AELTC expansion proposals are excessive
The expansion will deliver over twice the number of courts of all the other Grand Slams. But even allowing for vulnerability of the grass surface, the total number of courts overall and the allocation of courts for the Qualifying event and in addition for practice is excessive especially when "All the new courts are being developed in a listed park and MOL”. [The AELTC's justification] "is based on inflated requirements which none of the other three Grand Slams will ever match as they have reached the limits of their site developments. Also, would 71 grass courts be economically manageable in the long term?"
Save Wimbledon Park Ltd is a private company limited by guarantee, registered in England with Company Number 16071431. Registered Office 2 Putney Hill, London SW15 6AB
