Wimbledon seeks advantage in quest to expand prestigious site

The All England Lawn Tennis Club hopes to overcome local opposition and gain formal approval this summer to add dozens of extra courts and a new 8,000-seat arena for use during the Wimbledon Championships. 

Under the AELTC’s ambitious plan, it wishes to create 39 new grass courts and a 23-acre public park on the site of an old golf course, across the road from the club’s existing grounds. It also intends to de-silt the lake that sits between the golf course and Wimbledon Park, build a new boardwalk around the lake, and carry out various smaller upgrades to the area. 

All of this would allow the AELTC to increase daily attendance during the Championships from 42,000 to 50,000. But, by developing more than 70 acres of land next to the current 42 acre site, the club believes there will be less overcrowding during the two-week tournament. In addition, the expansion would enable qualifying rounds, which currently take place 3 miles away at the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton, and practice sessions to move onsite — lengthening the event, as well as giving more spectators the chance to watch star players warming up.

“We could be having some of the best players in the world practising here,” says Jamie Baker, the AELTC’s tournament director. “For us, it’s a complete game changer.”

Ninety per cent of the profit from the Wimbledon Championships goes to the Lawn Tennis Association to fund tennis activities across the UK. Last year, the LTA received £48.8mn from the AELTC after the tournament achieved record revenues of £380mn.

The AELTC believes that expanding the facilities that deliver the Wimbledon Championships is vital to help the oldest — and most prestigious — Grand Slam maintain its place as the pinnacle of global tennis. 

“We recognise that, whilst we hold this position at the top of the sport, we can’t be complacent about that”, says Sally Bolton, chief executive of the AELTC. “The scheme, from the outset, was always balanced across two things: safeguarding the future of the Championships; and giving back to the community.” 

Aside from the new park, which will include a community centre and children’s play area, a small number of the additional courts would be open to the public, once the Championships have finished. 

Last year’s total attendance of 530,000, was a record for Wimbledon, but remains far below that of other big tennis tournaments, which are able to let in more people over a longer period.

The Australian Open set a new record for a Grand Slam with more than 1.1mn people attending earlier this year. That topped the previous record set by the US Open in 2023, which attracted more than 950,000 spectators.

The AELTC’s plans have been approved by Merton council but were rejected by neighbouring Wandsworth — the two local authorities share responsibility for Wimbledon Park, which adjoins the site and hosts the famous “queue” of tennis fans who line up for on-the-day access to the Championships. 

Now, they are being considered by the Mayor of London’s office. Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, had previously expressed his support for the redevelopment, so he has opted to delegate the decision to deputy mayor Jules Pipes. A verdict will now come some time this summer, after the deadline for lodging objections passed in mid-June. 

However, there will have been staunch local opposition to the plans. Campaign group Save Wimbledon Park has accused the AELTC of trying to create an “industrial tennis complex” that takes up too much space and delivers too little in return to the local community. More than 19,000 people signed a petition calling for the plans to be blocked. 

We could be having some of the best players in the world practising here . . . For us, it’s a complete game changer

“The proposal is inappropriate and gross overdevelopment”, SWP said in a statement in June calling on the Mayor of London to reject the plans. Those opposing the expansion plans had the support of the local MPs prior to the UK election: Conservative Stephen Hammond and Labour’s Fleur Anderson. In a joint opinion piece published in the Evening Standard earlier this year, the pair said the development plan was “simply too large and totally disrespects the protected status of the land in the surrounding area”. They argued it would set a “dangerous precedent” for the rest of London.

The area was originally designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown, the visionary 18th-century landscaper whose work in hundreds of gardens and parks across the country reflected his love of natural-looking English vistas. In 1764, he was hired to replace the formal gardens in Wimbledon Park with something more organic, and proceeded to dam the river running through the park to form a lake and surrounding marshland. 

The AELTC has owned the land in question since 1993. In 2018, it bought out the golf club lease for £65mn, handing each club member an £85,000 windfall. If approved, the full project is likely to take about eight years to be completed, with the show court being the final part of the plans. 

The AELTC claims the plans are sympathetic to Brown’s original vision for the area, with the new park on the southern end of the site emphasising a traditional English landscape. Andy Wayro, the AELTC’s senior landscape design manager, describes the plan as a “purist restoration” with “more of a Capability Brown feel”.

But critics complain that the building work would remove hundreds of mature trees and increase pollution, while the new 28m-high show court would dominate views across the lake. They point out that the new park would be owned by the club, making public access “permissive” rather than guaranteed. In response, the AELTC points out that the land is currently closed off to the public entirely — and has been for more than 100 years. 

The AELTC has not given any financial projections for how much the expansion will cost, but funding will come from its recent sale of debenture seats. Applications for the 2026-30 debentures closed in April, with the aim of raising almost £238mn.