Wimbledon's expansion plan heads to court while facing opposition from local residents
Wimbledon's major expansion plan includes adding an 8,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof and 38 other grass courts at a former golf course across the street that would allow the All England Club to move its qualifying event and hold it on-site — as the other Grand Slam tournaments do — to boost attendance and revenue.
Some local residents did a deep dive on the details, though, and they're not as convinced as the major champions are. That is why the proposal goes to the U.K.'s High Court for a judicial review Tuesday and Wednesday as the quarterfinals are held at the tournament that concludes next weekend.
Opponents say they love tennis as much as the 500,000 or so fans who flock to SW19 — Wimbledon's well-known post code — over the course of the two-week event.
'But we're also lovers of the environment and of trees and greenery and open spaces,' said Susan Cusack, a member of Save Wimbledon Park.
That's the group challenging the Greater London Authority's approval last September of Wimbledon's project, and they say they have raised more than $270,000 to pay for lawyers to fight against what Cusack and others call an 'industrial tennis complex.'
'They're a massive developer. On their current site, all they do is build, build, build,' Cusack said.
Aside from concerns about the environment and overall scale, opponents argue the adjacent property that was a golf course when the All England Club bought it in 2018 is subject to restrictions that favor preservation of open space for the public.
Wimbledon's case for expansion
The oldest Grand Slam tournament is the only one of the four that holds its qualifying rounds at a completely separate location. There are also too few practice courts in the current setup, requiring some of the world's best players to share courts.
'Wimbledon needs to stay at the pinnacle of world sport, and to do that, you have to evolve both on the court but also off the court with the infrastructure,' Debbie Jevans, chair of the All England Club, told The Associated Press.
Wimbledon's attendance numbers trail the other three majors. The Australian Open sold 1.1 million tickets for this year's main draw — more than double Wimbledon's 2024 tally — after bringing in more than 115,000 the week of qualifying. Wimbledon's qualifying, three miles away at Roehampton, has 8,000 tickets total.
The French Open pulled in 80,000 fans for its qualifying. Fans could watch star players practice, in addition to the mini-tournament in which competitors play for coveted spots in the singles brackets.
Wimbledon's project would allow 8,000 spectators at qualifying — per day.
'If you look at the other Grand Slams, they will have community events during that first week ... and, of course, the serious tennis,' Jevans said. 'So we always start with the tennis but, yes, I want the opportunity to embrace more people. The demand for our tickets is off the charts.'
An 8,000-seat arena would become Wimbledon's third-largest stadium after Centre Court and No. 1 Court; it would be located just across the street from No. 1 Court.
Wimbledon's plan, which incorporates space now used for the famous Queue, would more than double its total number of grass courts — there are currently 18 for the tournament, plus 20 for practice.
Jevans said 'at least seven' of the proposed new courts would be made available for community use. The plan also includes two public parks, one that would be 23 acres.
Djokovic and Alcaraz support Wimbledon's plans
If the plan survives legal challenges, there's still an eight-year construction window. That should rule out the 38-year-old Djokovic's chances of competing on the new courts. But the seven-time Wimbledon champion still wants the plan to succeed.
'It's great for the community, for London, for our sport. It's a win-win, to be honest. If it doesn't go through, it will be a shame,' he said Thursday.
Belinda Bencic, who was 17 when she made her Wimbledon debut in 2014, said Saturday she likes that the club 'is investing and trying to do the best for the players."
Two-time defending champion Alcaraz said putting 'qualifying really close (to) where we are now — I think it's a great idea.'
Whatever happens, Djokovic noted, Wimbledon's future is secure.
'Wimbledon, as it is already, is a sacred tournament, a tournament that everybody wants to win or play in,' he said. 'This is only a bonus. It's something that will get it to even a higher level of recognition.'
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
10 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Kissing contamination defense clears French Olympic fencer Thibus in doping appeal case
Associated Press LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared of a doping allegation Monday because the judges accepted she was contaminated by kissing her American partner over a period of nine days. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling echoed a verdict clearing another French athlete with a similar defense in a doping allegation — tennis player Richard Gasquet in the celebrated 'cocaine kiss' case in 2009. CAS said in the Thibus case its judging panel dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which asked for her to be banned for four years. Thibus tested positive for the anabolic substance ostarine in January 2024. She was later cleared by an International Fencing Federation tribunal weeks before the Paris Olympics, which let her compete there. WADA challenged the explanation that Thibus was contaminated 'through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge,' CAS said. The court said Monday 'it is scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms Thibus' then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing.' The CAS judges 'accepted that Ms. Thibus' then-partner was taking ostarine from Jan. 5, 2024, and that there was contamination over nine days with a cumulative effect.' Her partner at the time was Race Imboden, a two-time Olympic fencing bronze medalist for the United States. Thibus, a silver medalist for France in women's team foil at the Tokyo Olympics, placed fifth at that event in Paris and 28th in the women's individual foil. ___ AP Summer Olympics: in this topic
23 minutes ago
Why is Wimbledon blaming human error for a mistake by its new electronic line-calling system?
LONDON -- The All England Club, somewhat ironically, is blaming 'human error' for a glaring mistake by the electronic system that replaced human line judges this year at Wimbledon. The CEO of the club, Sally Bolton, said Monday that the ball-tracking technology was "inadvertently deactivated" by someone for three points at Centre Court during Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's three-set victory over Sonay Kartal a day earlier in the fourth round. On one point, a shot by Kartal clearly landed past the baseline but wasn't called out by the automated setup — called Hawk-Eye — because it had been shut off. Bolton declined to say who made the mistake or how, exactly, it occurred or whether that person would face any consequences or be re-trained. She did note that there were other people at fault: the chair umpire, Nico Helwerth, and two who should have let him know the system was temporarily down — the review official and the Hawk-Eye official. 'We didn't need to put line judges back on the court again,' Bolton said. 'We needed the system to be active.' Not really. But like most big tennis tournaments nowadays — the French Open is one notable exception — Wimbledon has replaced its line judges with cameras that are supposed to follow the balls on every shot to determine whether they land in or out. There are those, particularly in the British media, who keep referring to this as part of the ever-increasing creep of AI into day-to-day life, but Bolton objected to the use of that term in this case. 'The point I would want to emphasize — and perhaps contrary to some of the reporting we've seen — is it's not an artificial intelligence system. And it is electronic in the sense that the camera-tracking technology is set up to call the lines automatically, but it requires a human element to ensure that the system is functional,' Bolton said. 'So it is not AI. There are some humans involved. And in this instance, it was a human error.' Russia's Pavlyuchenkova was one point from winning a game for a 5-4 lead in the first set against Britain's Kartal on Sunday when a shot by Kartal landed long. But there was no ruling from Hawk-Eye. After a delay, Helwerth decided the point should be replayed, which Pavlyuchenkova thought showed bias toward an opponent competing in her home country. With Hawk-Eye back up and running after a delay, Kartal won that game, but Pavlyuchenkova took that set and the match. The All England Club looked into what happened and found that the line-calling system actually was off for three points before anyone noticed. The system itself worked 'optimally,' Bolton said repeatedly. 'In this instance, sadly,' she said, 'it was the human part of the operation that made a mistake.' Bolton said the system is shut down between matches — 'and the humans are the people that need to do the activating and deactivating" — and someone accidentally did so during Pavlyuchenkova vs. Kartal. Asked why, Bolton responded: 'Well, I don't know. It was a mistake, obviously. ... I wasn't sat there, so I don't know what happened." She said Helwerth could have made a ruling himself on the controversial non-call, the way he did on the prior pair of points, but instead just decided to pause the match. 'I'm assuming,' Bolton said, 'he felt he had not seen it properly.' Pavlyuchenkova said after the match the official told her he thought the ball was out. Players are divided on whether there even should be electronic rulings during matches — unless it is fool-proof — or whether there should be a return to Wimbledon's old way of doing things. Since 2007 through last year, there was a combination of the human touch and technology: There were line judges on court to make calls, but players were allowed to challenge and ask for a video replay of a point if they thought there was a mistake. 'It's such a big match, big event,' Pavlyuchenkova said. 'Since we have already automatic line-calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to have better decisions.'
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kissing contamination defense clears French Olympic fencer Thibus in doping appeal case
FILE - France's Ysaora Thibus reacts after loosing the women's individual Foil round of 32 competition against Poland's Julia Walczyk Klimaszyk during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, July 28, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File) LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared of a doping allegation Monday because the judges accepted she was contaminated by kissing her American partner over a period of nine days. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling echoed a verdict clearing another French athlete with a similar defense in a doping allegation — tennis player Richard Gasquet in the celebrated 'cocaine kiss' case in 2009. Advertisement CAS said in the Thibus case its judging panel dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which asked for her to be banned for four years. Thibus tested positive for the anabolic substance ostarine in January 2024. She was later cleared by an International Fencing Federation tribunal weeks before the Paris Olympics, which let her compete there. WADA challenged the explanation that Thibus was contaminated 'through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge,' CAS said. The court said Monday 'it is scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms Thibus' then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing.' Advertisement The CAS judges 'accepted that Ms. Thibus' then-partner was taking ostarine from Jan. 5, 2024, and that there was contamination over nine days with a cumulative effect.' Her partner at the time was Race Imboden, a two-time Olympic fencing bronze medalist for the United States. Thibus, a silver medalist for France in women's team foil at the Tokyo Olympics, placed fifth at that event in Paris and 28th in the women's individual foil. ___ AP Summer Olympics:
