The 42-acre All England Lawn Tennis Club will "almost treble in size over the next four years" after members of the adjacent Wimbledon Park Golf Club voted in favor of handing over their 73-acre site in return for £63.75M ($80.25M), according to Stuart Fraser of the LONDON TIMES. At a time when grand slam tournaments are "constantly trying to outdo each other," the news of Thursday’s vote, when 82% voted in favor, "came as a welcome relief" for AELTC officials, who believe that the expansion will help retain Wimbledon’s self-billed reputation as "the world’s premier tennis event." For the past 10 years, the club has "attempted to buy out early the lease of Wimbledon Park with a succession of offers," from £10,000 ($12,600) per member to the £85,000 ($107,000) that has now been accepted by the 750 members, who agreed that this was "too lucrative a windfall to turn down." AELTC Chair Philip Brook said, "We have been open in our long-term ambition to move the qualifying competition from its current home in Roehampton to the AELTC Grounds as part of our mission to continue to maintain the position of the championships as the pinnacle of the sport." With Henman Hill often "bursting at the seams," the provision of a second TV-screen viewing area is under consideration. Brook said, "We think the whole experience at Wimbledon could be transformed. This isn’t about building big stadia. It’s about a wonderful opportunity, tennis in an English garden [a slogan introduced by former Chair John Curry in the early 1990s]" (LONDON TIMES, 12/14). In London, Rupert Neate reported Martin Sumpton, a chartered building engineer who has played golf at Wimbledon Park for more than 30 years, was the "only member to speak out against the sale at a private meeting of members at a former church near the Houses of Parliament on Thursday night." After the result of the vote was announced, Sumpton said, "120 years of playing golf at Wimbledon Park has ended because of greed. People wanted to take the money, and that's hardly surprising. It is a lot of money." The AELTC is "desperate for the golf club's land" so that it can expand its facilities to match its Grand Slam competitors in the U.S., Australia and France, who are "investing hundreds of millions of pounds" in state-of-the-art facilities for players and spectators (GUARDIAN, 12/13).
COURTING CONTROVERSY: REUTERS' Toby Davis reported the acquisition of the golf course, which will continue to operate 18 holes until the end of '21, "will eventually allow the Wimbledon qualifying tournament to be staged on site." Wimbledon's planned expansion across the road on the course has "received criticism," but the AELTC ruled out any development that did not "protect and celebrate the heritage of the park." The AELTC said, "For the avoidance of doubt, there never has been and never will be any plans to build multi-storY car parks and shopping villages or any other structures that would be completely out of character for the AELTC and The Championships" (REUTERS, 12/13).
