An 8,000-seat tennis stadium is being planned as the new home for the qualifying tournament of the Wimbledon Championships.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club, a private members’ club, has lodged proposals for the new development on the site of the Wimbledon Park Golf Club, SW19.
The Wimbledon Park scheme would see AELTC’s existing grounds expand into the neighbouring site – which it also owns – and, according to the organisation, would “safeguard the future” of the championships at the site and “ensure that Wimbledon remains as the pre-eminent tennis tournament in the world”.
The Allied and Morrison-designed scheme would allow the qualifying tournament to be hosted on-site for the first time from 2028, moving from the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton, meaning all stages of the championships took place on the same site.
The new scheme would comprise more than 285,000 sq ft of new leisure space, including 38 practice and tournament courts and the 8,000-seat Parkland Show Court. It would feature new parkland, with a 23-acre public park at the south of the site and a new lake.
AELTC bought Wimbledon Park Golf Club in the 1990s and in 2018 acquired the remaining term of the lease from the golf club.
The organisation said Wimbledon attracts some 500,000 visitors across the tournament each year, and that it has a local economic impact of £53m and a London-wide economic impact of £150m.
The expansion plans have been filed with Merton and Wandsworth councils and are open for comment until 22 September.
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