Wimbledon Reveals Future Plans

Written by: Staff on 5th July 2012

Wimbledon Reveals Future Plans

WIM37-19990701-WIMBLEDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Spectators wait patiently on Centre Court as the rain cover is hoisted into position after play was disrupted during the match between Steffi Graf of Germany and Venus Williams of the USA at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships on Thursday, 01 July 1999. The rain-interrupted match currently stands at 1 set all. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) EPA-PHOTO/EPA/GERRY PENNY/STF/mb/mpc/kr/ow |

As the rain continued to disrupt the Wimbledon schedule and players scheduled for the roofed Centre Court appeared to gain a distinct advantage over their rivals listed for Court One and other outside show courts, the All England Club have bowed to pressure and finally agreed to answer questions about future projects.

“A roof on Court One is under consideration, although it’s not as straight-forward as you might think,” admitted newly appointed chief executive Richard Lewis who succeeded Ian Ritchie just a few weeks before the Championships.

When the new Court One was constructed just before the turn of the century, it was built roof-ready, physically able to take a similar to the £100 million structure hydraulically controlled translucent fabric structure that has been placed over Centre Court repeatedly so far this tournament.

Cost would be the main consideration in the implementation, a major part of Wimbledon 2020 development plans that will be revealed in full early next year. “Finance would be the biggest argument against it,” admitted Wimbledon chairman Philip Brooke. “There are some strong arguments for doing it but the economic case is certainly weaker than it was for Centre Court . We had some designs produced for a roof, which was cheaper than Centre, but operational disadvantages meant that we discarded the idea.”

However once again the All England Club has railed at the idea of permanent night play on Centre Court during the course of the Championships, so bringing it in line with the Australian and US Opens. Once again play extended close to 10pm as Agnieszka Radwanska progressed to her first Grand Slam semi-final, the last games of her match with Maria Kirilenko switched from Court One and played under the roof.

Under intense questioning, Lewis said: “I think it’s extremely unlikely that we would schedule night sessions at Wimbledon . You take somewhere such as Melbourne – that’s a city-centre location. Most people drive to the US Open.

“We are based in a residential area. There are safety issues – transport has to be available on the London Underground at Southfields Tube Station. We don’t want 15,000 people stranded there.”

Lewis admitted there had been much talk about the logistics of the Championships and particularly the use of Centre Court . “Early starts are a possibility,” he said. “But we do get complaints from people traveling from all over the country who can’t get here for a 1pm start.

“You’ve also got the situation where there is wear and tear on the court. And Centre Court is the one which is subject to more play than any other. We play on grass; it’s a natural surface but there is wear and tear.”

Topics: British tennis news, rain at Wimbledon, Sports, Tennis News, Wimbledon Champions