Indian Wells Tennis Garden Reveals Expansion Plans

Written by: Staff on 4th October 2012

Indian Wells Tennis Garden Reveals Expansion Plans

epa03151001 General view of the center court during the men's final match between John Isner (bottom) of the USA and Roger Federer of Switzerland at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2012. EPA/MIKE NELSON |

The Indian Wells Tennis Garden , home to what many regard as the most forward thinking tennis tournament in the United States , has announced expansion plans that crowd-wise, would dwarf both Wimbledon and the French Open.

Larry Ellison, the world’s sixth richest man, who in 2010 bought both the site and the BNP Paribas Open, year opener of the ATP World Tour’s Masters 1000 series is the man behind the moves that are planned to increase attendance to 500,000 spectators to the March tournament staged in California ’s Coachella Valley .

Top of the list of improvements is a new permanent 8,000 seat stadium, to be built neighboring the current 16,100-seat main stadium, due to be ready for the 2014 event. A new entrance and box office along with an improved parking lot are also planned.

And going forward the event will continue to use the two temporary stadiums, made of bleacher seats that are erected each January. All four arenas will frame the Corona Plaza , complete with a jumbo-tron television screen that will be the public fulcrum of the event.

“We have a goal to get 500,000 without changing the character of the tournament,” Ellison told Leighton Ginn of The Desert Sun. “We don’t want it to be more crowded and more difficult. We bought a lot of land and we’re adding a lot of parking.

“I think we’re building on Stadium 2, not to make it much larger, because we don’t want to lose that intimacy. We want to maintain our position as the no.1 Masters 1000 tournament. We’re not in a big urban area, but we have more people attending this tournament than any other Masters 1000 tournament.”

Newly appointed CEO, Raymond Moore announced the plans saying: “It’s an aggressive timeline and it’s an aggressive program, but working for Mr. Ellison, he doesn’t know anything else. It’s very exciting and very energizing.”

Moore reported designers have come up with two different stadium plans and Ellison will have final approval, before presenting the project to the city of Indian Wells for approval of permits and licenses.

“We’ll be creating jobs,” Moore points out. “If we can get it done by 2014, we’ll be very happy, very excited. We will need a lot of cooperation from the city and the agencies that issue permits and approvals. We’re going through that whole process as we speak.”

Moore refused to be drawn on costs but said: “It’s not cheap, and it’s very ambitious. We haven’t finalized our plans yet or the cost. We’re right in the process of doing this. By the end of the month, we should have a handle on both of those things, and then it will depend on Mr. Ellison and if he wants to go forward or not.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: American tennis news, BNP Paribas Open 2012, California tennis news, Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Masters tennis news, Sports