Wimbledon focus on plan for limited fans
No queue in 2021 and hints of new ‘super-site’
COMMUNITIES around Wimbledon have been told to prepare for the likelihood of a reduced capacity Championships this year, along with disruptive road closures.
A message to various residents’ associations and local councillors — seen by The Mail on Sunday — has confirmed that the tournament will, barring unforeseen developments, go ahead in some form this summer.
Yet in order to handle Covid there will need to be extra traffic measures, and the likelihood of only a percentage of normal crowds being allowed in.
It comes after the Australian Open, which begins a week tomorrow, announced yesterday that it will operate at close to 50 per cent capacity, with only 25,000 to 30,000 spectators permitted.
The All England Club has the luxury of being able to wait for at least two more months before decisions are made on how many can attend The Championships, which begin on June 28. Nothing can yet be entirely clear, but a range of outcomes are being looked at.
‘ Our scenarios fall into three broad categories: a full capacity Championships, a reduced capacity Championships and a ‘ behind cl osed doors’ Championships, dependent on the status of government and public health guidelines,’ says the letter.
‘ Most of our planning focus is centred on the option of a reduced capacity Championships and how that would affect each stakeholder group, but we are not yet in a position to rule out any of the other scenarios.’
There is the admission that ‘the Wimbledon fortnight will likely look very different this year’.
It looks certain that there will be no queue in 2021, with the emphasis on social distancing. Part of that will involve a request going in to close the 750metres of Church Road that divides the main site from the Wimbledon Park golf course that it acquired in 2018.
If the application is successful only emergency and access vehicles will be allowed along it for the duration of the tournament.
While Wimbledon has skilfully managed relations with its local community in its redevelopment so far this may prove its biggest challenge in that respect. The closures will necessitate diversions and there will be knock-on effects.
Significantly, it may also be the precursor to future plans connected to the development work to expand the tournament site on to the golf course in the next few years.
While the All England Club has always emphasised that there will be little in the way of any permanent new structures, the goal is to build a large amount of new tennis courts on the northerly section of the course, perhaps around 20.
The aim is to be able, by 2024, to stage the qualifying event ‘on site’ as happens at the other three Grand Slam events in tennis. It is presently held at Roehampton two miles away.
How the existing site and the new areas connect has been a major ongoing topic for the architects and planners to consider.
While t he building of costly tunnels has been looked at, one option is the pedestrianisation of Church Road each summer for the event’s duration. Something similar was enacted for the 2012 London Olympics. An added complication is that many trees on the new land are protected.
How many spectators will be allowed in at Wimbledon for this exceptional year will be a matter f or wider government poli cy relating to sporting events, depending on progress in tackling the pandemic.
There is said to be ‘ cautious optimism’ at the All England that perhaps at least 10,000 spectators could be permitted daily f or Wimbledon this summer — although nobody knows yet.
What does appear likely is that there will need to be some kind of further balloting arrangements taking place among those who have tickets from 2020, in order to comply with government guidelines.
Such strictures are hardly restricted to Wimbledon, and it is an issue that all sports event organisers are having to grapple with due to the uncertainties of Covid.
The European outdoor tennis season begins in April, and all tournaments are going through a comparable process.
‘At this point, everyone is planning on going ahead, but it is a question of how many stands you might need to build and how many fans will be allowed in, from zero upwards,’ one tournament director told The Mail on Sunday.
Australia revealed its crowd plans yesterday as the first of this week’s six pre-Open events got underway at Melbourne Park, with the vast majority of players out of their two-week quarantine.
The complex will be divided into three separately ticketed zones, each taking in one of its three stadiums with roofs, the principle being to minimise flow around the grounds.