UK Edition
All England Club's expansion takes step closer after £64m offer made for nearby Wimbledon Park Golf Club
The All England Club took an important step towards a massive expansion of their grounds on Wednesday night, when the members of Wimbledon Park Golf Club agreed to consider an offer of £85,000 per member in exchange for their 73-acre site.
The land occupied by the golf course sits directly across Church Road from Wimbledon’s existing 42-acre site. It is already owned by the AELTC, but the golf club’s lease extends until 2041. If the offer – which will go to a vote in early December – is accepted, then the land will revert much faster, so that development can begin as early as 2021.
Yesterday’s vote was a significant stage in a complex process, which has already lasted several years. Previously, the obstacle was a clause in the club’s articles of association that prevented members of less than ten years’ standing from benefiting from any windfall.
The last time the club voted on a similar – though smaller – offer was in 2015, when the established members rejected a proposed compensation package of £25m, or just under £50,000 each.
Now the AELTC has put forward an offer of £63.75m, which would apply to all the members. What happened on Wednesday is that the club agreed to remove that awkward clause, so that all its 800-odd members – who include celebrities such as TV presenters Piers Morgan, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – will stand to benefit from the payment.
A 75 per cent majority was required to make the change, and now that it has gone through, the December vote looks likely to pass as well.
Briefing reporters on the issue last month, All England Club chairman Philip Brook said “We’d like to move our qualifying event on site. Most of the people who play qualifying lose and don’t ever make it inside of the gates of SW19. We think that’s a shame, and we’re the only grand slam where that is the case.
“This isn’t about building new big stadia,” Brook added, “but there might be a second Henman Hill. We think we could do a much better job with the queue if we had the land year round.”
Meanwhile, British No. 1 Johanna Konta has made a late-season decision to sack her coach, for the third time in as many years. Konta’s ranking has declined sharply since she started working with Michael Joyce, from No. 9 in January to No. 45 now. Although, in Joyce’s defence, her results have been on the slide since last summer.