Indian Wells Tennis Garden set for another expansion

The BNP Paribas Open plans to build a third stadium by the 2017 tennis tournament that will also include a museum, building permits submitted to the city of Indian Wells show.

Pending ownership approval, construction is expected to begin immediately following the March 2016 tournament with the expectation that it will be ready for use within 12 months.

The stadium would seat roughly 5,000 and will provide the Indian Wells Tennis Garden with the first tennis museum in the world to be incorporated within a stadium. According to build plans, Stadium 3 will replace the existing Court 3, situated between stadiums 1 and 2 near the Circle of Palms courtyard in the heart of the tennis village.

BNP Paribas Open Chief Executive Raymond Moore initially announced a plan for a themed stadium on the last day of this year’s Master Series tournament, on March 22, and said the project was simply awaiting a green light from tournament owner Larry Ellison. The tournament says it is still waiting for that formal approval, though Ellison spoke about the project in an interview with Bloomberg in early June.

When Moore spoke about the possibility of the project in March, he said a tennis memorabilia assemblage he deemed to be “the finest collection in the world” had been purchased by the tournament, and Ellison later told Bloomberg that some of those objects date back to Elizabethan times.

“So we are pretty much ready to go,” Moore said in March, “but Mr. Ellison needs to make that decision. He’s mulling it over. He told me he will let me know soon.”

While awaiting word from Ellison, the Oracle co-founder and billionaire who purchased the BNP Paribas Open in 2009 for $100 million, Moore and tournament director Steve Simon filed with the city of Indian Wells the necessary paperwork that details what the stadium will look like and how it will function. The City Council has since unanimously approved the plans.

read more: http://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/tennis/bnp/2015/07/19/tennis-garden-expansion-stadium-museum/30307649/