With Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics dominating the sporting calendar this summer, tennis is enjoying time in the spotlight.
Each event will draw in huge audiences, with performances from the likes of Andy Murray, Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter inspiring fans around the UK to pick up their tennis rackets and try their hand in the summer sun.
With that in mind, new research shows that UK Google searches for tennis-related terms surge by an average of 200% throughout Wimbledon. And with the Olympics set to entice even more fans, time on the court is going to come at a premium for tennis-loving Brits.
To find out more, a new study from Net World Sports has revealed which areas across the UK are best equipped to deal with the huge demand for tennis, along with the quality of their outdoor facilities, how much you can expect to pay during peak times and how interest in the sport surges during Wimbledon.
THE COST OF PLAYING ACROSS THE UK
For those Brits wanting to play tennis, minutes on the court will be most in demand during the weekends, when players can expect to pay an average of £9.41 to hire an outdoor court for an hour.
Inflation has been volatile over the last couple of years, spiking at just over 11% at the end of 2022, impacting upkeep costs for councils and clubs alike. But despite this, prices have increased by just under 7% since 2019, from an average of £8.77.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES TO HIRE A COURT
Edinburgh – £16.25 P/H
The Scottish capital is the most expensive city to play tennis in the UK, with an average cost of £16.25 to hire a court on the weekend. Although the price of playing in Edinburgh has increased by almost 10% over the last five years (£14.78), the city offers a good amount of space to play, with around 10 courts per 100,000 people – only seven cities in our study have more.
Chelmsford – £15.50 P/H
Chelmsford ranks as the second most expensive city in the UK to play tennis and the most expensive in England. Residents can expect to pay around £15.50 to hire a court, which is £1.50 higher than anywhere else in the country. But despite the high costs, the city offers quality facilities with an average Google rating of 4.5/5, headlined by Writtle Tennis Clubs (4.9), which was described by one user as “one of the best surfaces I’ve ever played on”.
THE LEAST EXPENSIVE CITIES TO HIRE A COURT
Wrexham – £0 P/H
Alongside being home to Hollywood royalty, Wrexham is the only town in our study to offer free-to-play courts during peak times to residents.
Ran through a partnership between Tennis Cymru and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the town has offered residents free time on court with no membership required, which goes back past 2019.
There are 17 outdoor courts available within the vicinity of Wrexham, which equates to approximately 12 for every 100,00 people, so there’s plenty of availability for players within North Wales.
Alongside the great access for tennis fans in the area, there’s plenty of quality, with Wrexham’s tennis facilities recording an average Google rating of 4.6 – only Cardiff (4.7) ranks higher.
Salford – £4 P/H
Salford in Greater Manchester is one of the next cheapest places if you’re looking to play in the area. You can expect to pay around £4 to hire a court, which is over £12 cheaper than Edinburgh. However, availability is limited to just 15 outdoor courts, which works out at just over 5 per 100,000 people.
Courts within the city have been recently refurbished with new surfaces and tennis nets through a partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and Salford City Council, with some courts available free of charge throughout the week.
THE COST OF PLAYING IN LONDON
With a bustling population of almost 9 million, court space will be at a premium in the capital during Wimbledon and the Olympics.
Each borough is equipped with quality outdoor facilities, and the average cost of booking a court during peak time (£7.51) is just over 20% lower than the UK average of £9.41. Some borough councils even offer free-to-play weekend services.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE BOROUGHS
City of London – £14.10 P/H
Unsurprisingly, the City of London is the most expensive borough to play tennis in the capital. During peak times, players can expect to pay over £14 for an hour of play, and availability is limited, with just one outdoor court available, so make sure you book early.
Greenwich – £14 P/H
Only in one other London borough can tennis fans expect to pay around £14 per hour to play, with Greenwich coming in just behind the City of London. The price is well above the London average of £7.51, but with 19 outdoor courts in the area at 14 per 100,000 people, there’s a solid number of facilities available.
THE LEAST EXPENSIVE BOROUGHS
Croydon, Haringey, Kensington & Chelsea – Free
Three of London’s boroughs offer free-to-play tennis during peak times to members of the public. There are over 100 outdoor courts available between the three boroughs, with 50 of them located in Croydon, where the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and local council provide free play for the public.
Haringey Council are also actively involved in promoting the sport within the local community, offering free court time and lessons to residents.
Kensington & Chelsea has 15 free outdoor courts available seven days a week, but it’s also home to the famous Queen’s Club, where an annual membership costs a cool £15,000, making it one of the UK’s most exclusive clubs.
Kingston upon Thames – £4 P/H
Members of the public within Kingston upon Thames can expect to pay around £4 for an hour of play during peak times, making it one of the cheapest in London and the UK. Only Salford and Wrexham could match or better the price from the 30 other cities included in the study. In addition to the affordable costs, players can play for free during weekdays between 8am and 5pm.
How do UK facilities stack up?
The summer sun and packed sporting calendar inspires Brits to get outside and on the court. But what is access like for players around the UK, and what can they expect from the facilities?
To answer that question, we’ve analysed data from the Local Authority Districts (LAD), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the 2021 Census to reveal the sheer scale of outdoor facilities available across the UK and what access looks like for the local population.
To get insights into the quality on offer, we used the Google Places API to capture the average Google ranking for across the 31 cities.
Over 1900 outdoor facilities are available across the locations, highlighting just how many playing opportunities there are. There’s also plenty of quality, with the average Google ranking coming in at just under 4.5/5.
THE HIGHEST-RATED COURTS
Cardiff – 4.7/5
The Welsh capital provides plenty of opportunities for tennis fans to get into the sport, with a significant number of quality facilities, including 15 different clubs and parks rated above 4.6.
Of those 15, three of them boast 5/5 ratings in the form of Landaff Fields Park, Victoria Park Tennis Courts and Old St. Mellons Community Council Tennis Club.
Not only is Cardiff’s rating of 4.7 the highest in our study, but only six cities have more courts per 100,000 people (12.4) and a lower cost than the Welsh capital’s £6.75 per hour, making it a great place to play.
York – 4.6/5
York is one of seven cities with an average Google rating of 4.6, It has the second-highest number of courts, with 40 outdoor courts available, equating to approximately 18 per 100,000 residents.
The quantity and quality of facilities make York one of the best cities to play tennis in the UK, highlighted by 13 parks and clubs boasting ratings of 4.6 or higher.
However, the quality comes at a price, with an hour’s play during peak times costing around £10.40 an hour, which is almost 10% above the UK average.
MOST COURTS PER 100,000 PEOPLE
Cambridge – 30.9
Cambridge offers plenty of opportunities for players to get involved in tennis. The city’s total of 30.9 courts per 100,000 people is comfortably the largest in our study, well ahead of second-placed York (18.7). An hour of play during peak times will cost players around £10, slightly higher than the £9.41 average.
LEAST COURTS PER 100 PEOPLE
Hull – 5.2
Tennis fans on the banks of the river Humber may find it difficult to get time on court throughout the summer. This is due to Hull having the lowest number of courts (5.2) per 100,000 people of the 31 cities included in our research. Alongside this, Google searches for tennis-related terms surge in the city during Wimbledon by 274% – the fifth highest in the study.
INCREASE IN SEARCH DEMAND THROUGHOUT WIMBLEDON
While the European Championships in Germany grabbed most of the headlines over the summer, Wimbledon’s reach and impact inspire the UK population to get active, with searches for “tennis court” overtaking “football pitch” every July. But which cities are the most motivated?
Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent recorded the biggest increases, with tennis Google searches increasing by 326% and 319% respectively. However, the latter has just 16 courts within the area, so players will have to book early to avoid disappointment.
In Scotland, Glasgow records the biggest search increase (262%) throughout the tournament, which won’t come as too much of a surprise with it being the birthplace of two-time winner and Wimbledon legend, Andy Murray.
Despite being the home of Wimbledon and attracting fans from all over the world, 19 cities recorded a bigger surge in Google searches than the London Boroughs, although it still rose by a massive 154%.
Almost every city in our study saw search volume more than double throughout Wimbledon, except for Newcastle, which still recorded a big increase of 97%.
METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES
To establish the number of tennis courts per city, the number of sports facilities across Local Authority Districts (LAD) in England were used as an official dataset from ONS 2024. For cities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Google Places API was used to capture all tennis courts within a five-mile radius of each city. This method was also used for cities in England to capture the average number of reviews and ratings for tennis courts across all UK cities.
Tennis courts per 100,000 people was created by using official population data from the Census 2021 against ONS data for sports access. Costs to hire a tennis court for one hour on the weekend was established by online desk research, with most cities having prices set for public tennis courts by their local councils; where this is not the case, prices were found by looking up local tennis court websites.
Google Keyword Planner was used to obtain search data for tennis-related keywords by individual city, grouped together into average monthly search. To understand the spike in search, search volumes were compared across June – July 2023 for last year’s Wimbledon.
SOURCES:
- Search data – Google Keyword Planner, June 2024
- Number of tennis courts in England – Access to sport facilities and other amenities in your local area, Office of National Statistics.
- Number of tennis courts in Scotland & Wales – Google Maps (within five-mile radius of each city)
- Average reviews & ratings for tennis courts – Google Maps, June 2024
- Population data – 2021 Census
- Prices – Websites for individual councils & clubs