Laykold and Tennis’ Big Venues
As tennis scales, so does its facilities
According to the ITF, there are 87 million tennis players around the world. In 2021, in the US alone, the number of people playing tennis surpassed 20 million. Alongside these increasing participation figures it is not only the number, but also the scale of facilities needed to support the sport’s growth, that are on the rise.
Court consistency is key for large-scale venues
Tennis’ mega facilities are a testament to the health of the game but also to the quality and precision required of the court building industry. Very big facilities mean much greater room for error. Maintaining consistency of look, pace and performance across 40+ courts is a very different ball game to achieving the same results over one. It requires a high-quality product with an exceptional level of consistency, years of testing, scientific research and experienced installation teams. Inconsistency at a large facility becomes more obvious and the margins for error much smaller.
“Across the 43 courts at the US Open, Laykold achieved a pace consistency of 0.5 of a point which is unprecedented in the industry.”
US Open Quality and Precision at Scale
Laykold has been involved with some of the biggest tennis court projects globally – both in stature and scale. The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home to the US Open, is a prime example. Across the 43 courts at the US Open, we achieved a pace consistency of 0.5 of a point which is unprecedented in the industry. Maintaining this pace precision across the venue comes down to the consistency built into Laykold topcoat systems and the experience of the teams who develop and install them. If the courts play differently from each other, the quality of the facility is compromised. Knowing the courts are going to maintain a matching speed rating across the tournament is why the USTA trusted Laykold with its biggest tournament.
The 11 largest Laykold facilities around the world
Other, large-scale facilities are following suit. From mega 60+ court venues in the US to significant multi-court centers in Asia-Pacific and Europe, Laykold has given facilities the confidence to go big with US Open quality. Here are 11 of the biggest and best:
Mobile Tennis Center
The Mobile Tennis Center in Alabama is one of the world’s largest public tennis facilities featuring a staggering 60 full-size, floodlit Laykold tennis courts. It welcomes thousands of players every year and is home to a host of local, regional, national and international events.
The Midland Tennis Center with 31 Laykold courts spanning its indoor and outdoor facilities is the home of tennis in the Midwest and host to a WTA 125 event. It also features 4 Laykold outdoor pickleball courts.
Greater Midland Tennis Center
The Hard Rock Stadium
The Hard Rock Stadium. The home of the Miami Dolphins is transformed into the home of the Miami Open, in one of Laykold’s most challenging builds. 12 tournament and 18 practice courts are laid over a football stadium and carpark and are painstakingly colour-matched. A customised product mix and installation method ensures a consistent tournament pace rating across all 30 courts of the 5th Grand Slam.
The Atkins Tennis Centre at the University of Illinois is one of the top college facilities in the US. It boasts 20 outdoor and 6 indoor Laykold courts and has hosted multiple NCAA Division One championships.
Atkins Tennis Center
Champions Club Chattanooga
The Champions Club Tennis Complex, Tennessee is a key public facility in the region featuring 26 Laykold Courts which host both events and school tennis teams.
The Barnes Tennis Center, San Diego boasts 23 Laykold courts and a further 4 pickleball courts. Host to ATP and WTA events and the Billie Jean King National Championships it is a key facility in Southern California.
Barnes Tennis Center
The Singapore Kallang Tennis Center is the largest public tennis complex in the country with 19 Laykold courts that have played host to the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, the 2013 Singapore ITF Junior Open and WTA events. It is also a training facility for the national teams.
Cambodian National Tennis Center
The Cambodian National Tennis Center is the home of the Tennis Federation of Cambodia and will host the 32nd Southeast Asia Games in 2023. It includes multiple Laykold courts and is a highly important and trusted venue in the region.
The Queensland University Tennis Center, Australia – is an impressive facility boasting 25 Laykold courts.
The Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub in Christchurch, New Zealand is a massive 32-hectare multisport space built after 2011’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook the city’s major sports facilities to the ground. It includes 12 Laykold tennis courts, a Rekortan Gel track and two Poligras hockey turfs all designed and contracted by Polytan, a member of Sport Group.
Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub
Kozerki Tennis Academy
The Kozerki Tennis Academy in Poland chose the Laykold Masters 5 court system. It hosts the ITF W100 Polish Open and provides young players from the Polish Tennis Academy with the best possible infrastructure for high level training across 11 courts.
High-quality products and installers build big trust
At the heart of all of these massive projects, are Laykold’s high-quality products and installers. Laykold and Sport Group have the experience and scale to support our installers with large, resource-intensive, complex projects. This, accompanied by years of investment into R&D ensure that our product consistency is unrivalled no matter how many courts are in the making.