My IEA article
England should be proud of its great contributions to world sport. Games invented and developed in England have become world favourites, bringing much entertainment, great competition and many well paid jobs to participants all round the world. Today I wish to look at three remarkable English venues that shine in their sporting firmament ps and have built big global brands. They are Lords, Wimbledon and Henley.
These are small places with big reputations. So many great cricket players want to play in a test at Lords and see their name on the honours board. Many in world cricket call Lords the home of cricket and look to it for wisdom and guidance over the development of the international game. So many budding tennis stars want to play on the Centre Court at Wimbledon to become Wimbledon champion. It is the only grass court rated for Grand slam tournaments in a fiercely competitive tennis world. World class rowers will come half round the world to row in the Henley week races on the Thames to add lustre to their achievements.
The joy comes from the pursuit of excellence. This is a world where prizes only go to the most talented and hardest working. Standsrds are so high that competitors are great achievers for being allowed to take part.
What has made and sustained their fame? Some of it is the tradition and history they represent. Some is their skill in modernising and investing as the sport has expanded and changed.
All three have dress codes. To preserve some of the past, players at Wimbledon or Lords tests must play in all white. Rowers must wear club kit and colours. Spectators using the Lords Pavilion or the Henley Stewards Enclosure must wear jackets and ties or the female equivalent. Henley aims to look like a well dressed Edwardian Garden party, and many attendees respond with coloured jackets and club or old school ties for the men and long elegant dresses and hats for the women. The iconic Centre Court at Wimbledon from 1922 and the Pavilion at Lords survive with some modern improvements. Henley keeps the old tents of the temporary Regatta in modern structures for the boat house and still uses the original progress boards adjusted by hand as the race proceeds so spectators can see what is happening below them on the course. All three venues also now use digital communications and drones.
The three venues are owned or controlled by members of a private club. The MCC membership owns the Lords ground and trading assets. Wimbledon is owned by a company controlled by the members of the All England Lawn tennis and croquet club committee. Henley Regatta is owned by a private company limited by guarantee controlled by a self regenerating Committee of Stewards of the Regatta. All three started as clubs for amateurs, but have adapted to the increasing presence of well paid professionals in their sport. All three have royal Patrons, the Princess of Wales for Wimbledon and the King for the other two.
All this looks idiosyncratic and quirkily English. What is remarkable is there has also been a steely professionalism in building these brands, expanding their tournaments, and growing such a strong reputation in their global sport. To do this Lords had to evolve from being a North London/Middlesex amateur club ground to be a premier world ground for the most important cricket matches. Wimbledon had to go from being All England to be all world tennis and Henley had to be well managed and important enough to attract the best from as far away as New Zealand and Australia to row.
Crucial to Wimbledon’s continuing success was the all weather roofs for the Centre Court and Court No 1 introduced this century. At Lords the improved and enlarged seating areas and the state of the art enlarged modern media centre were important to retaining a strong position. At Henley better catering and entertainment facilities have helped keep the crowds.
The important issues are how can the UK keep these great centres and make sure they expand as their sporting worlds expand globally? Both Wimbledon and Lords are embarking on major expansions. Wimbledon wants to put in a new big show court with 38 other new courts to handle the growing numbers that want to compete. They have the land in the adjacent old golf course. Lords is pressing on with rebuilding old stands to provide more seats with more modern facilities for spectators.
The sadness is the planning system seems to set out to make it difficult or to undermine or delay the enthusiasm of the clubs to improve and expand. Wimbledon has been delayed by planning issues over converting the old golf course to more tennis use and are still waiting on an appeal to a permission which had been hard won with many detailed submissions and much expense. Lords was not allowed to put full roofs on stands to protect spectators from sun and rain and has issues with a private owner of tunnels under the Nursery land to the north of the site about any development of that part of the property.
So far these three sports have been spared the special regulation that is now being meted out to football by a government agency. Some lottery money does help the three underlying sports in England. Many other countries if they had brands as big and so full of possibilities as these three would ensure they could develop their sites as they needed to and would see what an asset it is for the country. Tennis and Cricket now mobilise huge sums and generate many good jobs for those who host tournaments, training and good home teams. English test cricketers now can earn seven figure annual sums with a major contribution from their England central contact basic payments. Top tennis stars earn millions a year from prize money. The presence of these large events generates a lot of business in their own right, but also attracts talent and wealthy tourists to the UK to boost our economy further.
Politicians should keep out of sport, and should not get involved in regulating their rules or their finances. They often wish to be associated with winning teams and winning people and like attending the big events. That should encourage them to see just what a crucial success England has had with these venues, and make them more inclined to faciliate their further development and investment.
We are fortunate indeed that successive generations of members and Stewards and of the Directors of the private companies that run these elite sporting events have balanced old and new, preserved and enhanced reputations and developed their real estate. If these great venues had fallen under international corporate ownership, traditions would have been diluted or removed and talent and resource would have been diverted to outside England. If the UK state had nationalised them or taken a bigger regulatory role they would have cancelled their history in a fit of embarrassment. They would have throttled them with wokeish values. They would doubtless have plunged them into loss to become subservient subsidy junkies attentive to the damaging wishes of a bossy government.
September 6, 2026
Wimbledon and cricket when ever that’s on its ram down our throats from sunrise to sunset especially by the BBC, but saying that when it comes to football especially men’s Englands team watch how many of these so called professional players are singing the National anthem, if you don’t like our country enough to sing then sling your hook because your hearts not in it and the selectors should be picking players from the lower leagues at least they’ll put there heart and soul into a better England team and be more committed to Winning
September 6, 2026
There are fewer chances of watching Middlesex at Lords these days. Many of their matches are now at other grounds and/or in less favourable months for cricket.
The One Day cup used to be a good day out. Inexpensive and there is actually a winner at the end of the day, You can also bring your own food and drink and move around the ground very easily.
Test matches are too expensive. T20 & Hundred have no appeal.
September 6, 2026
The oldest large sporting event in England is probably The Derby and The Oaks.
Always a very good day out, though not what it once was. It was more enjoyable when The Derby was on a Wednesday and most of the country was at work. Free entry on The Hill.
The Jockey Club are ruining it by putting more enclosures on The Hill. Gambling on other sports has taken its toll, as with the almost complete disappearance of greyhound racing. There is also competition from major races in The Middle East, which are a threat in the same way as The Arc v St Leger.
I watched it during the Covid period when no spectators were allowed. I had anticipated viewing from the roadside but the few spectators could only get as close as the golf course AND it rained! However there were good views with binoculars as there was no funfair to obscure sight lines in the centre of the course and the on course video screens were still in operation.
The dress code was laughable with a few toffs in top hats struggling with picnics in The Derby Arms.
September 6, 2026
Wimbledon is part of the Summer. July would not be the same without blanket coverage.
Long may it continue.
TV’s test match special was a staple of my youth and is much missed. I’d rather watch an England batting collapse than another homes under the hammer or politics live.
September 6, 2026
I suppose we should also mention Scotland (and England) and various Golf Courses, football, rugby even croquet. At least in sport people tend to win or be selected on merit by winning and ability by winning rather than as a Diversity selection in the Jason Arday mode. A process that devalues the institutions that do this and undermines the reputation of the black people, women… who did win their positions on pure merit.
etc ed
September 6, 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sports_originating_in_England
September 6, 2026
Time really for the state to get out of the way of nearly all private sector activities, the damage they have done and do – to the economy, to business and people’s enjoyment of life is vast. It is largely a malignant self serving cancer. Yet the dire Burnham wants even more of it.
September 6, 2026
Sport should not be about how much money it can generate. That leads to the ridiculous ticket prices at this years World Cup and the plans of the loathsome Infantino to make even more money.
We paid ten bob for a World Cup quarter final ticket in 1966 plus half a crown to a ticket tout. Semi final and third/fourth place cost similar though we bought those directly from the box office.
Chelsea FC tickets were affordable and you just turned up in good time with cash at the turnstile. The Cup Final was the only expensive match in the football calendar. I stopped going to Chelsea when I was old enough to get a Saturday job.
September 6, 2026
LL. Once the dead hand of the State becomes involved it becomes a death spiral. You only have to look at our electricity grid for the horlicks government intervention makes.
September 6, 2026
Totally agree. There is a worrying trend within the left leaning woke brigade within our country determined to destroy tradition. The BBC are major suspects. Tradition is vital not only for these three wonderful sporting activities and venues but also for our churches. We have allowed far too many mosques to be built pandering to the increasingly vocal Muslim communities. Try getting a Christian church built in a Muslim country! The woke Church of England has much to answer. Tradition must remain part of our national heritage.
September 6, 2026
Tradition is too easily attacked as not inclusive.
Social and authoritarian hierarchies take time to be infiltrated but as our Parliament shows it is possible.
September 6, 2026
Many of those worshippers going to the mosque are only there because they fear the consequences if they don’t turn up. If they abandon their faith in a largely irreligious country like the UK, they become apostates for whom the traditional punishment is the death penalty.
September 6, 2026
This is a good article by our kind host.
We have done well at many international sports in recent years. We came third in the football World Cup, beating the French. At the Birmingham games British athletes won several gold medals and silver. We did well at the Winter Olympics too, winning gold for several sports for the first time. We have just beat the Pakistani team at the cricket
I’m impressed that the BBC have found the money to broadcast many of these games in real time. And in HD
September 6, 2026
Great article making a key point. The all must have prizes approach does not work in elite sport. The winners have to be fit, determined, talented and motivated to prioritise success. High standards create high standards.
Then apply that to other areas of life: education, business leaders and the economy.
Instead, we have a government that hates excellence, hates high standards and does not understand the importance of branding. Do you think the UK has an excellent brand as the place to be today?
In the UK, people and businesses survive in spite of the government, not, as it should be, because of the government.
September 6, 2026
Lord Redwood you surely must know that what you have written is heresy on many, many levels. Mentioning England for starters, it no longer exists its a mythical land in the minds of the extreme right.
Then you go onto mention ‘the pursuit of excellence’, ‘competitors are great achievers’ you are suggesting the aspiration that goes with these events is a good idea, do you really want the UK Parliament to cancel these event?
You are suggesting things that the UK Parliament and it the UK Parliament wants driven from society. The political religion that drives the UK Parliament certainly wants to cancel achievement by the people, by the countries industry, by England, the Nation.
Look at every avenue being perused or supported by the UK Parliament its 650 MPs, some minor, some large but all going the same direction. The Union or St Georges Flags are banned but LBGQT are promoted with taxpayer money. Protest against the illegal invasion are condemned as ‘far right’ but the dangerous ‘Extinction Rebellion’ gets a free pass. Using our own resources to provide energy, heating, lighting is bad but buying the same resource from Russia is good. The people of the country paying heavily for Parliaments desire for NetZero. A remark on social media with regards the horrific murder of 3 young girls gets you locked up for years, yet killing someone virtually gives a get out of jail card.
The list of a two tier Nation is endless, it is no one but the UK Parliament threat with a freakery of a political terrorist organisation that is forcing the cancellation, and the destruction of the very structures that make England, England. Anything that suggests aspiration, achievement is on the list. Its not about improving, a better was moving forward just destruction for the satisfaction of personal ego
September 6, 2026
The rumours and myths being conjured up to condition and bend minds. The PM and the Chancellor have been sliding out to the media that Taxes will have to rise. Not rising due to prolific wasted spending but due to the War in Iran.
The UK only needs the output from the Gulf because the UK Parliament its 650 MPs whose majority want high energy taxes and refuse the Nation to use its own resources. Its not the War it is the UK Parliament and its Government
September 6, 2026
Trample the People, keep them in their place. Sadiq Khan Labour, against the wishes of the Local Conservative Council and the People living in the area is going to pedestrianise Oxford Street. There is no coherent plan for the traffic to bye-pass the area. But Labour wants and it will force it through.
Then the people of Piddington population 350 will have 1250 criminal invaders parked in their village for at least 10 years. Why because the Politburo wants it that way. Where the people asked? of course not that’s not how what was England is Ruled. etc ed
September 6, 2026
John you appear to have forgotten the annual five days of Royal Ascot.
Every June horses compete from GB, Ireland, France, America, Australia et. al. with daily crowds from all over the world in attendance along with a global media audience. Ascot is owned by the monarchy and there has been racing held there since 1711.
Mention should also be made of the prestigious annual Open Golf Championship which attracts international players and huge crowds.
Reply Did not forget. Ascot got permission for a major expansion of facilities and is not complaining about the current position.