{"id":1115801,"date":"2026-07-28T09:06:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115801\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:06:37","slug":"exclusive-wimbledon-chiefs-ready-to-defend-brand-amid-saudi-tennis-complex-similarities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115801\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Wimbledon chiefs ready to defend brand amid Saudi tennis complex similarities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tTuesday 28 July 2026 5:00 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMonday 27 July 2026 3:45 pm\n\t<\/p>\n

\"A\t\tWimbledon chiefs stand ready to defend its distinctive green and purple branding\t<\/p>\n

Wimbledon chiefs stand ready to defend its distinctive green and purple branding after plans emerged for a Saudi tennis mega-complex with a similar colourway.<\/p>\n

Renders for a National Tennis Centre in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Qiddiya giga-project were released in June, showing a central court draped in foliage and 29 other courts decked out in a purple and green colourway similar to the pantone used \u2013 and trademarked in the UK and beyond \u2013 by the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which runs the Wimbledon Championships.<\/p>\n

When asked about the similarities, Wimbledon\u2019s marketing and commercial director Usama Al-Qassab told City AM that \u201cimitation is the finest form of flattery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of what our site looks like and our brand. We defend it rigorously and we promote it with great care and attention. The purple and the green you see, and the cross racket logo are part of the Wimbledon equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThese are just CGI visuals at the moment, and let\u2019s see what turns out. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if green is in the colour scheme somewhere because that generally seems to be the colour of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Indian Wells tournament \u2013 dubbed the unofficial fifth Grand Slam \u2013 has a lighter purple court with a light green surround, but resembles the Wimbledon brand less than the proposed Saudi complex, designed by renowned architects Populous<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AerialA key part of Qiddiya<\/p>\n

\"RenderedThe central court is huge<\/p>\n

\"QiddiyaThe colourway is similar to Wimbledon
\nWimbledon likeness? <\/p>\n

Wimbledon holds trademarks for the purple and green colourway in the UK, European Union and a select number of other jurisdictions but does not have a blanket global protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe defend many areas of our brands and equity from our font and logos,\u201d Al-Qassab said, \u201cand when we do see guerrilla activity, we do make sure that we protect both our brand and those stakeholders that invest in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also make sure that we have integrity within our ballot to make sure that those who are trying to receive tickets to come to Wimbledon are genuine. So there\u2019s masses of integrity checks, more than we know of at any other sports tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yes, we also protect the brand<\/a> for our brand partners, our official partners who work alongside us, who once again invest in the championships, so that others aren\u2019t getting a free ride on the back of Wimbledon when they haven\u2019t actually invested within the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s tournament<\/a> saw a record \u00a364.2m in prize money paid out to players with the capital having been boosted to the tune of \u00a3300m in additional spend. Wimbledon also expanded its US offering, opening a Central Court attraction in New York\u2019s Central Park.<\/p>\n

The Qiddiya mega-city is also set to feature a Six Flags theme park, Formula 1 track, a 2034 World Cup stadium and a Mercedes-AMG World of Performance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhy brands can fail miserably at sponsoring Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday 28 July 2026 5:00 am \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Monday 27 July 2026 3:45 pm Wimbledon chiefs stand ready to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4105],"tags":[86845,51,6854,12,304201,6506,304202,93,131586,79,1068,304203,195006,16,15,5068,304204,92777],"class_list":["post-1115801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-all-england-club","tag-business","tag-intellectual-property","tag-news","tag-qiddiya","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-saudi-tennis","tag-sport","tag-sport-business","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-the-all-england-lawn-tennis-and-croquet-club","tag-trademark","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wimbledon","tag-wimbledon-centre-court","tag-wimbledon-championships"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116996815003858374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}