Article

  • Wimbledon price squeeze doesn't affect well-paid champions

    7/2/08 12:41 PM | Johan Lindahl
    - Wimbledon may be adding in a small way to the current world economic jitters by increasing the price of it iconic strawberries for this edition.

    The punnet which is guaranteed to contain ten top class English fruits with cream, has increased by 25 pence to 2.25 sterling ($4.50). The price finally lifted after five years, with sales during the fortnight seemingly unaffected.

    With the completion in 2009 of the Centre court rood, seating capacity has increased from 13,500 to 15,000.

    But the British press reports that none of the extra tickets will be going to thousands of faithful everyday punters who camp out each night in the Queue for the chance to purchase from a selection of 500 of the elite Centre and No. 1 places.

    Instead, Wimbledon is reaping an extra windfall by selling the elite tickets on to “hospitality providers”, who entertain corporate fat cats - at a stiff price - at marquees during the fortnight.

    Meanwhile, ticket prices themselves have increased, with Centre court men's finals tickets rising to 91 sterling ($182), an increase of 8 dollars.

    While scalping or resale of regular tickets is illegal and heavily enforced, that's not the case for debenture tickets, issued to stakeholders who fork over tens of thousands of sterling for future places at the event.

    Those tickets have been changing hands - perfectly legally - for up to 1,250 sterling (2,500 dollars) and rising.

    Players have not been left out though, with the club raising champion's prize money by a snip - a mere 50,000 sterling ($100,000) for this hard-times edition.

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Comments

  • BernieEliza | 7/3/08 4:10 AM

    Real tennis fans are really cheated by Corporate Seats. For AO this year I logged on at 9am on a Saturday to get my mens final tickets at A$250 (almost same as US$) each and was in the second last row. I still had a great time and could see everything but people who do not follow the sport that closely get to see the players amazingly well and the real fans are lucky to secure anything at all.
    Goes to show money speals louder than words.

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