For the first time ever, tickets for the Wimbledon Championships will all be sold online directly to the public this year… The All England Club (AELTC) – who organise the event- have confirmed that there will be almost 80,000 tickets available – with plans to reduce crowds to only 25% of their usual capacity during the champions, which will take place between June 28th to July 11th.
With the Wimbledon Championships being cancelled last year after the decision was made that the tournament could not take place without the element of live spectators, this year the All England Club is hoping for a minimum of 10,0000 spectators a day. The site can usually hold around 42,000 tennis fans, so even with such drastic reductions in capacity – the tournament should be able to see this level of audience members each day.
There will be a limit to how many one person can purchase. The tickets are expected to go on sale on a ticket sale platform and will be first-come-first-serve, with some free tickets handed to key workers.
The tickets being sold online will make a significant change to the usual pre-tournament events as it will mean there is no queue for tickets – with fans traditionally even camping overnight to make sure they secure a spot. They have been pleased to announce however, that the ticket prices will be held at the same levels as 2020.
The championships will not require fans nor players to be vaccinated, although this could chance depending if future Government guidance on mass crowd events is changed. The players themselves will not be able to rent private housing as they would have in previous years, but must instead stay in a hotel – and this even applies to those who live locally (Including Andy Murray.)
Another large change to the tournament that has been announced will be that the traditional rest day on the middle Sunday of the championships will no longer go ahead from 2022. The Grand Slam will instead be played over 14 consecutive days, with All England Lawn Tennis Club chairman Ian Hewitt saying this was possible because of better grass-court maintenance.
There are still a number of plans for 2021 that are up in the air and need to be finalised – as The All England Club will not decide on prize money amounts until June. The plans for Henman Hill – where fans who were not able to get showcourt tickets would usually sit on the grass outside of Court One have not been finalised, however they have alluded that it there is a possibility for it to go ahead with social distancing in place.
Written By: Hannah Ablett | Deputy Editor
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