Tennis
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When most of the matches being played on those courts are virtual walkovers. Most of the most competitive matches are on the outside courts I went on Tuesday and saw Gasquet beat Duckworth in 5 sets on court 18 in what was a much better match than those on the big courts. Couldnt believe that people were queueing at 9am on Tuesday to see Murray thrash a no hoper on Wednesday afternoon.
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that's the difference between a tennis fan (you) and the people on Centre and 1
they don't care if it is one sided, in fact they would rather watch Serena and Masha annihilate some qualifier than watch a competitive match confirms to them that all is right with the world |
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That's a short sighted view.
Just because a qualifier might not offer much they still get the ball over the net. Take Fed, he is still going to hit winners to be appreciated, not just sit back and wait for errors. Would you rather watch say Barcelona putting together some tidy football and winning 5-0 or a competitive relegation battle? Just because a match is competitive doesn't mean it has quality. Don't get me wrong, I loathe the once a year 'fans' |
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The most annoying thing was that when Smethurst lost the first set to Isner on court 3 those with reserved tickets all gave up on him and walked out whilst thoser in the unreserved seats stayed to encourage him.
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Let's be honest who would be bothered to watch Smerhurst apart from his family
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Tbh I don't actually think the Wimbledon tickets at face value are bad at all.
What I dislike about Wimbledon and this is purely for selfish reasons is because of the way it's setup it's very hard to court surf. The grounds are totally packed, a lot of courts are at capacity. At US Open you can buy a ticket for Arthur Ashe (which is only like $20 more than a ground pass) and go watch any court you like. You can freely move about the courts except in very rare circumstances where Armstong/Grandstand are at capacity, which only happens if an American is playing there tbh. The fact you have to queue overnight to get those Wimbledon tickets at face value is the problem. |
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£48-00 is very reasonable, as this is the top Tennis tourny in the Uk and probably the world
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Yes that's what annoys me the most. It annoys me when people stand up for Wimbledon with some defence like it's because they are over subscribed.
When big acts have concerts, eg. Rolling Stones they are massively over subscribed. But it's still easier to get a ticket than it is for Wimbledon. Enjoying 2 weeks at Wimbledon is actually impossible unless you are willing to spend about £20k. Sell the tickets like every other event does. Put them on general sale. Sure they will probably sell out in about 20 minutes, but I guarantee they would be easier to acquire second hand this way. Right now second hand Wimbledon tickets are gold dust. |
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there is no need to have to queue for ground passes especially, ridiculous
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I don't agree that Wimbledon is difficult to get tickets to - it's extremely popular for sure, but you have a lot of options.
The queue is great - it gives people a chance to attend on the day they want to obtain a face value ticket. If you don't want to queue then go through an agency and pay £500 for a debenture seat. The public ballot also makes it accessible to the general public. For the Rolling Stones you hope to get lucky in an internet queue or take your chances on a resale site. |
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The great thing about the queue is that you can make up your mind to go once that you know that the weather should be ok. Also you know who will be playing before you get the tickets. The point that I was trying to make was that anyone who bought tickets for Tuesday on the main courts would have been disappointed once they saw the matches for that day. Who for instance would pay to see Sharapova thrash Samantha Murray. Also at approx 5pm the officials were letting people without resrved tickets into court 3 if there were spaces available although they had to move if the original ticket holders reappeared. This was no problem as there were loads of seats avaiable.
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Maybe they want to see the best players and not the best matches.
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@Asparagus Man
But having to queue overnight is absolutely ridiculous. What if I have a family. I am meant to take my entire family to camp overnight at Wimbledon? There are all kinds of people you are ruling out by forcing people to queue overnight. Queuing is done digitally these days, it would save everyone a crap load of time. Not I get to Wimbledon the night before, and I still don't get Centre Court tickets because 500 people got there before me. The point with the Rolling Stones tickets is the re-sale value is cheaper because they are in legimate circulation. Sure you have pay over the odds, but you still will only be paying like double face value. At Wimbledon it can be up to 20x face value if you are talking final tickets. The ballot is the biggest farce around. They kid people into thinking you are in with an equal chance and it's open to the general public. But really it isn't. Firstly most the ballot tickets are early rounds, secondly not enough of the tickets are actually in the ballot. Finally if you think the ballot is fair, think again. There are people fleecing the ballot and taking advantage. All you do is either get a business with gazillion addresses, or hire a load of hoax address post boxes. So you can then send in infinite applications. You don't even need to use a legitimate name. |
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*Queuing is done digitally these days, it would save everyone a lot of time.
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The other massive weakness to Wimbledon's style of selling the tickets.
It depends what you are going there for. If you just want to take in some tennis then this doesn't really apply to you. If you absolutely want to see your favourite players, Wimbledon is a nightmare. You can't guarantee what day or what courts (maybe with a few exceptions) your favourites will be on. So the fact it's so difficult to acquire tickets at a late stage for pretty much any show court is bad. You are also massively restricted by your ticket at Wimbledon. You want to watch a match on both Centre Court and Court 1 in the same day, it's simply not happening. |
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and big part of the reason tennis has rep it does in UK
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I want a ticket for CC/C1 tomorrow, what time do you think I needed to have been in the queue by?
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The problem with selling tickets on line is that large numbers get sold to touts who immediately put them back up for sale at higher prices. At least with the queueing system everyone gets a fair chance to buy a ticket at the right price. Having stood in the queue for 5 hours on Tuesday I can say that there were no complaints and it was nice to talk to fans from different parts of the country and world about their experiences.Also tickets would cost more because there would undoubtedly be a booking fee for each ticket and a charge for postage all of which would go to some outside organisation such as TickeTmaster.The Queue also creates a sense of anticipation in the spectators waiting to get in.
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not sure Wimbledon cares about touts given what the debentures seats get resold for
http://www.wimbledondebentureholders.com/buy-wimbledon-tickets |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/
wimbledon/10164942/Tickets-to-Wimbledon-final-soar-to-83k.html |
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There are ways to limit touts though. For starters you limit the number of tickets people can buy per day. Yes there would be ways round it, but would be hard to implement when the tickets would probably sell out very quickly. (Think how the Olympics tickets were sold etc.)
And tbh I would rather tickets end up with touts than the current set up. Because they would be cheaper to get off touts than they are right now second hand, because there would at least be more in circulation. The queue isn't 100% fair either. You are clearly limiting certain people out. Very difficult for a family to spend 24 hours queuing. Very difficult for pensioners. Very difficult for anyone with physical injuries. The queue also by it's nature is better for locals than someone who lives miles away. The sacrifices you have to make for the queue are ridiculous. If you work, you have to take 2 days off work minimum just to see 1 day's play. You effectively have to do nothing for a day, no productivity. If you are a tennis fan, you have to miss an entire day's play basically just to watch the next day's play. |
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this is an interesting thread for me, a summer armchair grass tv tennis fan . i like watching women's games , yes because some are beautiful, but the balance of grace and power seems right to me . i liked the idea of going to eastbourne and suspect tickets are ok to get hold of . but wimbledon...if the place is so packed all the time why are there masses of empty seats for loads of games ? they can't all be in corporate tents or wandering around the 'village' eating and drinking surely ? ...i was offered a face value ticket for the men's semis but declined pointing out i would have been really keen for the ladies, suspect will not get offered again such was the look on the face of the person who was probably chucking away 2k !
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*BAN THE QUEUE*
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my god its well for you guys,i was quoted twelve and a half grand to stay overnight and two tickets for the mens final,and im not joking.
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All the tickets on the ticketed courts are sold. People not in their seats are either eating, watching on the outside courts, sitting on Henman Hill, or in some cases gone home for the day. Surprisingly there are a bunch of people who will often go to Wimbledon and leave at like 5pm or something, they used to give away their tickets, but I hear less of this now.
On Centre Court you have the Royal box and other expensive seats in view too. This doesn't always help the image (and is a problem at many events tbh). |
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There is ticket resale for show courts for those that leave early - all proceeds go to charity. I think it is approx £5 per ticket.
There will be some seats empty - no-one is going to sit in their seat for 9 hours straight. The ballot and the queue are very carefully managed. I don't really see Wimbledon as a family event - you can only ever get tickets in pairs maximum - it's not really suited for children sitting still for long periods. Overall there is no perfect solution here as fundamentally the demand is so huge - it's about having a balance of options and I think Wimbledon does this very well. |
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balance of options is either - overpay massively, sit in a field for 25 hours or be lucky
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is there not huge demand for other top sporting events?
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Based on a ground capacity of 38,500 - probably getting on for 500k spectators over the fortnight.
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if you get a full days play £48 is about the best value i've heard of for a major sporting event. i think they should raise their prices.
people are paying over £100 to go and watch 80 mins of rugby at Twickenham ffs |
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queue lovers are brainwashed
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£48 is for R1 only.
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Also bear in mind these tickets are the cheap seats. I would say there is no need for them to raise their prices. There is a lot of debentures and stuff that cost into the 1,000s.
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Queens and Wimbledon are awfully inaccessible to the average person
Have you ever been to Queens? How is it in any way inaccessible? |
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I doubt selling tickets online would alter the price in the 2nd hand market. I don't know the exact breakdown but when you exclude all the tickets issued through tennis clubs, the corporate tickets, the 500 reserved for the queue, the debenture holders, the honorary steward tickets there isn't a great deal left.
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