What a waste of money paying £48 for centre court & No 1 Court tickets

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

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'

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.

Let's be honest who would be bothered to watch Smerhurst apart from his family

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.

£48-00 is very reasonable, as this is the top Tennis tourny in the Uk and probably the world

Jun 26, 2014 -- 1:12PM, n88uk wrote:

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.

the queue is the muggiest thing about Wimbledon

hang out in a field overnight for the chance at about 200 tickets on Centre/1 and 500 more on the others and then be too tired to enjoy the tennis in the morning

this is 2014, sell the tickets like normal ****ing events

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.

there is no need to have to queue for ground passes especially, ridiculous

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.

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.

Maybe they want to see the best players and not the best matches.

@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.

*Queuing is done digitally these days, it would save everyone a lot of time.

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.

Jun 27, 2014 -- 3:20PM, Asparagus Man wrote:

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.

queuing 24+ hours before to have a chance is definitely great!! 250? (500 max) tickets on CC/C1, the bigger problem is that only that many are made available to peasants like us

people have jobs and stuff and a trip to Wimbledon for 1 day means you'd need 2 days off work

Queens and Wimbledon are awfully inaccessible to the average person

and big part of the reason tennis has rep it does in UK

I want a ticket for CC/C1 tomorrow, what time do you think I needed to have been in the queue by?

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.

not sure Wimbledon cares about touts given what the debentures seats get resold for

http://www.wimbledondebentureholders.com/buy-wimbledon-tickets

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/
wimbledon/10164942/Tickets-to-Wimbledon-final-soar-to-83k.html

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.

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 !

*BAN THE QUEUE*

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.

Jun 28, 2014 -- 9:02PM, windsor knot wrote:

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

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).

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.

balance of options is either  - overpay massively, sit in a field for 25 hours or be lucky

is there not huge demand for other top sporting events?

Based on a ground capacity of 38,500 - probably getting on for 500k spectators over the fortnight.

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

Jun 26, 2014 -- 11:27AM, judorick wrote:

that's the difference between a tennis fan (you) and the people on Centre and 1they don't care if it is one sided, in fact they would rather watch Serena and Masha annihilate some qualifier than watch a competitive matchconfirms to them that all is right with the world

spot on.

queue lovers are brainwashed

Jun 30, 2014 -- 10:28AM, northanlite wrote:

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

The prices rise as it goes on.

Eg. tomorrow Centre Court costs £93. Court 1 costs £72.

The men's final is £148. A figure I am sure has gone up a lot in recent years, as I swear it used to be more like £90.

£48 is for R1 only.

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.

Queens and Wimbledon are awfully inaccessible to the average person

Have you ever been to Queens? How is it in any way inaccessible?

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.

The idea that moving ticket sales away from direct public access (even with inconvenience of queueing) to a ticket website like RipOffMaster, for immediate transfer at the advertised sale opening time to its resale rip off site , would reduce prices is one of the funniest things I've ever heard of.

Because the reason the 2nd hand market is so expensive is because the tickets aren't on the market. The supply is non-existent. Because too many tickets end up in the wrong hands. Ie. people at AELTC clubs who would never sell them. If you had an internet sale, more tickets would end up in the hands of ordinary people, and there would be way more in circulation, thus the price is lower.

So really you're saying it's a supply issue, not how they are distributed

'Wrong hands' The hands who pay membership fees for clubs which support the LTA and tennis in the country?

I'd sooner moan about the corporate allocation than that through tennis ties

I would rather pay £70 on ticketmaster than be a queue mug and pay 48

Jul 1, 2014 -- 11:46AM, DonNo1 wrote:

So really you're saying it's a supply issue, not how they are distributed'Wrong hands' The hands who pay membership fees for clubs which support the LTA and tennis in the country?I'd sooner moan about the corporate allocation than that through tennis ties

And this would be why the LTA fails to do the job they are supposed to do of producing tennis players. But that's for another discussion.

Even with those that are in circulation they are distributed wrongly.

As Aaron has basically said. The opportunity cost of paying an extra £7 on Ticketmaster is less than queuing 25 hours for a lot of people.

aaronh     01 Jul 14 17:27 
I would rather pay £70 on ticketmaster than be a queue mug and pay 48

You're the mug, you don't get to see any tennis whilst others do.  You only have to take 1 day off work, just queue over the middle weekend and go in on monday

And this would be why the LTA fails to do the job they are supposed to do of producing tennis players

So the people who fund the LTA should miss out because the LTA are crap at producing players?

The funny thing is you can actually get face value tickets on ticketmaster for centre if you're on the ball.  You even get 2 shots at it every day

I've already listed earlier that my gripes with Wimbledon go beyond just the queue and availability of tickets.

A few:
1) Hard to court surf. Purely selfish but at Wimbledon you can't just nip out of Centre Court to Court 1. Makes it a worse experience for me.

2) Hard to plan your day around your fav's. Unless your fav is someone like Murray you don't know what day your favourite players will play, what court they will play. So you can't build your day around watching your favourites.

3) The atmosphere on Centre Court especially is just bad. The lack of knowledge the main contributor here. Apart from maybe Queen's you won't find any less knowledgeable crowd around.

The O2 tickets are put on general sale. They are easy to get hold of. The atmosphere is far better, and I am not even a huge fan of men's tennis. It's simply run better as an event.

1+2) This is no different from any other slam!?  More show courts at Wimbledon so you're a bit more restricted on outside courts but that's because the demand is so big

3) The atmosphere is great even if many people are clueless.  Been to both numerous times and I'd choose centre court every time.  Some music and pretty lights don't make an event.  Obviously easier to get O2 tickets because there is less demand.

I made up my mind to go the day before after seeing a good weather forecast and some good games on the outside courts. Courts 12 & 18 often have very good games featuring seeds. I live in Leicester and joined the queue at 6.45am eventually getting in just before play started and going straight to court 18 where I got a front row seat.After watching 2 matches including a 5 setter with Gasquet I decided to go to Court 3 to watch Isner against Smethhurst and once again got in straightaway with a good seat. The answer is to plan ahead. I thought that lots of people would leave court 3 when Heather Watson finished and by keeping an eye on the score of that match I was able to arrive at just the right time to get a seat.Equally had you wanted to see Watson it was obvious that the Aussie fans would leave court 3 as soon as Hewitt finished and thus with good timing you could have got in to see Watson. Whilst in the queue we were provided with a free cup of coffee and a free bottle of water and met several people from locally and other parts of the world who were equally willing to queue. I met a very keen tennis fan from Kenysa who was amazed and delighted that you could just turn up on the day to get tickets. I left at just after 7.30pm and was home in time for a good nights sleep and only lost one day at work.

Yes 1+2) is very different. I haven't been to Australian Open so can't comment there (though just from TV it looks like it would be like the others). It's very easy to acquire tickets, and it's very easy to court surf because the grounds aren't completely chock-a-block.

US Open only has 1 ticketed court also. You get a ticket to Ashe. It gets you into every court. Predict US Open's schedule is also much easier due to their being more matches on the main court.

French Open only has 2 ticketed courts. Slightly less easier to move about, but still doable.

Wimbledon has 4. Wimbledon is too over subscribed. The tickets go to the wrong people (imo of course), and the venue isn't big enough to cope with the numbers (obviously impossible to do anything about this).

At the previous post you can turn up on the day to get tickets at every grand slam as a far as I know (again can't confirm 100% for Australian Open). You queue up on the day for tickets for Arthur Ashe at US Open, you can get there about an hour before play starts and you will wait around 10 minutes to get your tickets.

With respect I think you are being a little idealistic n88uk - it is the demand that makes Wimbledon such a different and difficult event to keep everyone happy.

For sure a flexible ticket around the four currently ticketed courts would be great, as would a bit more space to move around, and surrounded by the 'right' people but with your proposals you would halve the capacity at a stroke and just create massive queues around courts where Murray or the biggest games are played. Money has to be made somewhere and it would further exacerbate the already much discussed ticketing issues.

Perhaps best just not to go and attend alternative events like the O2 (very different as you say but I happily go to both)

Obviously some of these are unfortunate. Wimbledon does probably have the biggest demand. One issue here is Centre Court is simply not big enough. It could do with the extra 8,000 seats that Arthur Ashe has. If that was an extra 8,000 cheap seats, there would probably less to be said here. Of course with a roof now, this will never happen.

I am surprised Wimbledon didn't look at getting a bigger court though, as given the numbers they get through the gates, the main stadium isn't really big enough (and bigger stadium = bigger profit longer term). Long term you would think their stadium capacities aren't high enough.

Obviously also tickets are also at somewhat of a peak in interest right now. It used to be that pretty much any time the night before would be good enough to get Centre Court tickets. But with Murray interest has obviously risen further, and imo gone to ridiculous levels with the queue shutting around 12:30pm the day before now for Centre Court and Court 1 tickets. You'd think at some point this has to stop, I mean is it going to be 2 days soon?

It is true that Murray has pushed interest even higher, perhaps now he has won demand will drift slightly but probably not substantially until after he has retired.

The queue is 2 days now over the weekend - people start queuing on Saturday for the Monday games, although this is the only day I'm aware this happens. I guess there is a twin incentive of most people not working Sunday and Monday being a packed day of top tennis

The ultimate problem (for keen tennis fans wanting to attend) is that you get people attending because it's fashionable.  They have no real interest in going to see a tennis match (if they were the only ones in the crowd they wouldn't go) but it's a day out in the sun where they get to socialise in a nice atmosphere with a spot of tennis.

The above is one of my main problems with the Wimbledon atmosphere (at least on Centre Court). The feel is that most the people there see Wimbledon as similar to a theater show, and are there because they want to be associated with the brand Wimbledon.

It's better on the outside courts, but that's probably because that's where a lot of the people who have queued are.

I wonder if bacon face had to queue overnight

Jul 1, 2014 -- 7:36PM, DonNo1 wrote:

aaronh     01 Jul 14 17:27  I would rather pay £70 on ticketmaster than be a queue mug and pay 48You're the mug, you don't get to see any tennis whilst others do.  You only have to take 1 day off work, just queue over the middle weekend and go in on monday

it's f***ing 2014, the idea of selling things this way is ridiculous and outdated!! not sure how anyone can argue otherwise. it would have been in 2004. it's sad that people can justify the queue over buying online (or even the phone ) these days

The funny thing is you can actually get face value tickets on ticketmaster for centre if you're on the ball.  You even get 2 shots at it every day


oh yes, few hours/night before. very helpful for those who work, live outside of London once more. selling tickets prior to the tournament allows people to make PLANS, not everyone can just swan off to Wimbledon on a few hours notice

there is hardly any tickets on gen sale wonder if sub 500 on PC, sub 1000 on AA is amount available to gen public at these slams? too lazy to check Oz

as for WTFs

better matches tickets sold properly better availability lol

Yer I would love to see a true breakdown of Wimbledon tickets.

The best thing I can find is that 53% go to "public including public ballot, players and members in LTA affiliated clubs and on day sales".

All that's really known is that number is 500 from the queue with exception of the last 4 days.

The queue represents a very small portion of the tickets, what it ensures is that all those 500 people are very keen to attend instead of tickets getting snapped up online by touts and getting flogged on.

How about booking a day off, trying to get centre tickets (they're sold 2 days and 1 day before) and if you can't just settling for an outside court.  If you're such a fan then this wouldn't be much of an effort at all for what you get out of it.  You're acting like the tournament should move to your backyard and you get to choose what match aaronh.

Have you actually ever been to Wimbledon or (Queens for that matter?).  No wonder you think Wimbledon is bad if you classify Queens as inaccessible when it couldn't be much easier to get tickets

yes, I have been to Wimbledon

i'm big fan, don't want to take a day out of watching tennis to stand in a muggy queue

the queue represents the only tickets that truly are on general sale

You're acting like the tournament should move to your backyard and you get to choose what match aaronh.

I'm acting like the tournament should move into the present and do what EVERY OTHER event does, be it sport or music

btw, queuing up for ground passes is just as ridiculous

perhaps next year the only way to purchase FA Cup final tickets will be to camp outside Wembley for a week

Extremely ironic referring to the FA Cup final since those tickets aren't on general sale and the only way to get a ticket as a member of the public is to pay through the roof off a tout or to be a long serving fan.

How about becoming a member of a club much like you become a member of a football club in order get the opportunity to purchase tickets.

And btw the ballot isn't a complete write off, my friend has got 2 final tickets for Sunday

Wimbledon allocate through clubs so tickets don't get in the hands of touts and get into the hands of people who express an interest in tennis.  Football clubs don't just post Champions League tickets on general sale for any person to grab up

you know what I mean

well, everywhere should have queues then if stopping touts is the main issue

why does only Wimbledon do this?