Latest news with #WimbledonQueue
Metro
6 days ago
- Sport
- Metro
I've camped in the Wimbledon queue 7 times - I'll never buy tickets
The Venn diagram of those who believe they can wrangle a pop-up tent back into its bag consists of mavericks and fools. Head to Wimbledon Park at 5am on any given morning throughout the Championships and you will find dozens in the overlap, hopelessly wrestling with the ungainly structures. These are the Wimbledon queuers, and I've been among them seven times. I first queued as a teenager in 2005, and arrived at around 2am wildly unprepared. My parents occupied the tent, but my two sisters and I, too excited to sleep, remained in the open air on camping chairs, cocooned in our sleeping bags and learning Queue etiquette (from a helpful 31-page booklet provided by the stewards) beneath the streetlights. You were not allowed to leave the Queue for longer than 30 minutes without forfeiting your place, we learned — and numbered Queue cards, denoting your exact spot, could be checked at any time. By 5am, the cheerful young night stewards were replaced by an older contingent, known as Honorary Stewards. Resplendent in blazers and boaters, they took great delight in waking the crowds. As the slow process of concertinaing the queue began, I witnessed them physically move a tent over to the other side of the road. Its occupants had not packed up quickly enough. Then as we were shepherded through SW19, picking up bacon sandwiches and freebies along the way, spirits were high. Eventually we came upon the turnstiles and airport-esque security, and with that were into the grounds. My memories of the tennis back then are blurry, but I was hooked. I would be coming back to the Queue. Spectating at the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world feels something like a game of monopoly: largely reliant on money or chance. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Some are offered tickets through their employers or are able to access hospitality packages. Others get lucky in the official ballot and can buy, at normal prices, two seats for a specific court and day. Unsuccessful ballot applicants fight furious games of fastest-finger-first, when rejected tickets are dropped online with little to no forewarning. Guaranteed admission is reserved for the very wealthy. Centre Court debenture tickets come only in pairs and cost £80,000 a pop (rising to £116,000 from 2026); in exchange, you are granted premium seats every day of the Championships for five years. These are the people who saunter in at midday, set up residence in exclusive restaurants and pick their way to and from play as it suits. They are, it would appear, living the dream. But they, along with ballot winners, are missing out. Because in my view, there's only one way to truly experience the Championships: by joining the venerable Wimbledon Queue. Each day, fans trickle into a field and are designated a spot in which to set up. Most who camp overnight are after the coveted 1500 Show Court tickets reserved solely for queuers (500 each for Centre, Court One and Two). It's every supporter for themself — but racing is subtle: there's a level of decorum appropriate to the tournament they're coming to see. By nightfall, the Queue will have surpassed this number; anyone joining later will have to settle for ground passes. On a fair weather day they are not hard done by: for £30 they will have access to courts three through 18, where most of the tournament's matches are played, as well as the big screens on Henman Hill, where the atmosphere rivals any live match. Wherever they end up, these queuers will already have had their fun. They will have befriended their neighbours, swapped Championship stories and congratulated each other on a picnic well done. They will have played ball games, visited the ice cream van, and discussed the upcoming matches they hope to see. All of this to say, the Wimbledon Queue is a festival mixed with a garden party — and those in the know visit for this tradition as much as any other. In the years since the first time I queued as a teenager in 2005, some aspects of the experience have changed. The Queue is now contained to the park, rather than spilling through the streets and the newspaper sellers no longer wander up and down at dawn, peddling free macs, suncream or Wimbledon radios to those who invest in that day's news. Perhaps most sadly of all, the Queue Guide is no longer distributed upon arrival, and in 2025 is a mere five pages viewable online. However, there is always fun to be had. One evening, when an unruly teenager burst into our tent, my first reaction was alarm. But after learning he was on the run from the wrath of the night stewards, presumably for the crime of talking too loudly after 'lights out', it became an adventure. I'd never harboured a fugitive before. More Trending Another year, the lack of sleep was easily offset by an encounter with tennis royalty. Those who waltz through the gates, tickets at the ready, can't possibly comprehend the excitement of happening upon Tim Henman and Judy Murray — not in the hospitality lounge, but on court, offering to rally with you and your hen party as you await entrance to the grounds. Even amid the pouring rain, when someone has forgotten to charge the golf buggy used to transport disabled queuers like me further up the line, there is a sense of camaraderie felt on few other occasions. Tennis has a reputation for being an elitist sport. But for £30 and an adventurous spirit, you can experience moments money can't buy — even if you never do learn how to collapse a pop-up tent. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: Laura Robson names the one Wimbledon rule that should never change MORE: Andrew Castle snaps back at John McEnroe over controversial Wimbledon decision MORE: Pat Cash calls for 'emergency solution' after 'absolutely ridiculous' decision at Wimbledon
Fox Sports
05-07-2025
- Business
- Fox Sports
How to score $20 Centre Court seats at Wimbledon
Associated Press LONDON (AP) — It might just be the best deal in all of major professional sports: Tennis fans can get a chance to watch stars such as Carlos Alcaraz compete on Centre Court at Wimbledon by forking over just 15 pounds — about $20 at the current exchange rate. That's instead of Friday's price of nearly $220 for the best seats at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament's biggest stadium. Face value there rises as the event goes on, hitting nearly $370 by the end of Week 2, then going up again for the singles finals. The secret to saving so much cash? The official resale service. It allows anyone already on-site with a ticket to sign up via the Wimbledon app for a daily lottery to get into one of the top three courts at a cut rate, including about $13 each for No. 1 Court or No. 2 Court. Those spots are offered up to the All England Club by spectators who leave before play ends. Wimbledon offers cheap tickets to its biggest courts when fans leave early 'It's an elite tournament in terms of the players, but it's not elite to get in, which is part of the appeal,' said Ed Hogan, a retired 69-year-old from Reading, which is a little more than an hour west of Wimbledon. 'The concept of resales is great. It's recycling at its best — sharing the joy.' The All England Club wouldn't say how many tickets get resold. 'We're selling the same ticket twice,' said the club's operations manager, Michelle Dite, 'and the primary reason is to make tennis as accessible to as many people as possible.' All England Club ticket resales raised about $300,000 for charity in 2024 Money from resales goes to charities via the Wimbledon Foundation. Nearly $80,000 was raised through the first three days of this year's tournament; last year's total was about $300,000. Wimbledon has done resales since 1954, but until last year, folks hoping to take advantage of the deal needed to stand in a line once they were on-site, hope they were there soon enough — and hope enough tickets were returned. Now, though, that 'line' is virtual. Here's how it works: After opting in on the app and getting their phone scanned by 2:30 p.m. at kiosks on-site or near the Wimbledon Queue, where thousands of people camp out at a local park for up to 24 hours in hopes of getting full-price tickets for main courts or grounds passes for smaller ones, fans then wait for a text message giving the good news that they were one of the lucky ones chosen for the resale, which runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. They have 10 minutes to confirm they still want a used ticket for the rest of the day, and another 20 minutes to get themselves to the green-and-brown ticket resale booth behind No. 1 Court to show the QR code that lets them pay for the cheap tickets. Spending $13 instead of $115 to see Ben Shelton at Wimbledon 'You're not stuck in one place forever," said Henry Thompson, 38, a high school math teacher from Missouri. 'This is much more efficient. Took 30 seconds. Much better.' Thompson, who was wearing a blue hat with the Wimbledon logo, really wanted to see 10th-seeded American Ben Shelton, so he entered the resale lottery and was able to get a seat for No. 2 Court for $13 instead of $115. 'It's beneficial to the sport to give people access to those courts for a reasonable price,' said Marcos Giron, a 45th-ranked American who won first-round matches in singles and doubles this week. 'It's a wonderful thing.' Chen Pinjung, who just finished medical school in Taiwan, waited in the queue for six hours, paid 30 pounds ($40) there for a grounds pass, then also got herself into No. 1 Court via a resale for an additional $13 — instead of the $150 it could have cost to see 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina win there Thursday. 'If everybody knew how that works, I'm sure everybody would apply,' said Rafael Garcia, who was with his girlfriend, Diana Meneses, and her brother, Gustavo Meneses. 'We saw that (resale) office last year, but we didn't know how to do it. Now we will.' ___ Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: More AP tennis: in this topic
Metro
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Metro
I love the Wimbledon queue almost as much as the tennis
The Venn diagram of those who believe they can wrangle a pop-up tent back into its bag consists of mavericks and fools. Head to Wimbledon Park at 5am on any given morning throughout the Championships and you will find dozens in the overlap, hopelessly wrestling with the ungainly structures. These are the Wimbledon queuers, and I've been among them seven times. I first queued as a teenager in 2005, and arrived at around 2am wildly unprepared. My parents occupied the tent, but my two sisters and I, too excited to sleep, remained in the open air on camping chairs, cocooned in our sleeping bags and learning Queue etiquette (from a helpful 31-page booklet provided by the stewards) beneath the streetlights. You were not allowed to leave the Queue for longer than 30 minutes without forfeiting your place, we learned — and numbered Queue cards, denoting your exact spot, could be checked at any time. By 5am, the cheerful young night stewards were replaced by an older contingent, known as Honorary Stewards. Resplendent in blazers and boaters, they took great delight in waking the crowds. As the slow process of concertinaing the queue began, I witnessed them physically move a tent over to the other side of the road. Its occupants had not packed up quickly enough. Then as we were shepherded through SW19, picking up bacon sandwiches and freebies along the way, spirits were high. Eventually we came upon the turnstiles and airport-esque security, and with that were into the grounds. My memories of the tennis back then are blurry, but I was hooked. I would be coming back to the Queue. Spectating at the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world feels something like a game of monopoly: largely reliant on money or chance. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Some are offered tickets through their employers or are able to access hospitality packages. Others get lucky in the official ballot and can buy, at normal prices, two seats for a specific court and day. Unsuccessful ballot applicants fight furious games of fastest-finger-first, when rejected tickets are dropped online with little to no forewarning. Guaranteed admission is reserved for the very wealthy. Centre Court debenture tickets come only in pairs and cost £80,000 a pop (rising to £116,000 from 2026); in exchange, you are granted premium seats every day of the Championships for five years. These are the people who saunter in at midday, set up residence in exclusive restaurants and pick their way to and from play as it suits. They are, it would appear, living the dream. But they, along with ballot winners, are missing out. Because in my view, there's only one way to truly experience the Championships: by joining the venerable Wimbledon Queue. Each day, fans trickle into a field and are designated a spot in which to set up. Most who camp overnight are after the coveted 1500 Show Court tickets reserved solely for queuers (500 each for Centre, Court One and Two). It's every supporter for themself — but racing is subtle: there's a level of decorum appropriate to the tournament they're coming to see. By nightfall, the Queue will have surpassed this number; anyone joining later will have to settle for ground passes. On a fair weather day they are not hard done by: for £30 they will have access to courts three through 18, where most of the tournament's matches are played, as well as the big screens on Henman Hill, where the atmosphere rivals any live match. Wherever they end up, these queuers will already have had their fun. They will have befriended their neighbours, swapped Championship stories and congratulated each other on a picnic well done. They will have played ball games, visited the ice cream van, and discussed the upcoming matches they hope to see. All of this to say, the Wimbledon Queue is a festival mixed with a garden party — and those in the know visit for this tradition as much as any other. In the years since the first time I queued as a teenager in 2005, some aspects of the experience have changed. The Queue is now contained to the park, rather than spilling through the streets and the newspaper sellers no longer wander up and down at dawn, peddling free macs, suncream or Wimbledon radios to those who invest in that day's news. Perhaps most sadly of all, the Queue Guide is no longer distributed upon arrival, and in 2025 is a mere five pages viewable online. However, there is always fun to be had. One evening, when an unruly teenager burst into our tent, my first reaction was alarm. But after learning he was on the run from the wrath of the night stewards, presumably for the crime of talking too loudly after 'lights out', it became an adventure. I'd never harboured a fugitive before. More Trending Another year, the lack of sleep was easily offset by an encounter with tennis royalty. Those who waltz through the gates, tickets at the ready, can't possibly comprehend the excitement of happening upon Tim Henman and Judy Murray — not in the hospitality lounge, but on court, offering to rally with you and your hen party as you await entrance to the grounds. Even amid the pouring rain, when someone has forgotten to charge the golf buggy used to transport disabled queuers like me further up the line, there is a sense of camaraderie felt on few other occasions. Tennis has a reputation for being an elitist sport. But for £30 and an adventurous spirit, you can experience moments money can't buy — even if you never do learn how to collapse a pop-up tent. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: I always get the 'heatwave horn' – it's the same every summer MORE: Martina Navratilova names Wimbledon 'favourite' ranked outside the world top 10 MORE: TV fans all say the same thing as the soaps are taken off air
Fox Sports
04-07-2025
- Business
- Fox Sports
Want to see tennis stars like Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon's Centre Court for $20? Here's how
Associated Press LONDON (AP) — It might just be the best deal in all of major professional sports: Tennis fans can get a chance to watch stars such as Carlos Alcaraz compete on Centre Court at Wimbledon by forking over just 15 pounds — about $20 at the current exchange rate. That's instead of Friday's price of nearly $220 for the best seats at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament's biggest stadium. Face value there rises as the event goes on, hitting nearly $370 by the end of Week 2, then going up again for the singles finals. The secret to saving so much cash? The official resale service. It allows anyone already on-site with a ticket to sign up via the Wimbledon app for a daily lottery to get into one of the top three courts at a cut rate, including about $13 each for No. 1 Court or No. 2 Court. Those spots are offered up to the All England Club by spectators who leave before play ends. Wimbledon offers cheap tickets to its biggest courts when fans leave early 'It's an elite tournament in terms of the players, but it's not elite to get in, which is part of the appeal,' said Ed Hogan, a retired 69-year-old from Reading, which is a little more than an hour west of Wimbledon. 'The concept of resales is great. It's recycling at its best — sharing the joy.' The All England Club wouldn't say how many tickets get resold. 'We're selling the same ticket twice,' said the club's operations manager, Michelle Dite, 'and the primary reason is to make tennis as accessible to as many people as possible.' All England Club ticket resales raised about $300,000 for charity in 2024 Money from resales goes to charities via the Wimbledon Foundation. Nearly $80,000 was raised through the first three days of this year's tournament; last year's total was about $300,000. Wimbledon has done resales since 1954, but until last year, folks hoping to take advantage of the deal needed to stand in a line once they were on-site, hope they were there soon enough — and hope enough tickets were returned. Now, though, that 'line' is virtual. Here's how it works: After opting in on the app and getting their phone scanned by 2:30 p.m. at kiosks on-site or near the Wimbledon Queue, where thousands of people camp out at a local park for up to 24 hours in hopes of getting full-price tickets for main courts or grounds passes for smaller ones, fans then wait for a text message giving the good news that they were one of the lucky ones chosen for the resale, which runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. They have 10 minutes to confirm they still want a used ticket for the rest of the day, and another 20 minutes to get themselves to the green-and-brown ticket resale booth behind No. 1 Court to show the QR code that lets them pay for the cheap tickets. Spending $13 instead of $115 to see Ben Shelton at Wimbledon 'You're not stuck in one place forever," said Henry Thompson, 38, a high school math teacher from Missouri. 'This is much more efficient. Took 30 seconds. Much better.' Thompson, who was wearing a blue hat with the Wimbledon logo, really wanted to see 10th-seeded American Ben Shelton, so he entered the resale lottery and was able to get a seat for No. 2 Court for $13 instead of $115. 'It's beneficial to the sport to give people access to those courts for a reasonable price,' said Marcos Giron, a 45th-ranked American who won first-round matches in singles and doubles this week. 'It's a wonderful thing.' Chen Pinjung, who just finished medical school in Taiwan, waited in the queue for six hours, paid 30 pounds ($40) there for a grounds pass, then also got herself into No. 1 Court via a resale for an additional $13 — instead of the $150 it could have cost to see 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina win there Thursday. 'If everybody knew how that works, I'm sure everybody would apply,' said Rafael Garcia, who was with his girlfriend, Diana Meneses, and her brother, Gustavo Meneses. 'We saw that (resale) office last year, but we didn't know how to do it. Now we will.' ___ Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: More AP tennis: in this topic
