Wimbledon tennis chiefs have defended their ticketing operations after complaints over technical issues as this year’s championships sold out in quick time on Thursday.
Up to 110,000 tickets went on sale via the Wimbledon website after the grand slam confirmed capacity details earlier this week, including the news that the latter stages will welcome full crowds as part of the Events Research Programme.
More than one million people had set up a myWIMBLEDON account on the tournament website ahead of the on-sale with each issued a unique code to ensure each verified individual could only purchase two tickets.
While many fans were delighted to complete purchases others complained of technical issues or that they had not received their unique code in good time. Another criticism was the necessity of making an early decision as to which session to apply for, meaning fans could inadvertently choose a day or court with limited or no availability and then not get the chance to pursue another convenient option.
Here’s some unhappy customers…
Of course, those who were successful were rather more complimentary…
The All England Club said in response: “As expected, we received enormous demand for this initial sale of tickets for The Championships 2021. We issued codes to each guest who had registered and opted in so that we could protect the purchase of only one pair of tickets per guest.
“These codes were unique to each individual and were all issued by 12.50pm, ahead of the sale commencing at 1pm. The vast majority of guests have had no issues and successfully purchased tickets. We appreciate the disappointment of those who were not able to get tickets on this occasion, but there will be additional opportunities to purchase tickets for this year’s Championships.”
The Daily Telegraph reports that there will be no more sales – with the exception of a small number of tickets that have been returned – until the tournament starts on June 28.
The tournament will begin with 50-per-cent capacity across the venue grounds. Stadium capacities for Centre Court and No.1 Court will open at 50-per-cent capacity, while the smaller show courts will be permitted to open at 75-per-cent capacity.
For the fourth round and quarter-finals, organisers aim to increase Centre and No.1 Courts allocations, along with a number of Grounds passes, and for the semi-finals and finals from July 8, they aim to have 100-per-cent capacity on Centre Court, with a small number of tickets on No.1 Court and Grounds passes.
Wimbledon organisers announced in March that they would operate an online platform rather than the usual public ballot for this year’s event. They said this was in order to leave decisions on capacity as late as possible in order to welcome the maximum number of guests, and manage ticket distribution accordingly.
Image: E01 / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Edited for size
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