The chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club has insisted that the loss of Wimbledon this year will not have a severe financial impact on the sport in Britain.
Richard Lewis said he was ‘optimistic’ that the surplus, which is the payment to the Lawn Tennis Association, has adequate protection. This year is the first time the grass-court grand slam has been cancelled since the Second World War due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Making Wimbledon the only grand slam out of the four to be cancelled this season. The Australian Open took place as scheduled. Meanwhile, the US Open and French Open will take place later this year.
“We’re still in a very good position – which is a slightly strange thing to say when you’ve just cancelled the championships – but we’re financially very stable,” BBC Sport quoted Lewis as saying.
“I’m optimistic that the surplus will be pretty well protected, and therefore the impact will be somewhat minimised.”
Despite Lewis’ optimism, there will inevitably be a loss of money following the cancellation. Although the exact figure is unknown. Last year, more than 500,000 people visited Wimbledon over 13 days in what was the second highest attendance in their history. In May the LTA received a surplus of more than £50 million for the first time (£50.8M to be exact) from the tournament. Wimbledon makes up 90% of the LTA’s distributable surplus, plus it provides additional funding to support grasscourt tournaments and officiating fees.
Unlike other top events, Wimbledon’s saving grace was the fact they had a pandemic insurance that protected them against the COVID-19 pandemic. Making the decision to cancel their event more financially viable than the other majors. It is understood that the insurance had an annual cost of £1.5M over the past 17 years, but this year’s payoff is estimated to be in the region of £114M. Although an exact figure is yet to be confirmed as the claim is still in the processing stage.
However, next year Lewis has confirmed that there will be no pandemic insurance available for Wimbledon in 2021 due to the ongoing health crises. Meaning that will not be able to repeat this move next year if the COVID-19 situation is still not under control.
“No that’s impossible [to get pandemic insurance] in the current climate,” Lewis explained.
“What I would say about the future though is that when I first started in 2012, there were some signs that things were not insurable, because of communicable diseases that had taken place like SARS and swine flu.
“In the immediate aftermath you can’t get insurance but fairly soon after that, you can start to get insurance again, the market returns.
“So there won’t be insurance next year, but I think in the medium term, just because we’ve made one claim it won’t affect us in the long term.”
In the coming weeks Lewis will step down from his role as head of the AELTC and be replaced by Sally Bolton who will become the first ever female CEO of the body. Bolton said she is planning to host the 2021 Wimbledon event as normal as it can be given the circumstances. Keeping a watchful eye on the two Grand Slams that will take place later this year.
“Of course, we’ve got the US Open and Roland Garros being staged later this year, and we will be looking closely at what they do, working with the constraints they find themselves are under, and learning what we can,” she said.
“But it is far too early to start predicting what the situation will be like, and planning in detail for that.”
Wimbledon 2021 is set to be held from June 28 to July 11.
