Wimbledon ticket package up to $84K

ByDarren Rovell ESPN logo
Friday, April 25, 2014

It will cost a lot more to buy the best seat at Wimbledon.

The All-England Lawn Tennis Ground PLC, which owns the property where the grass-court tournament is played each summer, announced Friday it would sell 2,500 Centre Court tickets at $84,000 each. A person who pays for a seat would have the rights for a period of five years, from 2016 to 2020.

The price for the so-called debenture tickets represents an 80 percent increase from the price paid by patrons from 2011 to 2015. It's partly due to the club's desire to repay money owed thanks to a loan taken out to build the roof at Centre Court, but it's also because such a raise is reasonable given what happened last year.

Some tickets to the men's final, where Andy Murray became the first man from the United Kingdom to win the tournament in 77 years, sold for more than $20,000 each. Spread out over five years, each Centre Court ticket from 2016 to 2020 will cost approximately $1,300 per tournament day.

With each debenture comes a free pass for another person to enter the Wimbledon grounds and the right for the seat holder to dine in a private Centre Court restaurant and use its bar and lounge facilities.

The club says all interested parties must submit applications by June 6, when a first installment of $23,500 is due.