SPRING PRESS CONFERENCE

19 April 2011

PRIZE MONEY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2011

 

The All England Club, Wimbledon, today announced that the Men’s and Ladies’ Singles Champions at this year’s Championships (Monday 20 June – Sunday 3 July) will each receive £1,100,000, an increase of £100,000 on 2010.

The total prize money for the event will be £14,600,000, an increase of 6.4% on 2010.

Philip Brook, Chairman of the All England Club and Wimbledon Championships said: “Leading international sports events such as Wimbledon are all about the quality of the players on show.  In the competitive world of top level sport, it is important that we offer prize money which suitably rewards the players both for the box office appeal they bring to the event and for their supreme performances on court.”

Wimbledon continues to contribute towards the pre- and post-Championships grass court tournaments that form an integral part of the grass court circuit.

Other items of note:

The 125th Championships
125th Championships celebrations

  • BBC Antiques Roadshow - held at Club on 25 August.  For broadcast in Sept/Oct 2011.
  • BBC Blue Peter Special - programme featuring Wimbledon past, present and future to be broadcast on the second Monday of the Championships.
  • 4 x 30 minute documentaries telling the history behind 125 Championships. 
  • New exhibition in the Museum - The Queue.
  • A range of licensed merchandise featuring the 125th logo available in the Wimbledon Shops.
  • Official Suppliers: 
  • Polo Ralph Lauren – new Ball Boy and Girl uniform featuring the 125th logo.
  • Fila - special shoe with the 125th logo and the words ‘125 Years’ embroidered on the heel.
  • Slazenger – Championship ball with ‘125 Years’ stamped onto the cloth and special can design with the 125th logo.
  • Lanson - 125th logo on the Champagne bottle neck labels served at Wimbledon.

New No.3 Court and Court 4

  • No.3 Court - 2000 seat stadium equipped with Hawk-Eye.  Ticketed for Days 1–7 only and priced the same as No.2 Court. 
  • Court 4 - adjacent to No.3 Court.

Millennium Building Players’ Facilities

  • Competitors’ Restaurant Food Court re-designed to provide more space. 
  • Also, greater range of food, including fresh pasta prepared to order.
  • From 2013, provision of enhanced space and comfort for the players (see picture in pack).
  • Build after 2012, ready for The Championships 2013.

No.1 Court

  • Construction of two balconies with permanent tensioned fabric canopies for debenture holders featuring a new reception area plus restaurant of approximately 140 covers and a new bar terrace. 

Ground Capacity

  • Increased by 1000 to 38,500 from 37,500 (2010).

The Queue and general Security

  • The Queue does not start until 08:00 on Sunday 19th June.
  • Ground entry security procedures will be at an appropriately high level. 
  • On-day sales queue in Wimbledon Park leading to off-site search/scanning operation.
  • All ticket holders searched on entry.
  • Only one bag per ticket holder allowed.  No larger than 16x12x12ins (45x30x30cm). 
  • No hard-sided hampers, cool-boxes or brief cases allowed into the grounds.
  • No Left Luggage facilities inside the grounds (facilities located outside the grounds on the Golf Course, Car Park 1 and St Mary’s Church car park). 

Chairman’s Special Guests

  • John Newcombe - Gentlemen’s Singles Champion 1967, 1970, 1971.
  • Angela Barrett (nee Mortimer) - Ladies’ Singles Champion 1961.

Commercial
The Club’s commercial strategy continues to deliver long-term relationships with prestigious international organizations with one new major broadcast partner and three new Official Supplier agreements signed this year, as well as the significant broadcast and Official Supplier contracts already in place.

Television

  • Wimbledon continues to be covered by the majority of the world’s major broadcasters across close to 200 broadcast territories. 
  • In Europe, successful renegotiation of broadcast arrangements territory by territory to ensure maximum coverage of future Championships.
  • New multi-year agreement with Channel Seven, the leading free-to-air broadcaster in Australia, working alongside our existing subscription partner Fox Sports.

Official Suppliers

  • Sony - new multi-year agreement to be Official 3D Partner.  Up to 600 cinemas taking 3D coverage of Men’s Singles Semi-Finals, Men’s and Ladies Singles Finals.  Sony 3D coverage will also be taken by a number of the Club’s global broadcasters.
  • Lavazza - new multi-year agreement to be Official Coffee. 
  • Jacob’s Creek - returns with new multi-year agreement as Official Wine. 

Digital

  • Refreshing the brand – as part of the overall digital strategy, the look and feel of the brand has been refreshed to create a more classic, timeless look and to optimise flexibility of use and legibility across a wider range of platforms, eg Web, Mobile, iPad, print, merchandise, licensed products. 
  • Wimbledon.com - a new look year round website will launch with series of weekly competitions starting 19 April.  Opportunity to win a number of Centre and No.3 court tickets across a period of six weeks. All details of the competition are on the www.wimbledon.com home page.

No.1 Court Debenture Issue

  • New issue covering The Championships 2012-2016 inclusive to be launched next week.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum

  • The Club has become a founding partner of VisitBritain, which will offer joint promotional benefits to the Museum and the Tour (see press release in pack for full details).
  • Museum TV ads shown in the USA, Far East and Australia, while VisitBritain will benefit from reciprocal television advertising opportunities arising from Club’s global broadcast partners.

London 2012 Olympics

  • Venue contract signed and working closely with LOCOG to ensure that the Olympic tennis at Wimbledon is a success.

ATP World Tour Finals

  • World’s largest indoor tennis event enjoyed a second successful year in London at the O2 produced by ATP in association with AELTC/LTA.
  • Keen to retain the event in London, but the situation for this event and others is made increasingly difficult by HMRC insistence on taxing endorsements of incoming sports stars. 

HSBC Road to Wimbledon/China

  • As part of HSBC ‘Road to Wimbledon’ joint marketing initiative between Wimbledon and HSBC to build on brand interest in China (27 shops currently)
  • Chinese juniors (2 boys/2 girls) and coach invited to this year’s Championships to take part in the middle Saturday clinic with HSBC Ambassador Tim Henman and Club coach Dan Bloxham.
  • Plan for China to stage a ‘Road to Wimbledon’ event in the future.  Also intention to look at India and Brazil for similar activity culminating in a four-way international competition in 2013.

Pre-Championships’ Diary Dates

  • Wild cards announced - from Monday 6 June.
  • Seedings announced - Wednesday 15 June, around 12 noon.
  • Draw - Friday 17 June, from 10.00am.
  • Defending Champions’ interviews - Sunday 19 June, 11.30am and 12 noon.

-  ENDS  -

For further information please contact: Johnny Perkins, AELTC PR, + 44 (0)208 971 2529/2443.  + 44 (0)7909 975152, Johnny@johnnyperkinsassociates.com