WIMBLEDON

July 8, 2001

Chris Gorringe

CHRIS GORRINGE: Good afternoon. Have you all had a copy of the press announcement which is literally hot off the press? Would you like to ask questions on it or do you want me to summarize it? How would you like to play it?

CHRIS GORRINGE: Well, the first thing is that play will start at 12:00 noon, weather permitting. Gates will open at 10:30. We will have 10,000 unreserved Centre Court seats available on a first-come, first-served basis at the main turnstiles at a price of 40 pounds each. In addition, we will have 5,000 ground passes available at 10 pounds each to watch, if there's any play on any of the other courts, and also to be able to watch on the two television screens. We've been able to keep the secondary screen down by Court 11 for an extra day. It was due to go elsewhere, but we managed to keep that for another day. I think that's the nuts and bolts of the thing.

CHRIS GORRINGE: We sincerely hope so. It would be a huge shame if it wasn't. I'm sure we'll ensure that it is full.

CHRIS GORRINGE: What we do, as in the past - as they are unreserved - the public will go in and they generally fill up from the front backwards. We are holding back at the moment 3,000 reserved seats within the Centre Court. That is primarily for debenture holders who have a legal right for a seat, competitors, press, Royal Box members, LTA, et cetera. If we don't use that 3,000, if they're not required, then obviously, hopefully, we can fill that up with the fans.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Yes, there is a concern, obviously. That was my main concern. When we had our first middle Sunday, that was my main concern. I thought we could get 150,000 people, or whatever. And that was one of the reasons why we decided we would charge the price for these 10,000 seats as we have done. Some people might say, "Well, it should be a lot less." Some people might say a lot more. It's the first time I think we've ever had a men's singles final start in the third week on that third Monday. And we feel that 40 pounds is a fair price for a men's singles final, bearing in mind it's 66 pounds today, and also the fact that by putting what we think is a sensible price, it might keep the number of people to a limited proportion - the queues in the streets.

CHRIS GORRINGE: No idea at all. We've obviously consulted with the police. They're happy with the arrangements. They're happy with the pricing that we are doing. They are confident that they can manage the situation with the help of our stewards.

CHRIS GORRINGE: We've done middle Sunday twice now. I think at the end, we got everyone in. It was quite amazing. The first middle Sunday, I recall we got everyone in. It was just perfect. It helped the fact that we had rain, we told people don't come unless they live locally. To an extent, we would say that people should be weary of coming long distances in the event that we have a limited and reduced ground capacity.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I don't know. All I know is Alan Mills spoke to the three players concerned individually, and the answer that came back, very positively, from Goran and Tim, that they would hope and expect the final be played on the Monday. And Rafter was also pleased with that possibility.

CHRIS GORRINGE: At the moment, that's our policy, yes. I think we would have to monitor the situation because, remember, our ground capacity is reached, bearing in mind the number of courts that are actually in play and the number of seats around those courts in play. Therefore, although our -- so our ground capacity is infinitely greater when we have all 18 courts in play than what might be the occasion tomorrow. If we find that we are playing on another one of the show courts, because we have the mixed doubles final possibly to play, and it's all comfortable and the weather is nice, we would certainly be letting some more people in. At the moment, the position is we are on a reduced ground capacity.

CHRIS GORRINGE: No. The aim is to try to finish as many matches and finals today as we possibly can.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Yes, we did consider that. I think the main negative of that would be that you are really playing into the hands of the ticket touts. If you sold your tickets, anyone would go up, say, "I'll get a ticket," knowing possibly full well they couldn't come the following day, then you lose control. At least by the system that we've tried to adopt, which is to reduce ticket touting here, as you know, since 1990, the only real way of doing that is by selling it on the day at the turnstiles.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Probably. We did in 1922, I think it was.

CHRIS GORRINGE: To be honest, we don't know. It is a possibility. As I say, we have consulted the police. They are happy with the situation. Because it is the first time we've had a men's singles, it is very difficult to predict what might happen. You could say we'll be hugely criticised by people if we charged 80 pounds. We don't at the moment know who's going to be in the final. We hope it's going to be Tim - some of us do. So it's a very difficult one. The people who were involved in this didn't pick 40 pounds just like that, and that was it. There was a lot of consultation and consideration given to it.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Yes.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I think we have many of the contingency plans in place. It's not as if we haven't been to a third Monday before. Many of the contingency plans are in place. So much depends on what matches are due to be played on that third Monday. As I say, it's the first time we've had a complete men's singles final on the third Monday. When Edberg played Becker in 1998, it was to finish the match. Last year was just ladies' doubles, et cetera, et cetera. There's so many variations and combinations which makes it very difficult to have a concrete ticket pricing or arrangement in place.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Then you've got to get the tickets to the individuals concerned.

CHRIS GORRINGE: There are practical difficulties, also it does play into the hands of the ticket touts.

CHRIS GORRINGE: No. I've put calls through to the local council first thing this morning. They were fully conversant with what we've been doing. I haven't spoken to any of the resident associations, of which there are about 30 around here, I think. However, it's quite clear that we would all like to be off tomorrow. It's not something which we've done lightly. I think another reason why we're pricing it as we are, hopefully that will reduce the inconvenience to our neighbours which we try to keep in mind all the time.

CHRIS GORRINGE: We've kept a good proportion. We feel we've got enough. We rely, as you appreciate, on sort of volunteer student manpower a great deal. We're certainly not -- we haven't got everyone coming back, as many perhaps as ideally one would like to, because that's the problem of going into a third Monday as opposed to in the old days going into a Sunday, which was a rest day, and it was easier to keep people on for that extra day. But we feel we have sufficient, both in security stewards and honorary stewards, who are quite amazing, who do so much good work with the queues, talking to the queues. A huge number of those, a great proportion of those anyway, are willing to come back.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I don't know the amount. It was a full refund, automatic refund, for everyone who came to The Championships, because we didn't -- we were under an hour's play.

CHRIS GORRINGE: There will be just one queue northwards, and that has already started, as many of you may have seen. They will be kept informed of the situation by the honorary stewards and Securicor with an overriding presence of the police. There will be an indication given to those who are queueing when we have got to 10,000, and then subsequently 5,000. We don't know within the first 10,000 whether everyone wants a seat or a ground pass. But people will be clicked so people know when you've got to about 10,000, and a further 5,000. When we get to 15,000, they'll be advised, "Quite likely you won't get in."

CHRIS GORRINGE: The Wimbledon Park Golf Club have kindly agreed that the public car parking will be available there. We believe, but I haven't had it confirmed as I sit here now, that car park ten, Wimbledon Park, will also be available. They did on the third Monday last year. Generally, we ask that people come by public transport.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I'm sure. Haven't got to reviewing at the moment, sorting out this wonderful opportunity which we've got (smiling).

CHRIS GORRINGE: I believe so. But, please, don't put that on Radio Wimbledon yet until we have that confirmed to you. It may well be. I know they're talking to them, have been talking.

CHRIS GORRINGE: No. I think also to give people an opportunity to know a reasonable amount of time in advance what our plans are, what the pricing is, now it's done, in an orderly fashion. And also that on all other occasions here at The Championships, in my memory, tickets are sold on the day, and they're not sold in advance at site. Do you understand what I'm getting at? So we didn't want to sort of change the way that we manage things because that complicates the fans. It's very difficult to put out any message, as it is. We're grateful to you for all the help you give in the media on it. So we wanted to keep it simple, straightforward, and something they understand and know.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I think there's a lot of if's we could go over. I think it's probably not the time to look back. We have an opportunity here. I'm grateful to him for that, but he's gone. We have to look forward and manage the present. There will be plenty of time to review what's been happening in the last few days.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Oh, sure.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I'm confident because I have the utmost faith in the security, i.e., police and our security guards, our honorary stewards, and more importantly the nature of fans who come and queue. I think traditionally we have the best queueing fans of any that I know anywhere. They've always behaved extremely well. We've had experience for the middle Saturday before now. That's always passed off well. I have every confidence that they will treat this in the same light.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I think there will be an element of a middle Saturday to it because those people who are queueing all that length of time, they must be and are hugely enthusiastic supporters.

CHRIS GORRINGE: There will be additional costs, obviously, for tomorrow. But I'm not here to say what those costs are or what the revenue is. You can work out what the revenue is if we sell all the tickets. It's something which we've got to do. It's a question of that.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I think the point that I mentioned earlier was we will give an indication to the people in the queue when we have reached ground capacity number. Then at that stage, stewards and the police will say, "There is really no point in you queueing." We've had experience in the past where we've had to shut the gates. People do go away at that stage. They understand the situation.

CHRIS GORRINGE: No, I don't think so. Never happens like that with any sporting event. A, there's a lot of sort of clearing up to do, a lot of things to do. Then we start preparing for next year. Simple as that.

CHRIS GORRINGE: Court 4?

CHRIS GORRINGE: No.

CHRIS GORRINGE: I think the fact that we've managed to get quite considerable -- we had to take it from another venue, I'm not sure where the venue was, it's not easy to procure these things at short notice. We managed to get it for the last three days. We only made the decision at 1:00 on Thursday that we were going to have that screen to get it for the last three days. Now we've had the benefit of keeping it for the third Monday, which is good. I think we can still get 1500 people down there.