Why Is It So Hard to Get Wimbledon Tickets?

Tickets for marquee sporting events don’t come cheap. A top Premier League match, where a stadium can pack 40,000 to 60,000 football fans, easily runs £100 ($121) for club members, with prices far higher on the secondary market. A weekend at the just completed Silverstone Grand Prix starts at a mere £155, but prices quickly get into the thousands for the full hospitality experience.

Only at Wimbledon, though, is a readiness to spend on tickets nowhere near enough to get you through the gates. You must also be lucky or tenacious, and often both. And yet fans at the tournament and even those who watched on television noted all the empty seats as major stars such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and last year’s surprise US Open champ Emma Raducanu took to the court.