Wimbledon: Empty seats on Centre Court leave fans frustrated

Empty seats have been blamed on ticketholders preferring to sample the hospitality options, while technical issues with re-sale market have also contributed

Tennis fans have been left frustrated after seeing more empty seats on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

With high demand for tickets on the show courts, fans have been left especially dispirited with seats even empty for Andy Murray vs John Isner and Emma Raducanu vs Caroline Garcia.

Complaints have been lodged to the All England Club, with BBC presenter Sue Barker acknowledging the issue of “lots of empty seats” before Raducanu’s second-round match begun.

Most of the empty seats are situated surrounding the Royal Box, which are usually reserved for corporate guests and Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) members and the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Those with hospitality tickets sometimes opt “to drop in and drop out of the tennis”, with Paul Miller, the founder of Eden Mill, the official gin partner to the LTA, conceding that some guests would consider the tennis of secondary importance, emphasising: “that’s their prerogative”.

Empty seats have been a common theme on Centre Court this week (PA)

He added: “The ability to have the peaceful little bit of time away from all the hubbub around Wimbledon where there’s a lot of noise and a lot of action going on and being able to step outside and be looked after for a brief time in between matches … in that [hospitality] area.

“The ability to be able to drop in and drop out of the tennis, see as much or as little as you want, and also in our case where we’re hosting a lot of guests – to be able to allow them to do as they wish.”

Beyond those sampling hospitality away from Centre Court, there have been technical glitches on the first two days of the championship, with the re-sale market for Centre Court impacted.

Fans at the front of the queue on Wednesday evening at 6pm had been waiting for more than two hours for Centre Court tickets.

Killy Cavendish, a reglar at Wimbledon, told the Guardian: “I am fed up. I don’t like seeing empty seats at all, when people are stuck outside queueing. The main thing I want to see is them release some Centre Court tickets.”

While Max Smith added: “Hate it. It does leave a bad taste when you see all those empty seats reserved for corporates. Screw the corporate types, they should just go to a fancy restaurant instead. Wimbledon needs to do more to make it seem like it’s not elitist.”