Why I’m Not Doing Wimbledon This Year

This is the first year in five years that I didn’t go down to SW19 for The Championships at Wimbledon. Why?

• Money! A day at Wimbledon isn’t cheap! A hotel room the night before (see below for why you might need one) costs no less than £80, the cost to get in is anywhere between £20 and £90 depending on the ticket you get, and food & drink is a total rip-off. A small cup of Pimms (nice as it is) costs £6. Ouch! With the forthcoming iPhone 3G on my shopping list and upcoming trips to Paris and Norway, a day at Wimbledon doesn’t fit inside my current budget.
• It’s a long day! To ensure you get a seat on one of the show courts, you need to get a good spot in the infamous queue. To maximise your chances, you really ought to be in the queue by 06h30-07h00. To do that, you can either start the day from home, in which case you need to wake up at 03h00, or you can book a room at a hotel, which still means you need to wake up at 05h30. What with the more expensive peak-time evening hours on the trains, you’ll not want to leave the ground until after 19h30 and if there’s a good match on, you could be there until 21h30. That means you’d be getting home at 23h00. What with all the waiting around in the queue (normally 4-5 hours), it’s a draining day.
• Catering at Wimbledon is rubbish! This is a minor point, but still important. I’ve already mentioned how expensive the food is, but it’s also worth saying how terrible it is. No matter what time of day you go, there’ll be an enormous queue and by the time you reach the counter, you’ll be disappointed by the selection. Incidentally, you’ll be joining the queue without knowing what’s on offer since the list of available items is written in tiny font behind the counter. The selection is the same every single year and is not particularly good quality either.
• The best seat is at home. Seriously! It’s particularly the case if you’re in Britain where the host broadcaster, the BBC, lay on a plethora of ways to watch. This year you can watch in high definition on BBC HD, choose from six courts at any one time with BBCi, watch on the BBC Sport website or watch again up to seven days later via BBC iPlayer. While you don’t get to soak in the unique Wimbledon atmosphere, you do get the closer to the action.

It’s important to note that these are the reasons I’m not going this year. I’d still recommend you go, especially if you haven’t been before. It’s a very special event that is so deeply routed into British culture that everyone ought to experience it at least once, even if you’re not that into Tennis. Seeing world-famous Tennis players in the flesh (doing their best to ignore you) and seeing the court attendants pull the covers on as another shower floats over is exciting! If you can put up with the catering, the expense and the long day, you should definitely go.

Do yourself a favour though and get yourself entered into the public ballot for tickets. That’s what I’ll be doing for next year. It doesn’t guarantee you tickets, but if you are lucky, the day is much more relaxing and there’s hardly any queuing at all (unless you want a cray fish sandwich).