Wimbledon Tickets

Wacko

Just wondering if anyone here has had any experience of q-ing for Wimbledon tickets at the ground on the day. I will be in London for the first week of the tournament and would love to get in for a day, not a major tennis fan so not looking for centre court tickets or anything just general admission to have the experience. So anyway has anyone here gotten tickets before, how many hours before play would you be looking at q-ing for ?

cfitz

Wacko wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone here has had any experience of q-ing for Wimbledon tickets at the ground on the day. I will be in London for the first week of the tournament and would love to get in for a day, not a major tennis fan so not looking for centre court tickets or anything just general admission to have the experience. So anyway has anyone here gotten tickets before, how many hours before play would you be looking at q-ing for ?

I've queued for tickets at Wimbledon 2006 in Week 2. Queued for 4th round and for womens quarter-finals.

Queued from around 7:30am I think on the 4th round day and got general admission. Probably could have got away with arriving maybe an hour later but I prefer to play things safe. General access allows you access to the terrace on one of the show courts as well so it's not too bad at all.

Queued from about 6pm the night before for the womens quarter-finals day. Were about 25th in the queue and we chose to go to Court 1. Saw Mauresmo beat Henin, from right beside the court - close enough that you could hear Justine say 'Allez' anytime she took a good winner. It's very hard to know, but I think we could have got tickets to Court 1 if we'd queued early that morning (though not as close to the court).

It's a brilliant experience. Really good buzz about it, everything is very relaxed. A lot of queueing but the mood is very relaxed and happy. I got good info off the 'TalkTennis' forum before I went. Enjoy, I'd love to go again!

Geog

If you're prepared to go the extra hog, I know that some travel agents can get them as part of a 'deal'.

Hackysack

The queuing can be good craic, though i'd recommend you bring one of those chairs that fold up for sitting (and a blanket if you're cold/whatever). We found ourselves getting centre court tickets comfortably from queuing at around 3am (however, if it's a day that Murray/any other English 'superstar' is playing, you'd want to be a bit earlier).

For ground passes, i'd recommend queuing no later that 6.

It's really not all that bad though, since you can deposit your stuff for safe-keeping before you go into the grounds.

Tickets aren't all that expensive either, around 3-4 years ago they were less than 20 pound to get the ground passes.

Enjoy.

enzo7

im a huge tennis fan and ive always wanted to go to wimbeldon is there anyway of getting tickets b4 hand, would rather not que but would if i had to i guess, wont be going this yr but maybe nxt yr.

whats the storey with d french open ticket wise is it d same as wimbeldon.

Hackysack

I don't know figures for definite, but you'd have to pay through your teeth to get tickets beforehand.

enzo7

cfitz wrote: »

I've queued for tickets at Wimbledon 2006 in Week 2. Queued for 4th round and for womens quarter-finals.

Queued from around 7:30am I think on the 4th round day and got general admission. Probably could have got away with arriving maybe an hour later but I prefer to play things safe. General access allows you access to the terrace on one of the show courts as well so it's not too bad at all.

Queued from about 6pm the night before for the womens quarter-finals day. Were about 25th in the queue and we chose to go to Court 1. Saw Mauresmo beat Henin, from right beside the court - close enough that you could hear Justine say 'Allez' anytime she took a good winner. It's very hard to know, but I think we could have got tickets to Court 1 if we'd queued early that morning (though not as close to the court).

It's a brilliant experience. Really good buzz about it, everything is very relaxed. A lot of queueing but the mood is very relaxed and happy. I got good info off the 'TalkTennis' forum before I went. Enjoy, I'd love to go again!

queued from 6pm the night b4 for womens quarter???? really how did you stay awake for the match:D did u sleep in ur chair on the pavement?? how much would ticket be exactly. if i went queing for ticket id want court 1 or centre court tickets.

am i right in thinking general tickets you can go watch any match besides centre and court 1?

cfitz

Ah the two quarter-final matches on Court 1 were good We probably didn't need to queue so early, but we'd never been before, and anyway it was cool getting courtside seats. We also got to watch the longest match ever in Wimbledon - mens doubles (but we didn't stay for it all). And we swapped tickets with some American girls for a while so we could see Centre Court too. We brought a half tent/shelter and set it up on the pavement and slept there. Ordered pizza to be delivered for dinner! It wasn't bad at all. Some people had deck chairs and tents, others had very little. We got great weather though. The tickets were fairly reasonable, you can check the current prices on http://www.wimbledon.org. From what I can remember, there were 4 types of tickets: Centre Court, Court 1, Court 3, General Admission. All of Show Court tickets allowed you to visit all the normal courts, and General Admission tickets also allowed you access to the Court 3 terrace.

enzo7

thanks, ill check out that link, ok another question what do you do with ur tent/chair ect. when you get ur tickets is there lockers inside in wimbeldon soz prob stupid question. i sounds like fun doe getting pizza delivered to ur little campsite .

cfitz

I think the way it worked was, as the queue moved forward you got to a place where you had to choose which court you wanted a ticket for and they gave you a wristband or something. Then further up the queue there was a place where you could leave your bag in a locker and they gave you a ticket number for when you came back to collect it after. Then the queue moved up further to the gates and as soon as it opened you chose your seats at the stile and paid and in you went!

The queueing is different from normal queueing - there was no pushing or shoving, everything was very relaxed. The whole place is quite like how you might imagine it, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Worst part was trying to get to sleep on the pavement I suppose!

Stevecw

I'm a huge tennis fan & would love to go to Wimbledon.
Until this year i couldn't as i've either been in college or working...but as so many others my job is gone now....so i am bored doing nothing.

I enjoyed being unemployed during French Open as i could watch all day for 1st time ever. I could repeat that for Wimbledon, but i'd much rather try go there and get into a few of the outside courts even.

I see Enzo here wants to go, but doesn't want to queue?? Thats impossible i reckon. I'd love to go over even for 1st week, grab a cheap place to stay & get in 1st week, then when it gets more important 2nd week see how it goes.

Wimbledon is something i've always wanted to go to, and due to lack of family & frend interest in tennis & up to now college & work i haven't had the chance. So this is my year to try it.

I'm prob gonna go anyway on my own, but i'd much prefer 1 or 2 others to be with me!!

enzo7

cfitz wrote: »

I think the way it worked was, as the queue moved forward you got to a place where you had to choose which court you wanted a ticket for and they gave you a wristband or something. Then further up the queue there was a place where you could leave your bag in a locker and they gave you a ticket number for when you came back to collect it after. Then the queue moved up further to the gates and as soon as it opened you chose your seats at the stile and paid and in you went!

The queueing is different from normal queueing - there was no pushing or shoving, everything was very relaxed. The whole place is quite like how you might imagine it, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Worst part was trying to get to sleep on the pavement I suppose!

thanks for d info, i think ill def do it nxt yr cant this yr as ill be just back from holidays, good to hear about the queing being relaxed hav to admit i was a bit nervous about camping on the pavement ive never been one for camping never went to slane or anything like that the thought of camping in a field horrified me:eek:. but i think i could do it if it ment spending the day watching tennis:D.

Fighting Irish

Hackysack wrote: »

I don't know figures for definite, but you'd have to pay through your teeth to get tickets beforehand.

know of anybody selling some? My parents are going over and are looking for some

Hackysack

If they queue early enough they can get them on the day. The only way I heard of 'pre-booking' them would be through a package deal with travel agents I think.

MisterAnarchy

cfitz wrote: »

The queueing is different from normal queueing - there was no pushing or shoving, everything was very relaxed. The whole place is quite like how you might imagine it, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Worst part was trying to get to sleep on the pavement I suppose!

Sleep on the pavement !
Bollix to that.
I was at the US Open in Flushing Meadows a few years ago.
$20 for a day pass to the outer courts,no queuing ,wander around to your hearts content.

cfitz

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Sleep on the pavement !
Bollix to that.
I was at the US Open in Flushing Meadows a few years ago.
$20 for a day pass to the outer courts,no queuing ,wander around to your hearts content.

Good for you. I'd rather see two quarter-finals in Wimbledon.

gkenny

Thinking of going to Wimbledon tomorrow. What time would you need to queue from to guarantee any type of tickets. Bearing in mind Andy Murray is playing tomorrow.

cfitz

gkenny wrote: »

Thinking of going to Wimbledon tomorrow. What time would you need to queue from to guarantee any type of tickets. Bearing in mind Andy Murray is playing tomorrow.

Are you in London at the moment? Best way of finding out would probably be to head down to SW19 this afternoon and have a chat with the volunteers outside and some of the people leaving the grounds. At a wild guess, you'll probably get a grounds pass if you arrive before 7:30am, possibly a show court ticket if you arrive before 6:30am. If you want to see Murray playing you might need to queue for a long time. It's very hard to guess though, maybe if someone who's there today reads this they'll be able to help.

gkenny

Earliest car park opening time is 6 30 so probably try to get there around this time. Will let you all know how it goes.

ergo

this is gonna be a bit late for the person going today but here's what happened to me yesterday when I wandered along to get tickets

we got up from our hotel at 6am but by the time we arrived at the ground and got to the queue at approx 745 there were 5,020 people ahead of us in the queue....:eek:
(by the way: get off at SouthFields (the 3rd last tube station) and not Wimbledon which is the last- it's about 15 mins walk from southfields)

the stewards did say that there were twice as many people there yesterday as they expected so hard to predict I suppose from day to day

we met people who had queued overnight with tents etc, they didn't say exactly what time they started but they said they were position 600 in the queue and got tickets for courts number 1 and 2 (I think)
they told me if they had been in the first 500 they could have got on for centre court - need to verify this - I heard somewhere else it's only the first 100 get on to centre court

the first person to start queung for today's games started at 7.30am yesterday... :eek:

they release 6,000 general admission tickets then which gets you on to courst 3-19

at 4pm they start issuing (from a booth inside the ground not far from the start of the Henman hill/Murray mount) returned tickets for £5 which gives you access to the seat on a show court belonging to someone who has left early and been kind enough to hand back/get their ticket scanned as being finished with

---

> through this I got to get into Centre court (my first time ever!) for the last half of the Djokovic game

will add any more tips if I think of them - the queue was very welll organised, it's mostly in a big park, they handed out numbers to people, not sure what time they started doing that, by the time they got to 5,000 it was 930 ish

best of luck everyone!

gkenny

Arrived in the car park at 6 10 am. made it to the queue at approx 6 25. got no. 2067. Friend arrived 10 min later and got no. 2600ish. Queue was filling pretty rapidly after this. Time went pretty quickly in the queue. Brilliant day out was had and for £20 is brilliant value. Would recommend any one any way thinking about going to do it.

finbarrk

What time do the gates open?

cfitz

Think it's usually around 11:30am. It's probably on the website somewhere (www.wimbledon.org).

Frank3142

Me and my mam went last friday. She had went there before to have a gawk around one year, it happened to be rainy that day and late so she was able to join the queue and get in after about 10 mins.
But this year jeez, we arrived at 11:00 thinking we were in loads of time for 1:00 pm start, we got off the bus and the man told us we had a five hour queue ahead of us. We went in to Wimbledon park to see thousands of people ahead of us in "The Queue" .we got our queue cards and we were about no. 10,000. we were static for about 2 hours and then we were moved on another bit, there was a fairly steady flow in the queue for about 20 mins presumably because Federer had finished. Then we were static again for a while. When we got out on to the road the queue was moving incredibly slow and everyone was getting very frustrated except for some americans who kept playing some musical game called "big booty". Eventually we got there after 7 hours in time to get on to centre court to see Djockovic v Fish. I suppose it was kind of worth it. Queuing was fine until the last hour or two, we made lots of friends and everyone was fairly upbeat and friendly.
If i was to queue again I would probably camp overnight or go at 6 am or something. Oh and bring a huge packed lunch instead of buying burgers every five minutes, bring something to read and aything you can find which will keep you amused for a while and dont be afraid to join in one of the many football games in the park.

finbarrk

Jesus, I don't think I would wait 6 or 7 hours in a que.
I wonder how much do the travel agents sell package deals for?

loyatemu

ergo wrote: »

I heard somewhere else it's only the first 100 get on to centre court

doesn't that court hold 15,000 people? how do the likes of Ewan McGregor and Trevor McDonald get their tix?

EDIT - just checked their website, I can see now that only a small number of tickets are held back for general admission on the day, the rest are sold in advance by public ballot (though I presume the celebs just pull some strings at the All-England club to get theirs...)