What an endearing slice of history it is – or unbearable English stuffiness, depending on your point of view - that Wimbledon, the world's most prestigious grand slam tournament, is, and has always been, run by the private, still just 375-member, All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. Croquet was played first, in fact, then the inaugural tennis championships were held by the club in 1877, after the game was introduced to the club by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield (I am really not making this up). That first tournament was a garden party, for which 200 spectators paid a shilling each, and the Gentlemen's Singles, the only event, was won by Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian.
Now, the overgrown garden party of Wimbledon fortnight is watched by 450,000 spectators, including 2,300 who have paid £23,150 each for a debenture. That guarantees them just one centre court ticket every day of the championships between 2006 and 2010. That was a license to print £46m.
The club, rooted in tradition but moving unerringly with the times, is less coy than you might think about discussing money. It openly publishes the prize money to be claimed by the winners, and a list of how that purse has massively grown since professional players were first allowed to compete in 1968. Rod Laver, winner of that original "open" championships, went home with £2,000. This year the winners of the men's and women's singles will each bank £850,000.
