Wimbledon set to receive £114m insurance payout after cancellation of tournament – report

Wimbledon
The All England Lawn Tennis Club - Wimbledon

The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s decision to take out pandemic insurance in 2003 has proven to be a stroke of brilliance as Wimbledon will receive £114million after this year’s tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

For the first time since World War II, there will be no grass-court Grand Slam at SW19 after organisers decided it was not safe to hold the event this year due to Covid-19 and confirmed that the 134th Championships would now be staged in 2021.

“Of course we are fortunate to have insurance – it helps – but it doesn’t serve all the problems,” AELTC chief executive Richard Lewis said last week.

“There are a lot of details to work through. The insurance will help protect the surplus to an extent, I would say to a large extent.”

Wimbledon was expected to earn about £250m in revenue this year, but AELTC will reportedly be awarded £114million in compensation.

According to Darren Rovell from Action Network, back in 2003 Wimbledon took out an insurance policy of $2m (about £1.61m) per year for pandemic cover following the SARS virus outbreak.

Now 17 years later it has proven to be an excellent decision as they will get $141 million (about £114m) from the policy.

“We have always sought to buy the optimum insurance coverage available,” a Wimbledon spokesperson added to Rovell.

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