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

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.
Wimbledon reportedly paid $2 million a year for pandemic insurance for the last 17 years
(Total: $34 Million)
For this year’s cancellation as a result of the Coronavirus, Wimbledon will reportedly receive $141 million from the policy.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 8, 2020
“We have always sought to buy the optimum insurance coverage available,” a Wimbledon spokesperson added to Rovell.
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