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LONDON—Across the
street from the tennis courts, where she won nine
Wimbledon titles, champion-turned-artist Martina
Navratilova explains to lunch guests how she dips balls
into paint and whacks them against canvas.
As
Navratilova talks to diners enjoying corporate
hospitality at the Sportsworld Fairway Village, former
men’s winners Boris Becker and Pat Cash hold court with
champagne-drinking guests in private suites nearby.
While
the financial-services industry cuts spending in
response to the credit drought, one London event is
immune. Wimbledon’s 25,000 seats for corporate
hospitality are sold out.
Tickets
for a quarterfinal Wednesday were sold for £1,525
($3,000) online, more than 20 times what fans paid at
the gate. Firms are paying up to £300,000 to entertain
groups during the tournament, 4 percent more than last
year.
“Companies are looking at their finances right now, but
it’s very important to look after your clients and show
them how appreciative you are,” said Mike Pullen, head
of the European antitrust and trade team at London-based
law firm DLA Piper.
Pullen,
who took clients to Wimbledon last week, said the
economic downturn has made hospitality more important.
Wimbledon, which drew 444,810 people last year, is
Europe’s top sports-catering event, according to the All
England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the championships’
home.
Fans and
corporate guests this year will consume 28,000 kg
(62,000 lb) of strawberries—the staple food, with cream,
at Wimbledon—and 17,000 bottles of champagne, organizers
say.
Prince’s
girlfriend
Ten
strawberries sell for £2.25, 12.5 percent more than in
2007, while a magnum of Lanson champagne, containing 12
glasses, costs £95.
Fans and
sponsors spent £90 million at Wimbledon last year,
according to research by Prof. Tom Cannon at the
University of Buckingham.
“It’s a
very special occasion, it’s the global tennis event of
the year,” said Graham Bethell, the managing director of
gelatin producer Gelita UK Ltd., who has been taking
customers to the championships for 15 years.
Wimbledon is one of the three blue-ribbon events of the British
summer, along with the Formula One Grand Prix auto race
and Royal Ascot horseracing. Celebrities and royalty
also turn out at the southwest London venue. Prince
William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton and singers Sting
and Grace Jones have been among the spectators this
year.
Debenture seats—or seat purchases which cover five-year
periods—for yesterday’s quarterfinal between Andy Murray
and Rafael Nadal of Spain were being resold for £1,525
each on The Online Ticket Shop. The price was more than
20 times the £7 paid by fans who camped overnight for
the 500 tickets available on the gate.
Sold out
“Demand
tends to outstrip supply,” Wimbledon marketing director
Robert McCowen said. “This year we sold out in February,
which is about the same as in previous years.”
Sportsworld, one of two official corporate-hospitality
providers at the championship, charges from as little as
£460 a person for a one-day hospitality package,
including tickets for one of the two main courts, with
£2,980 securing a seat for the men’s final.
The
Abingdon, England-based company will have hosted 5,000
people by the time the tournament finishes on July 6.
Wimbledon has reduced the capacity for corporate hospitality within
the grounds from 46 marquees in the early 1990s to 36
marquees and suites this year.
The club
did so to increase exclusivity and make more tickets
available for fans. Less than 8 percent of seats on the
best two courts are available for corporate use.
Rolls-Royce, Jaguar
Entertaining groups of as many as 40 people for two
weeks during the tournament will cost between £250,000
and £300,000 per sponsor, according to the club. In
return, they get seats on the best courts, gourmet food
and drink and the opportunity to promote their business
to clients.
On the
golf course across the street, which acts as a parking
lot during the championships, Rolls-Royces and Jaguars
with personalized plates stand parked between putting
greens.
HSBC
Holdings Plc., which is using Wimbledon as the
centerpiece for global advertising and marketing
campaigns, said its managers requested more tickets for
clients than it could supply.
“In the
good times it’s easy to forget, but when finance
directors are looking very hard to make savings, you
need to show it’s benefiting the business,” said Giles
Morgan, head of sponsorship at London-based HSBC,
Europe’s largest bank.
Back at
the Sportsworld tent, Navratilova, who is playing in the
Wimbledon veterans’ tournament, looks at the à la carte
meals being served up to her audience. “The food here is
a lot better than we get in the players’ lounge,” she
says.
No
contest whatsoever
LEST
anyone forget that Roger Federer has, indeed, lost at
Wimbledon, the BBC filled time during a rain delay
Wednesday by rolling tape of his 2002 first-round exit
against Mario Ancic.
That, of
course, was the last time Federer stepped on a court at
the All-England Club—or anywhere on grass, for that
matter—and walked away without winning.
Once
Wednesday’s weather cleared up, Federer faced off
against Ancic on Centre Court once more, only this time
they were playing in the 2008 quarterfinals, and it was
no contest whatsoever.
The
top-ranked Federer dismissed Ancic, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, to
extend all manner of streaks: 39 consecutive wins at
Wimbledon, 64 consecutive wins on grass and 17
consecutive semifinal appearances at Grand Slam
tournaments.
There
were other numbers at which to marvel, not the least of
which was this: Federer won 61 of 71 points on his
serve.
Asked
afterward if he could pick one match over his career
that stands out from the rest in terms of quality,
Federer replied, “Thankfully, I get those moments quite
often, actually.”
So
there.
If
anyone wondered whether the thumping he took from Rafael
Nadal in last month’s French Open final might have a
lasting effect on Federer, it sure doesn’t sound as
though there’s anything wrong with his
confidence—particularly here.
“I’ll
have a chance to win this tournament for the next five
or 10 years,” said Federer, whose semifinal opponent
Friday is the resurgent Marat Safin, a former No. 1
player, who owns two Grand Slam titles.
“My
game’s made for grass,” Federer continued. “There will
always be tough opponents, dangerous opponents. That has
been the case for the last years, as well. But I found a
way to win always. Of course, my dream is to not only
win this year, but many more years to come.”
He is
trying to become the first man since 1886 to win
Wimbledon six years in a row. Pete Sampras never did it.
Neither did Bjorn Borg. The only man who did? Willie
Renshaw, and he only needed to win one match in each of
his five title defenses, because back then the reigning
champion got a bye into the final.
Federer
is forced to navigate a tougher path, and the
expectation this year has been that he will face his
nemesis Nadal in a third-straight Wimbledon championship
match. The second-ranked Nadal moved closer to that by
overwhelming 12th-seeded Andy Murray of Britain, 6-3,
6-2, 6-4, for his 22nd-consecutive victory overall.
Just
like Federer did against Ancic, Nadal avoided facing a
single break point against Murray, who was in his first
major quarterfinal.
“I feel
like the return is normally a strong part of my game. I
had no chance at all really on his serve, which was a
shame,” Murray said. “He’s improved his game a lot on
the grass in the last couple of years. Definitely, he’s
the second-best grass-court player behind Federer. He’s
definitely closer to him this year than he was.”
Nadal
agreed with that assessment.
He’s
trying to make a little history of his own: No man has
won the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year since
Borg in 1980.
“I am
doing a lot of things better than last year,” Nadal
said. “Slice better. The position on court, in my
opinion, I felt like this is better. Playing more
aggressive with the forehand all the time, and the
backhand is feeling well, too.”
The
four-time French Open champion knows he’ll be facing an
unseeded player next, but he doesn’t know which one. The
quarterfinal between 94th-ranked Rainer Schuettler and
145th-ranked Arnaud Clement was suspended because of
darkness at one set apiece.
They’re
slated to resume play Thursday, when the forecast calls
for showers, and whatever the outcome, Nadal would be an
overwhelming favorite.
Safin
acknowledges Federer should be looked upon that way in
their matchup.
“I’m
playing semifinals, but that doesn’t mean that I have a
chance there, because the guy has won how many times
already here?” Safin said after beating No. 31 Feliciano
Lopez 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
“To beat
Federer you need to be Nadal and run around like a
rabbit and hit winners from all over the place. ... It’s
just a little bit too difficult for me to beat him.”
Especially if Federer plays the way he did Wednesday.
He
served brilliantly, including 15 aces — one on each of
the final three points. He returned just as well,
handling Ancic’s 130 mph serves and limiting him to nine
aces, half of what the Croat was averaging in the
tournament.
Federer
broke Ancic four times, and even when he didn’t, made
him work. The third set’s opening game, for example,
took 16 minutes, with 10 deuces and four break points,
before Ancic finally held. It lasted 26 points, and
Federer won 12 — or, put another way, two more than
Ancic took off Federer’s serve all match.
“There’s
not one point you get for free,” said Ancic, a Wimbledon
semifinalist in 2005.
The All
England Club was the only Grand Slam site where Safin
hadn’t reached the final four. He came to Wimbledon with
a 10-13 record this season, a ranking of 75th and a
well-documented distaste for the place, from the grass
to the weather to the high price of strawberries and
cream.
But he’s
played fantastically, beating No. 3 Novak Djokovic and
three other seeded players. Federer knows how talented
the 6-foot-4 Russian is.
“I never
looked at Marat like No. 80 or 90 in the world. I mean,
that’s ridiculous. He knows that himself,” Federer said.
“He’s finally showing again what he can do. It’s just
quite surprising he does it here at Wimbledon.”
One of
Federer’s two losses in 10 matches against Safin came in
the 2005 Australian Open semifinals, 9-7 in the fifth
set.
“Marat
knows how to beat me,” Federer noted. “That was a hard
one. I’m going to try to get him back for that one.”
As Ancic
knows all too well, Federer can follow through on such
thoughts. (WIth AP) |
