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Wimbledon insist they’re still not ready for nightlife
Chris Jones30.06.09
The morning after the Wimbledon night before brought the inevitable question; how long will it be until we have scheduled late evening matches on Centre Court?
The news that 12 million viewers had tuned into the BBC coverage of Andy Murray's dramatic five-set triumph over Stanislas Wawrinka that finished at 10.38pm will have had television executives' pulses racing. After all, it is not very often that EastEnders is shunted on to BBC2 from its regular slot by a sporting event.
In the current financial climate, anything that is able to generate interest and extra revenue must surely have to be considered.
How many of the capital's workers would love to finish their day with a dose of tennis at the All England Club?
How much easier would it be for fans to travel from further afield than the home counties if Murray wasn't playing until 7pm?
And how much money would be generated for British tennis by having two sessions of play that separate tickets could be sold for?
Last night's spectacle showed there are many reasons to have a night session, yet neither the BBC nor the Wimbledon organisers were predicting such an outcome today.
The All England Club have overseen the transformation of their grounds into a modern, hi-tech cathedral for an event that generates around £30million a year to keep British tennis alive.
The good old British weather is bound to ensure that there will be more late-night finishes.
However, Murray's fourth-round spectacular will remain the exception not the rule.
“I believe it was an amazing event but this does not mean that the Championships are now an indoor, evening event,” said Ian Ritchie, the AELTC chief executive.
“We need to be very clear about why the roof was closed and it followed a weather report which stated that there was a 70 per cent chance of a heavy shower locally, with the risk of a thunderstorm.
“Given the time the match was going to start, if they had started and then the rain came 10 minutes later there would have been a delay to close the roof when we knew about the chance of interruption. To me, it was a no brainer to shut the roof and start the match.”
Some changes will have to be made if the next night match is to pass off without any problems.
Organisers accept that more lighting will have to be installed on Henman Hill to deal with safety concerns raised by having thousands of fans sandwiched together in near darkness.
Yet in typical Wimbledon fashion, this was tennis under floodlights with style and had nothing in common with the night play we witness at the Australian and US Opens, where separate money making crowds are herded into the centre courts once the day masses have been ejected.
In Melbourne, those attending evening matches leave the court covered in large insects while night sessions in New York are not for the faint-hearted as the beer guzzling and pretzel-munching patrons like their tennis loud and unruly.
Sitting in the stands for a night match at Arthur Ashe Court in New York is light years away from Centre Court at Wimbledon last night — with our applause for both players, occasional raucous cheers and the odd sandwich replaced by a bear-pit of partisan chanting, burgers and larger.
The Australian Open, like their American cousins, embraces night tennis with relish and actively encourages flags and singing.
The money from broadcasters is so important that both the US and Australian Opens slavishly follow television's lead and Wimbledon has been accused of a similar attitude.
Wimbledon chiefs constantly dismiss this suggestion and the BBC today accepted that the tournament will remain a daylight event with the occasional night time tennis needed to beat bad weather.
A BBC spokeswoman said the decision to close the roof was made solely by the championship referee's office, but added: “If the roof was closed so that a match could be played to its conclusion, the BBC would be delighted to broadcast it. But the BBC has no influence over the closure.”
For now, Wimbledon will staunchly remain a day-time event but just as the Football League resisted using floodlights in England until 1956, a change of heart in SW19 may become financially impossible to resist.
Reader views (8)
Wow some pretty ignorant posts here. The roof stayed on because it takes 15mins to close and 30 mins to open again. With intermittent showers this is a real problem.
The decision was made many months ago that once the roof is closed the match will be played to conclusion. This was therfore to 'protocol'.
Now the argument that there shouldnt be a roof is another thing. Unfortunately we live is a tv age and if wimbledon is to stay ahead of the game and present the fantastic event that it does (it is leaps ahead of all other majors in every metric) then it needs to attract US and international TV money. Rain stopped play is not a big favourite with TV producers.
As for Murray's response, well he was asked about it and he was honest, thats not arrogant, it was tough playing on essentially a completey new surface. He did not make excuses for the way he played, which was pretty awesome in my opinion, he even did the very unbritish thing of actually not wilting under pressure!
- Tom, London
What a boring man (yes I am scottish).
What a boring game.
Does anyone here even know the rules of tennis?
Yawn.
- Jc, London
You can't blame Wimbledon for wanting to try out their new roof and Andy Murray clearly was the ideal guinea pig. Bearing in mind the usual (lack of) accuracy of UK weather forecasts a 70% of rain really didn't justify keeping it closed but I can see why they did. Murray's comments are also justified, I don't particularly like the guy but he's a Brit and gives us someone to follow who can actually play a bit, and I think it quite reasonable that he might expect some sort of warning of having to play a match in a sauna! Yes, it was the same for Wawrinka and he doesn't appear to have complained, but....did anyone actually ask him? No doubt all the papers were falling over themselves to interview AM and poor old SW probably fell through the cracks!!
Now they've tried it out I trust that in future it will be used only when necessary. I thought the purpose was to avoid loss of play due to rain not to enable night matches but then again I often think wrong!
- Graham, Pattaya, Thailand
I cant believe how arrogant this guy is....they closed the roof in order to allow the completion of his match yesterday late at night and avoid him to return today and waste energies in light of tomorrow's match.....and yet he complains.....can you believe it....Mr. Murray you should focus on the fact that you played BADLY yesterday....hope you lose next round
- Guido, london
Whinge, whinge, whinge. It's the same for both players, Andy and also, don't ever forget, you're there just to entertain the crowd so if the roof suits the crowd, it should suit you.
- St, London
Surely a canny Scot like Murray should know that Wimbledon is run for the benefit of the Club and the sponsors and not the players.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, Surrey
The roof I thought was an unfair advantage given to Murray simple because he is British. The authorities consistently said that this is not an indoor tournament and the roof will only come up if there is a rain but still had it on for the Murray match essentially to ensure that BBC had a late night live drama and Murray did not have to return on Wednesday to finish the match. Even the evening scheduling for Murray as against a hot mid day one for Federer was a favour. Murray should be grateful that even the great Wimbledon is trying its level best to make him win and prevent Federer win. So he should get on it with it and not complain.
- Nat, New Malden
Well done Andy. I do agree with you that the match should have been played in the open air as the weather had cleared considerably and the forecast was for a dry and fine evening. Wimbledon is supposed to be an open air event, and no doubt the match would not have ended last evening, but that is always the case at Wimbledon with matches often going over into the following day, it's all part of a challenging Grand Slam tournament. Let's hope that the authorities don't close the roof as a routine, but only do so when rain is imminent or already falling. The follow on matches should be based on the weather appertaining just before the start time, and not just to ensure the match schedule is kept.
- Paul, Sutton UK
