The Wimbledon tennis tournament "is targeting the U.S. market for its guaranteed Centre Court seats for the first time" to help pay for a £100M ($168M) expansion of its grounds including a second retractable roof, according to Danielle Rossingh of BLOOMBERG.
The All England Club "ran an advertisement in the New York Times in February to publicize the tickets," which were priced at £50,000 ($84,000) each last week and may raise as much as £100M. All England Club Chair Phil Brook said, "There are lots of wealthy tennis fans in America. Why wouldn’t you try to seek some of those out?" Brook said that the All England Club "decided to advertise the debentures abroad for the first time because it aspires to be 'a global brand.'" He added that it "may advertise in Asia for a future debenture issue as wealth is growing in that region."
Brook said that U.S. buyers "currently number 'in the tens' of the entire debenture list of about 2,500, which is largely U.K.-based." Brook: "So it’s a very small proportion. We’re not reliant on the U.S. but we just wanted to see if we could raise a little bit more awareness over there. If we went into the hundreds it would be nice" (BLOOMBERG, 4/30).
