The famous Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe '80 Wimbledon final was "part of an immersive theater experience" put on by the All England Club over the weekend in an "effort to attract a new crowd to tennis," according to Alyson Krueger of the N.Y. TIMES. The five-hour show, "Wimbledon Rematch 1980," was performed for three nights in London and "involved playing broadcast footage of the match on a large screen in a theater while live actors, dressed as the players, swung along in unison." An original score was "written and recorded." All England Club Head of Communications, Content & Digital Alexandra Willis said, "We want to be viewed as innovative." The club saw the show as a "trial that could be repeated." The idea to recreate the Borg-McEnroe final came from digital consultancy Seven League Founder & CEO Richard Ayers, who said, "The way sports teams maximize revenue is usually by putting on more games, bigger games, new games. They never pause and say, ‘Let’s make the most of an incredible story in our archive.’ They can use their intellectual property to make money" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/7).
