Wimbledon The £293,000 Centre Court tickets exempt from resale law

Like millions of others, Marcos Ortega enters the Wimbledon public ticket ballot every year in the hope of securing tickets for tennis Championships, which begin on Monday.

- Rupert Neate

In seven straight years of trying, Ortega, 39, has never landed any tickets for the event. So he was - initially - delighted to learn that there is a way to secure guaranteed tickets to every game played on Centre Court.

But Ortega’s delight quickly turned to anger when he discovered the cost: £293,000.

“I’ve played tennis all my life, and I’d really love to go to Wimbledon - it is the premier tennis competition in the world” said Ortega, an architect from Spain who lives in north London. “But I’ve never got any in the ballot, and the queue is ridiculous. Now, I learn that if you’re rich enough there is a way to pay your way in. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Ortega has discovered the little-known world of Wimbledon “debentures” - special five-year season tickets snapped up by members of the global super-rich.

There are 2,520 Centre Court debentures, which guarantee a seat for each of the 14 days of the tournament for five years.

In 2024, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the private members’ club that has run the Wimbledon championship since 1877, put the 2026-2030 Centre Court debenture issue on the market at £116,000 each, raising a total of £292m to help fund a huge development of its grounds.