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Full crowds confirmed for Wimbledon finale

Wimbledon will welcome full crowds for the grand slam tennis tournament’s semi-finals and final next month with all attendees required to display COVID certification.

The tournament has today (Wednesday) been approved to take place as a pilot event in the third phase of the UK Government’s Events Research Programme (ERP), with crowds of at least 50% capacity from the start on June 28 and rising to 100% from the semi-finals onwards.

Wimbledon’s Centre Court will therefore welcome a full-capacity 15,000 spectators for the latter stages. Outdoor events other than pilots are limited to 25% capacity until at least July 19 under UK rules after reopening was delayed earlier this week.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “We are the first country in the world to be able to return a grand slam tournament to full capacity for the men’s and women’s final since the pandemic broke. We are able to do so because of the success of the vaccine rollout and building on what we have learnt so far from the Events Research Programme.

“We will be trialling COVID status certification at the championships in order to get as many people back as safely as possible across all the sporting and cultural events that make the Great British summer so special.”

The tournament will begin on Monday, June 28 with 50% capacity across the venue grounds. Stadium capacities for Centre Court and No.1 Court will open at 50% capacity, while the smaller show courts will be permitted to open at 75% capacity.

For the fourth round and quarter-finals, organisers aim to increase Centre and No.1 Court allocations, along with a number of grounds passes, and for the semi-finals and finals from July 8, they aim to have 100% capacity on Centre Court, with a small number of tickets on No.1 Court and grounds passes.

Read more about the announcement via our sister website, TheTicketingBusiness.com.

Image: Shep McAllister on Unsplash