Are you interested in finally making it to Wimbledon next year? Well if so, your planning needs to begin right now! The public ballot for tickets opened today, and the registration window is only open until Monday, September 16th at 6:59pm ET (why the odd time? Because the actual deadline is 11:59pm BST, or British Summer Time. We’re just converting it so you don’t have to).
Wondering why you should register for the public ballot (also known as a “ticket lottery” here in ‘Merica)? Because getting tickets for Wimbledon is extremely difficult, and if you don’t do it right, it can be extremely expensive.
There are only a couple of ways to get tickets for Wimbledon: the Public Ballot, Debenture tickets, purchasing a hospitality package, the queue, American Express last-minute tickets, and via resale. We’ll go into each of those in depth in our upcoming guide to attending Wimbledon, but for right now we’ll just focus on the time-sensitive option of the Public Ballot.
Getting Wimbledon tickets via the Public Ballot
This is Wimbledon’s ticket lottery, available to the general public. It’s the only way to purchase tickets to the event in advance at face value. And winning the lottery means you’ll be offered tickets to either Centre Court, Court 1, Court 2, or Court 3, all of which include access to the general grounds.
When applying for the ballot, here’s what you need to know:
–You must sign up during the registration window, which opens on 9/2 and will close at 6:59pm ET on September 16, 2024.
–Registration is free. There is no registration cost, nor is there any obligation to accept any tickets that are awarded to you.
–It makes no difference if you register right away or at the last minute: all applications are treated equally. Just be sure to register by the deadline.
–If you are chosen to purchase tickets, you can expect to be notified starting in October. But that process will continue for months, as each winner has two weeks to accept/pay for their tickets. If they decline, those tickets are reassigned to the next selected applicant. You could be informed of winning a ticket as late as spring 2025.
–If you do win the lottery, you won’t have a choice of date or court – both will be randomly assigned. You can either accept the tickets that are assigned to you, or you can decline. There’s no option to request an alternate date or court. (But … even if you aren’t awarded tickets for the court you want, there’s a ticket exchange process at Wimbledon that gives attending fans the chance to access those courts while there. There’s no guarantee, but it is possible).
–Winning means being awarded two tickets. There is no way for an individual to win more than that. And it’s also important to note: you may be offered two single tickets that are not next to each other. While that might not sound great (and certainly it isn’t ideal), we strongly recommend considering this if it happens. After all, you aren’t talking during a match, so sitting on your own isn’t really that big of a deal if it means having access to an event like this.
–2025 lottery ticket prices range from £55-315, which is approximately US$75-415 (based on today’s exchange rate, which may be different when Wimbledon offers you tickets).
–Tickets cannot be resold or transferred to a third party. While you can transfer one ticket to your guest, the other ticket must be used by you. (As a practical matter, if you wanted to give your ticket to someone else, you could allow them to log into the MyWimbledon app using your account, which would get them into the event. But Wimbledon takes ticket security/integrity seriously, so you should not be purchasing a ticket unless you’re planning on attending. The person using your app could certainly be rejected at the gate if security asks to match their ID to the name on their digital ticket, which they have the right to do).
–On the note of resale, you should understand that ticket resale in the UK is completely different than it is in the US. Attempting to resell a ticket on a platform like Stubhub in the UK is not easy, and is not something we recommend. You may literally not even be able to list it for sale.
There’s no question that winning the Public Ballot is the easiest and most direct way to attend Wimbledon, even if you don’t have control over the number of tickets, the date, or the court. If you’re interested in going, signing up for the ballot is a no-brainer. If you win, you’re off to the races and can start to build your trip around the date you were selected for. If you don’t win but still want to go, you can start to pursue the other ticketing options. And if you win but decide you don’t want to go, you can simply decline the tickets.
So don’t wait … go ahead and register here!
