A Sun Online report has claimed that BBC gave away tons of free tickets away to its own employees and other VIPs during the 2018 Wimbledon, tickets they received as a part of their deal with Wimbledon.
Most of these tickets that were given away were for the centre court, even as tennis fans from around the world had to either shell out a bomb or queue up overnight to watch the tennis at Wimbledon. While queuing up at Wimbledon is known to be a custom by itself that makes Wimbledon a special event, the fact is there are lot of tennis followers who would have missed out on getting these Wimbledon tickets.
The Sun Online report alleges that employees at high positions at the accountancy firm Deloitte were allocated free centre court passes, as well those from big-ticket Premier League football clubs, sports agents and top-level FA employees.
Others include Toby Perkins and Tory Helen Grant, both British politicians and Kevin Brennan and these free passes were dished out for all the days of the tournament including the final.
The lowest denomination of a centre court ticket for the 2018 Wimbledon men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson cost tennis fans £210 and £170 for the semi-finals. Djokovic won the title by beating Anderson in the final.
The BBC has said they had allowed their guests to give their tickets away, which could raise the possibility that these Wimbledon tickets might have been given away to secondary ticketing websites like Viagogo.
According to Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, these free tickets should be allocated to the “vulnerable or disabled children” instead of those who can anyway afford to buy these tickets.
When asked, the BBC said this was no different from the previous years and that this was standard practice. A BBC spokesperson told the website, “We don’t provide hospitality, and they are used as an opportunity to discuss business or to demonstrate first-hand one of the biggest events BBC Sport delivers.”
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