Making a killing, the ticket touts stalking the streets of SW19
They are the most sought after Centre Court seats, reserved for royalty and dedicated – and very well-heeled – Wimbledon fans.
But exclusive ‘debenture’ tickets for the Championships are being sold on for massive mark-ups by touts.
over the past two weeks, street dealers are thought to have made hundreds of thousands of pounds selling debenture tickets for cash in hand.
Yesterday, fans accused the all england Club of allowing the abuse. they are furious at traders flooding the exclusive stands with the ‘wrong sort of people’.
Some 2,500 Centre Court and 1,000 no1 Court debenture tickets are sold at a premium by the all england Club to raise money for refurbishments. owners get tickets each day for five years.
there is huge demand for the seats, which cost £27,750 for the five years until 2015. While other Wimbledon spectators are banned from selling their tickets, debenture holders may do so – usually to companies offering corporate hospitality or via stockbrokers. But this privilege is being abused by businessmen who buy the debenture, then employ touts to sell tickets for a massive mark-up.
With such tickets going for £1,000 to £3,200 a day – and for up to £25,000 for a pair for the men’s final – over five years they are likely to make huge gains.
this week, the mail saw touts exchange wads of cash with punters yards from the courts. Re- selling is not illegal, so all police can do is issue dispersal notices, forcing touts to leave for just 24 hours.
John Smith, chief among the touts, arrives at Southfields station each day to ask passing fans if they want tickets.
he agrees fees outside before exchanging money behind closed doors. Some touts work out of cars, while others use a Coral betting shop. If police vans arrive, Smith darts into a taxi.
at about 4pm on tuesday, he celebrated with three bottles of white wine on the terrace of the norbiton Cafe in Kingston upon thames. his friends drank, smoked and sang as he did more deals on the phone. as andy murray was losing to Grigor Dimitrov at about 2.30pm on Wednesday, Smith sold a Centre Court ticket for just the afternoon for £500.
he said: ‘they cost £50,000 to buy for five years, don’t they? they’re on the stock exchange. there’s no problem at all.
‘Yesterday we got a couple of phone calls from hotels, they were for £900 each.’
Closing the deal, he added: ‘You get access to the debenture lounge. enjoy!’
Smith said he had semi-final
tickets for £ 2,300 and men’s final tickets for £3,200 each. on ticket site viagogo, a pair of these tickets were listed at £25,000.
Genuine debenture holders said touting was bringing down standards. the strict dress code rules have been relaxed this year, allowing fans to wear trainers, jeans and shorts. one ticket holder said: ‘these seats are meant to be for real tennis fans, who are willing to pay a lot of money to guarantee they can get a seat. nothing is being done to stop people buying them to sell them to anyone. Just look around at who has got in here today.’
another added: ‘ We pay a lot of money for our tickets. It’s a shame to turn up and see people in jeans and t- shirts.’ tennis t ournaments ar e excluded from legislation that bans touts at football games. But touting is still against street trading laws.
a met Police spokesman said it had set up a dispersal zone to help move on anti- social touts. the all england Club declined to comment.