Wimbledon’s £174m pandemic payout

WIMBLEDON’S masterstroke of guarding itself against a pandemic is set to result in a whopping payout of more than £174million from insurers.

It means the all England Club — and their annual distribution to the British game through the lawn Tennis association — will be largely unscathed despite the cancellation of last summer’s tournament.

The f i gure, f ar i n excess of original estimates, is contained in the club’s annual report, which has been seen by Sportsmail.

When t he t ournament was cancelled on april 1 at the height of the Covid crisis, it emerged t hat Wimbledon would be cushioned by insurance that had a specific pandemics clause.

It was first thought that this would result in a payment of just over £100m but after months of negotiations, that has turned out to be a massive undervaluing. Given SW19 sources say the insurance cost around £1.5m annually, the maintenance of the policy by the club’s finance sub-committee looks like one of the soundest moves in the institution’s history.

Sportsmail can also reveal the annual handout to the LTA this

year should come in at just under £36m. That is down from £45m last time, but remains a substantial sum.

Earlier this week, the domestic governing body sparked speculation about Wimbledon’s situation by announcing a £30m loss for the year on its own activities, plus belt-tightening measures.

According to the All England Club report, by October 15 this year they had negotiated a figure of £174m with insurers.

There is expected to be a small top-up before the final tally is made early next month.

Latest accounts filed by Wimbledon show their revenues from the 2019 Championships — when Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles title — totalled £292m, more than half of that coming from broadcast deals.

The annulment of the tournament this year meant that many outgoings were saved, from the full prize money payout, to the employment of thousands of temporary staff.