Wimbledon Turns Record Profit Despite a Drop in Attendance

The Wimbledon tennis tournament made a record profit of nearly $19 million this year despite a significant drop in attendance and expensive construction work.

The Lawn Tennis Assn. said Tuesday the profit was a 4.5% increase from the previous record, set last year.

Wimbledon officials said earlier this year they were expecting a drop in profits because safety regulations led to nearly 56,000 fewer spectators this summer than in 1989.

Attendance also was down this year because of competition from televised matches of soccer’s World Cup, in which the English team reached the semifinals.

But Wimbledon chief executive Chris Gorringe said an increase in ticket prices and a lucrative satellite television contract helped account for the record profit in 1990.

“We kept a tight budget and we were reasonably successful,” Gorringe said.

Wimbledon spent nearly $4 million this year on safety improvements ordered by local authorities in the aftermath of the Hillsborough soccer disaster in which 95 people died.

The authorities also imposed restrictions that helped push attendance down from 403,706 in 1989 to 347,979 for 13 days this summer.

Profits from Wimbledon are given to the Lawn Tennis Assn. to help develop British tennis. No British man has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.