The Wimbledon Championships is one of the most prestigious lawn tennis tournaments in the world. It is the only grand slam event to be still played on grass courts and is one of the most popular events amongst tennis enthusiasts. Though it is the wish of every tennis fan in the world to get a chance to watch the tennis matches sitting in the arena at Wimbledon, but getting a seat at Wimbledon especially at the three show courts is not at all an easy task. There are only few ways of getting a ticket into Wimbledon.
One of them is joining the famous queue at Wimbledon before the championships begin. Fans queue up all night long in makeshift tents outside the gates just to get a chance to buy a ticket into the championships. You can either join the queue at Church Road on the north side or the west side. Both queues are allotted same number of tickets. Each person in the queue is given a numbered Queue Card to avoid any instances of people jumping the queue.
An easier or rather less tiring option to get a Wimbledon ticket is to apply for the Public Ballot organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. To watch the 2012 Championships, interested people are supposed to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the All England Club between 1st August and 15th December 2011. Overseas applicants are supposed an International Reply Coupon instead of the stamp.
The All England Club will return the envelope with the form and you are required to send in the filled-up from before 31st December 2011. The Public Ballot is conducted by a computer system and it chooses people at random. Applicants cannot give date and court preference also, as this is also randomly chosen by the computer system. Successful applicants are informed by post and then they can make the payments either online or by sending a cheque.
There is a separate ballot for wheelchair events, so people interested in watching these events should clearly specify in the form. The Club is very strict of accepting only one application per household. As the last dates for the Public Ballot for the 2011 Championships have already passed, people interested in watching the 2011 Wimbledon will have to give a try at the queue at Wimbledon.
There is also the Ballot conducted by the Lawn Tennis Association. To be eligible to enter this ballot, you must become a non-affiliated member of the association by paying £25. After this you enter the ballot and you have a 1 in 5 chance to get a ticket. You have more chance at the LTA Ballot, but this ballot is quite restricted and the more popular ballot is the one organised by the All England Club.
There are other options such as buying debentures, but the above mentioned are the cheapest and most popular ways of getting a ticket into the Wimbledon Championships.
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