Wimbledon Just Got Paid $141 Million On “Pandemic Insurance” They’ve Been Paying For The Last 17 Years

Somebody at Wimbledon is definitely earning their keep.

As the pandemic hit this year, the tournament was far more prepared than most organizations. For the last 17 years, Wimbledon has paid $2 million per year in “pandemic insurance” to prevent against exactly the type of scenario that prevented the tournament from happening this year.

We’re not sure what type of meetings and pitches needed to happen to convince the Board at Wimbledon to continue to shell out $2 million per year in insurance for a possible catastrophe that most people would have bet would have never happened in their lifetimes.

The insurance was first highlighted by The Times back in late March. 

But it probably wasn’t always easy to part with the $2 million each year.

Over almost two decades, while most public companies looked for ways to stay unhedged, lever their cash flow streams, buy back at much stock as possible and cut their budgets, Wimbledon never abandoned their pandemic insurance.

Wimbledon paid into the insurance for 17 years, netting a total spend of $34 million. For 2020, that hedge returned $141 million, according to the Boston Globe. 

German Tennis Federation Vice President Dick Horsdorff, told Sky Sports at the end of March: “Wimbledon was probably – as the only Grand Slam tournament many years ago predictive enough to insure itself against a worldwide pandemic, so that the financial damage should be minimized there.”

The organization’s foresight and preparedness will help soften a $309 million revenue blow that the tournament will suffer this year. The event was set to run from June 29 to July 12 this year.

It is the first time Wimbledon has been cancelled since World War II.