World Cup Takes a Bite Out of Wimbledon Ticket Sales

Contrary to popular belief, or at least every sports bar in America, there are other sporting events happening right now besides soccer. The Wimbledon Championships are currently underway. You wouldn't know it, but theyactually started yesterday.

Contrary to popular belief, or at least every sports bar in America, there are other sporting events happening right now besides soccer. The Wimbledon Championships are currently underway. You wouldn't know it, but they actually started yesterday.

Wimbeledon ticket sales have been hit hard by the World Cup. Michael Bernstein of Tennistours.com told Forbes he has seen sales plummet 20 percent from last year, and believes it is directly related to the World Cup.

Sales and pricing are quite complicated for both events, which offer many tickets as exclusives to fancy executives and Pitbull very important people in advance. If you were lucky enough to have purchased directly from the source, World Cup seats for the opening match were $495 while Wimbledon's first day was just over $81. The finals match at the World Cup is $990, where as Wimbledon is between $210 and $250.

At the World Cup, prices are subject to change depending on availability. For the Germany/U.S. game, they fell from around $900 to an average of $673.75. On the same secondary market, Wimbledon seats can bring in the realm of the $4,000s, but this includes tickets to two highly coveted events: men's semi- and quarter- finals. There are also outside accommodation costs that affect the potential ticket buyer, though in this case, they are around the same. For the final round of Wimbledon, nearly hotels are around $250 a night. Hotels recommended by FIFA are around $200 as well for the final weekend of the World Cup.

The World Cup is from June 12th to July 13th, overlapping with Wimbledon, which runs from June 23rd to July 6th. The most exciting times of both tournaments overlap: July 5th marks the last round of semi-finals in World Cup and three of five finals matches at Wimbledon. The World Cup games will be at noon and 4 PM (Eastern) on July 5th, eating up a day's worth of sports television, and leaving tennis only a sliver of time in the morning for sports fans' full attention. 

Still, Wimbledon does stand to make a bit of an attention-seeking comeback across the pond, as England was already booted from the World Cup. This has been their worst World Cup performance since 1958. Last year, Wimbledon fandom did not reach a fever pitch until Andy Murray made it to the finals, breaking a 77-year streak of a Brit not making it to the last men's round. Andy Murray has already won his first match at Wimbledon this year, and if he makes it to the finals, it could help turn the attention from Brazil to England.

The other added benefit of the World Cup, which fancypants Wimbledon could simply never offer, is the opportunity to see professional athletes bite one another.