4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

ANATOMY OF AN EVENT:
WIMBLEDON
Centre Court’s roof, opened in 2009 - Getty Images Sport
Loch Lomond golf tournament in
Scotland. “Any rain delay can cause
a problem but we work around
that,” adds Crump. “We could fly
up to Scotland if required and our
engineers can get the equipment
up and running in two hours if
necessary. But if you give them two
weeks, they will take two weeks.”
A major challenge for both the
All England Club and Creative
occurred in 2006 when the
scoreboards on the Centre and
No.1 Courts had to be changed
to be able to deal with Hawkeye
technology and the now famous
video review system for line calls.
“I thought I was going to get
sackload of letters about it but the
general response to Hawkeye was
unbelievably positive, and when we
did the scoreboard changes they
looked good and the quality was
high, so no-one bothered about it,”
says Ritchie.
Planning never stops
Within the range of suppliers there
are also key relationships. Creative
could not show the range of
information on its screens without
the input of IBM, a multi-national
giant that has developed and
managed IT systems and provided
statistics for the All England Club
and its showpiece since 1990.
“IBM supports a number of
properties and among those are
all the four tennis Grand Slams,”
says Alan Flack, IBM’s Wimbledon
programme executive. “Planning
never really stops, what we learn
from Wimbledon is taken on to
the US Open, but we really kick on
with Wimbledon from the end of
each calendar year.
“Each year there seems to be
subtle, or major, changes in lay-out.
Hawkeye was an innovation that we
had to adapt to and there are always
new statistics coming on stream, but
the great thing about Wimbledon
is that they have long-term
relationships. There is not much
chopping and changing each year.
“We bring the kit in straight
from Roland Garros. The main
infrastructure which drives the
IBM systems is in the US but
there are local servers and scoring
servers which need to be installed.
“We have 100-120 people on site
during the Championships, largely
made up of technicians, statistical
experts and data collectors (who
are all at least county-level tennis
players or above).”
Flack confirms Ritchie and his
team are keen for innovation to be
given its head: “The All England
Club looks to IBM to be at the
forefront of technology and I
think we have proved that over
the years. In the 1990s we
created the first website
shop and now we
have the award-winning IBM Seer,
the world’s first augmented reality
app using live data feeds.”
The Seer allows a smartphone
with a compass to show the user
what is happening around the
complex. It offers information on
queue lengths, where food and
drink stands are located and can
also be held 500 metres from
Centre Court, asks if the user
wants to be able to see what’s
happening inside and can then
stream live video.
“It’s all about added value and it
will now become a core part of our
offering. It has really caught the
imagination,” adds Flack. “People
ask me if IBM would ever want to
cut Wimbledon from its portfolio,
and I always say no. It’s a great
showcase and allows us to take a
lot of clients behind the scenes to
show them our ‘wow’ technology.”
IBM and Creative work in
partnership with the BBC, the UK
public-service broadcaster that has
been showing Wimbledon since
1927. Their cameras have seen most
things but no-one was prepared
for this year’s world record match
between John Isner and Nicolas
Mahut: Ritchie allowed the BBC to
interview the exhausted duo on court
at the end of the 11-hour contest,
breaking the normal practice for
matches outside of the finals.
“We always try to accommodate
broadcasters. If, for instance, NHK
Japan wanted to show a Japanese
player at a time and on a court that
will help their coverage we would
try to do that,” Ritchie reveals.
“There is a huge benefit to us of
being broadcast on a station such
as NHK, so we want to help them
because it helps us.”
Japan is one of the countries
where the All England Club has
licensees who sell tennis-related
equipment and luxury products, so
exposure on a national broadcaster
is good business. Broadcasting
rights are also the biggest
constituent of the Club’s income.
Ritchie’s numerous tasks
during the year include upholding
the great traditions of Wimbledon
- white clothing for the players
(he personally approves each
new design sent in by the
manufacturers) and ensuring the
ground staff have what is
66 SportBusiness International • No. 160 • 09.10