Deep dive · Grand slam tennis · Accounts to July 2025

Inside the accounts · How does Wimbledon really make its money?

£42.1m of Wimbledon's £44.8m profit was debenture money paid in advance

The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club is a private members' club with no shares and no owner. Through its subsidiaries it stages The Championships, and its group accounts for the year to 31 July 2025 show £426.9m of turnover and £44.8m of profit before tax. They show how the surplus is split with the LTA, how debenture holders pay for the building work years in advance, and why that debenture money is most of the profit. Where a figure says something about how Wimbledon is run, we explain it.

CompanyThe All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Limited · 07546718

AccountsAccounts to July 2025 PDF ↗

ByJames Sproule · 28 September 2026

Reading time9 min read

£426.9mTurnover, up 4.2%

£48.1mSurplus handed to the LTA, 90% of the total

£42.1mOf turnover was debenture money paid in earlier years

£103.9mCash from new debentures, up from £56.9m

In 60 words

The answer

Running Wimbledon means staging a fortnight that earned £426.9m in 2024/25, then giving 90% of the surplus, £48.1m, to the LTA. The club's own 10% was £5.3m. The group's £44.8m profit rests on debenture money: £42.1m of seat premiums paid in earlier years was counted as turnover. Debenture holders also paid £103.9m in advance, which funds the building work.

The rhythm of the business

A year built around one fortnight

The 138th Championships ran from 30 June to 13 July 2025, with players from 67 countries (p. 2). The financial year ends on 31 July, so almost all of the year's income arrives in the few weeks before the accounts close. Spending on each Championships starts in the second half of the calendar year before (p. 11).

One Wimbledon year, August to JulyThe financial year ends on 31 July, just after The Championships.

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Spending on the next Championships

Starts in the second half of the previous calendar year

Money from broadcasters, partners and tickets

Mostly in the calendar year

Short-term staff

1,999 people

The Championships

30 Jun–13 Jul

Last year's surplus paid to the LTA

In instalments, before the next 31 July

Directors' report, p11; strategic report, p2; note 6, p34.

Broadcasters

Just under half

TV rights are "just under half of the group's turnover", mostly from the UK and the USA. The BBC deal runs to 2027 and ESPN's to 2035 (p. 4).

267m hours watched on the BBC

The public

Tickets

Ballot applications "meaningfully exceeding supply", and the board "consciously tries to ensure that tickets sold to the public are reasonably priced" (p. 5).

£12.7m of tickets sold through the LTA

Official Partners

Sponsors and hospitality

Partners, including the Official Hospitality Partner, are "another significant source of turnover". There were no new partner deals in the year (pp. 3 and 5).

Not given as a figure

Five years ahead

Debentures

Debenture holders pay a premium for a seat at every Championships in a five-year series. The group counts a fifth of it as turnover each year (p. 29).

£42.1m counted this year

The profit and loss account

Wimbledon on one page

The profit and loss account has an unusual line. After operating profit and finance income comes the "Division of net available surplus arising from The Championships", paid to LTA Operations Limited (p. 19). It is not a cost of running the tournament. It is the LTA's share of what the tournament made.

From £426.9m of turnover to £44.8m of profit, 2024/25The LTA's share is taken after operating profit, as a 'division of net available surplus', not as a cost.

Totals
Costs and charges
Income and credits

Consolidated profit and loss account, p19.

For every £100 of turnoverPer £100 of turnover of £426.9m. The debenture premium counted as turnover, £9.87 of every £100, is more than the £9.30 profit.

Cost of salesstaging The Championships£42.24

Admin expensesincluding £40.4m of depreciation£37.33

To the LTA90% of the surplus£11.27

Tax£1.20

Back in: investment and interest incomenet of interest paid£1.34

Profit after taxstays in the group£9.30

Consolidated profit and loss account, p19; note 5, p33. Our split.

£87.2m

operating profit, down from £88.2m. Turnover rose £17.2m but cost of sales rose £9.9m and admin expenses £8.3m (p. 19).

£5.7m

of net finance income, against a £1.2m cost the year before. Investments rose £5.1m in value and interest paid fell from £6.4m to £2.5m once the bank loan was repaid (p. 33).

What this means for WimbledonWimbledon isn't run to make money for shareholders: it has none. The board says it measures success by "television audiences, ballot applications, attendance figures and the surplus generated", and that 2025 was "the third highest surplus to the LTA" (p. 5). Profit after the LTA's share stays in the group and pays for the grounds. There were no dividends (p. 7).

The Championships Agreement

The LTA gets 90%. The club keeps 10%

The Championships' £53.5m surplus: 90% to the LTA, 10% keptThe surplus after facility fees paid to the Ground Company. Hover for the share of each.

90% · £48.1m10% · £5.3m

To the LTA (net available surplus) · 90% · £48.1m
Kept by the AELTC · 10% · £5.3m

Strategic report, p4.

The split is set by contract. An agreement signed on 25 July 2011 between the club, its subsidiaries, the Lawn Tennis Association and LTA Operations Limited runs for "at least 40 years from 1 August 2013". Under it, the AELTC, the subsidiary that runs The Championships, gets 10% of the surplus, and the Ground Company is paid a facility fee for the use of the grounds (p. 4).

The 2025 numbers. The Championships made a surplus of £53.5m after facility fees, down from £55.4m. £48.1m of it goes to the LTA and £5.3m stays with the AELTC (p. 4).

Money also flows to the LTA in other ways. The group paid LTA Operations £5.0m of subvention fees and £1.0m of officiating fees, and £12.7m of tickets were sold through or with the LTA (p. 50). The LTA nominates up to seven of the members of the Committee of Management that runs The Championships (p. 2).

What this means for WimbledonThe surplus is paid a year late. The £49.9m for 2024 was paid during 2024/25, and £48.4m was owed to the LTA at 31 July 2025 (pp. 24 and 40). It goes "in instalments as discussed with the LTA to ensure appropriate resources remain with The Championships to fund The Championships 2026" (p. 7). The AELTC has a £40m revolving credit facility "to assist with payment of the surplus to the LTA", which wasn't used (p. 7).

Background, not from the accountsThe LTA is the governing body for tennis in Britain, and the Wimbledon surplus is one of its main sources of money for grassroots and performance tennis. The accounts only describe the payment; what the LTA does with it is in the LTA's own accounts.

Not disclosed. The accounts don't give the facility fee paid to the Ground Company, so the surplus before that fee isn't known. They also don't reconcile the £53.5m surplus to the group's £44.8m profit. The pieces they do give, the AELTC's £5.3m, the Ground Company's £8.1m loss, the parent's £7.2m profit and a £1.8m goodwill credit (p. 4), don't add up to it on their own; the gap is consolidation adjustments the accounts don't itemise.

The finding

How debenture holders pay for the grounds

The money comes in five years at a time. The Ground Company sells debentures in series: Centre Court for 2021–2025 and 2026–2030, No.1 Court for 2022–2026 and 2027–2031 (pp. 40 and 41). Holders get tickets and "access to debenture facilities during The Championships" (p. 26).

Two parts, treated differently. Each debenture has a small nominal value, "free of interest and unsecured" and repaid at par when the series ends, and a much larger premium (pp. 40 and 42). The nominal values of all four series together were £11.0m. The premium is held as deferred income and released to turnover "on a straight line basis over the five years of each debenture series" (p. 29).

In 2024/25 holders paid £103.9m: £91.4m for the 2026–2030 Centre Court series and £12.5m for the 2027–2031 No.1 Court series (p. 24). That is for seats at Championships that hadn't happened yet.

Debenture money: cash now, turnover laterThe premium is released to turnover in equal slices over each five-year series, so the £42.1m was the same both years.

2023/24
2024/25

Cash received from debenture holdersfor seats at future Championships£103.9m

Premium counted as turnovera fifth of each series a year£42.1m

Cash flow statement, p24; note 20, p46.

£42.1m

of premium released to turnover in 2024/25, the same as the year before. It is a non-cash item: the cash came in earlier and the cash flow statement takes it back out (p. 46).

£2.7m

is what profit before tax would have been without it: £44.8m less £42.1m. Our sum, not a figure the accounts give.

£127.8m

of debenture premium still to be released, up from £66.1m (p. 46). £112.7m of it falls after more than a year (p. 41).

The Ground Company is funded on an ongoing basis by the annual facility fee received from The Championships and by the issue of debentures.
Directors' report, p. 8

Where the cash went, 2024/25Debenture holders' £103.9m paid for the building work and cleared the bank loan. Cash rose from £64.9m to £100.8m.

Totals
Costs and charges
Income and credits

Consolidated cash flow statement, p24.

What this means for WimbledonDebentures are close to interest-free funding: only the small nominal value is paid back at the end of a series, and the premium is kept. The group treats the premium as payment in advance for seats, so it shows up as turnover spread over five years, and the balance still to be released is counted as debt in the group's own net debt figure of £27.0m (p. 46). That lets Wimbledon build without a bank. The £45m drawn on the Ground Company's bank facility was repaid in the year, and the facility was cut to £75m "following receipt of the first and second instalments of the 2026-2030 Centre Court debenture series" (p. 12). A third instalment of that series and a second of the new No.1 Court series are expected in 2025/26 (p. 26).

Background, not from the accountsA Wimbledon debenture gives its holder one seat on Centre Court or No.1 Court for every day of The Championships over the life of the series. Debenture tickets are the only Wimbledon tickets that can be legally sold on, and debentures themselves trade on a secondary market.

Not disclosed. The accounts don't say how many debentures were sold, at what price, or how much each series raises in total. They don't explain the £113.3m debenture premium reserve in equity beyond small "fair value adjustments" each year (p. 23), or how the £42.1m annual release is set beyond "an assumed rate based on receipts received by Ground Company" (p. 26).

Turnover

Where the money comes from, as far as we're told

£426.5m of the £426.9m came from The Championships; the members' club and investing brought in £0.5m (p. 32). All turnover is recognised in the UK.

Turnover covers "ticket, broadcast, marketing, retail, food and drink and other income" (p. 26), plus the released debenture premium. Broadcasting is "just under half" (p. 4), so something below £213.5m; the accounts give no exact figure.

Much of it is in foreign currency. Broadcast income is partly in US dollars, euros and yen. At the year end the group had £60.0m of forward contracts to sell those currencies for income due in 2025/26, £46.2m of them in dollars (pp. 12 and 44). Some dollar income can be "internally hedged against the US dollar value of The Championships' prize money" (p. 12).

What this means for WimbledonAlmost all the income depends on one fortnight a year, and a large share on a few broadcast contracts. The board's answer is long contracts: the BBC to 2027, ESPN in the USA to 2035, and long-term deals with partners "wherever possible" (pp. 4 and 5). Payments from customers in advance are held as deferred income until The Championships are played (p. 26); accruals and deferred income due within a year were £97.8m (p. 40).

Not disclosed. There is no split of turnover between broadcasting, tickets, sponsorship, catering and retail, and no attendance figure. Prize money isn't given as a figure anywhere in the accounts, though it is named as a cost that can rise "significantly faster than the headline inflation rate" (p. 5).

Background, not from the accountsThe club announced total prize money of £53.5m for 2025, with £3m for each singles champion. That sits inside cost of sales, which was £180.3m in all.

Staff

523 year-round staff, and 1,999 for the summer

A small permanent team. The group employed an average of 523 year-round staff, up from 511, at a cost of £33.5m: wages £28.1m, employer's National Insurance £3.4m and pensions £2.1m (p. 34). That is 7.9% of turnover.

Then it grows. 1,999 more people were employed on short-term contracts "to support The Championships during June and July" (p. 34). Counting contractors, "around 5,500 people" are employed or engaged at The Championships (p. 11).

The members' club itself has no employees (p. 34).

Staff costs: £33.5m for 523 year-round staff7.9p of every £1 of turnover. 1,999 more were on short-term contracts in June and July.

Wages and salaries
Employer's National Insurance
Pensions

Note 6, p34.

Four in five of its people are there for the summerShort-term Championships contracts against the average year-round staff, 2024/25. Each square is 1%.

Short-term, June and July: 1,999
Year-round: 523

Note 6, p34.

Nil

Directors' pay

"The directors received no remuneration during the year" (p. 34), the same as the year before.

£3.7m

Key management

Total pay for key management personnel, up from a restated £3.3m (p. 50). The accounts don't say who is counted or give a highest-paid figure.

£5.5m

Charitable donations

Up from £3.1m, including money from the resale of Show Court tickets, given to the Wimbledon Foundation (p. 8).

What this means for WimbledonThe tournament is staged by thousands of people who work there for a few weeks, so labour costs matter more than the permanent payroll suggests: the directors warn that "labour cost pressures can have an adverse effect" (p. 11). The accounts don't say whether the £33.5m includes the short-term staff, and the pay of contractors, stewards and security staff sits elsewhere in costs.

Building work

The grounds and Wimbledon Park

The building programmeWork under way includes the Millennium Building, due for The Championships 2027.

2023/24
2024/25

Spent on the grounds in the yeartangible fixed asset additions£62.5m

Building work not yet finishedheld at cost, not yet depreciated£102.2m

Contracts signed, not yet spentcapital commitments£112.5m

Strategic report, p4; note 2, p32; note 9, p36; note 22, p50.

£62.5m spent on the grounds, up from £40.5m (p. 4). The roof and upper level of the Millennium Building were taken off to add a storey, with completion due for The Championships 2027. There was also work on the Centre Court and No.1 Court roofs, electrical upgrades and The Cavendish restaurant, and power upgrades at Roehampton for live electronic line calling (pp. 3 and 4).

£102.2m of work in progress isn't yet depreciated, and £112.5m more is contracted but not yet spent (pp. 32 and 50). The Millennium Building and No.1 Court debenture expansion are on fixed-price contracts (p. 5).

Depreciation was £40.4m. Land and buildings cost £1,031.4m and are carried at £623.2m (p. 36).

Wimbledon Park. The club acquired the golf club members' interests on 21 December 2018 and took the land from 2022 and 2023 (p. 3). Its planning application, submitted in July 2021, was called in by the Deputy Mayor in January 2024. The Greater London Authority resolved to grant permission after a hearing on 27 September 2024, and a Judicial Review heard in July 2025 "concluded that the GLA's decision making process was correct" (p. 3).

One question was still open: the club "believes there is not, and has never been, a statutory trust over the land" and has gone to court to settle it, with a hearing set for January 2026 (p. 3).

What this means for WimbledonThe project would let the qualifying competition move onto the main site and allow "more space and more spectators for the Main Draw" (p. 3), and so more tickets and more debenture-style income in time. The golf club shows in the accounts as £9.6m of goodwill, written off over the 23 years left on the lease of the golf course land (p. 38).

Background, not from the accountsThe plans are for 38 new grass courts and an 8,000-seat show court on the former golf course, with part of the land opened as a public park. The accounts were signed in October 2025, before the statutory trust hearing.

Not disclosed. The accounts give no budget or cost to date for the Wimbledon Park Project, and don't say how much of the £102.2m of work in progress relates to it. They don't say what the golf club members were paid in 2018.

Ownership

Who owns Wimbledon? No one

The club

The parent

The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Limited is "a members' club ... limited by guarantee and there is no ultimate controlling party". It has no shares in issue (pp. 45 and 50). It holds a £58.1m investment portfolio and runs the members' tennis club.

The AELTC

The Championships company

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited "undertakes the day-to-day operations of, and is the principal contracting party for, The Championships" (p. 2).

The Ground Company

The grounds and debentures

The All England Lawn Tennis Ground plc owns and develops the grounds and issues the debentures. The club bought the half it didn't own from the LTA in 2013 (pp. 2 and 37).

A fourth subsidiary, The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon) Limited, holds the trademarks. Four more are dormant, including The Wimbledon Park Golf Club, held by the Ground Company (p. 39). The club also owns 25% of Grand Slam Tennis Properties Limited, for £1 (p. 39).

The Wimbledon Foundation, a charity of which the club is the sole member, is left out of the group accounts because the club doesn't control its trustees (pp. 25 and 39).

What this means for WimbledonWith no shareholders and no dividends, the profit that isn't paid to the LTA stays in the group: reserves rose from £497.3m to £537.1m (p. 21). Buying the LTA's half of the Ground Company in 2013 for less than its assets were worth left £79.6m of negative goodwill, which is released as a credit of £2.4m a year over 42 years (p. 37).

In the directors' words

The risks they name

Income from broadcasters represents just under half of the group's turnover and a small number of key broadcast markets, notably the UK and the USA, provide the majority of that income.
Principal risks, p. 4

Certain costs of staging The Championships are subject to risks such as the need to offer competitive and attractive prize money and elevated levels of terrorist threat and related security measures.
Principal risks, p. 5

... the pressure to complete the construction work and clear the Grounds in time for each year's Championships.
Principal risks, p. 5

In plain termsWimbledon earns its money in two weeks, from a handful of broadcasters and partners, and pays much of it out a year later. Its costs are pushed up by prize money set against other grand slams, and by security. Building work has to stop every June. The cushion is cash of £100.8m, an undrawn bank facility and an investment portfolio the board says "could be converted to cash as required" (p. 8).

Two years side by side

Year on year

2024/25 against 2023/24Percentage change, one scale. Net finance (−£1.2m to +£5.7m) and debenture cash (£56.9m to £103.9m) are left off.

Turnover£409.7m → £426.9m+4%

Cost of sales£170.4m → £180.3m+6%

Admin expenses£151.1m → £159.4m+5%

Operating profit£88.2m → £87.2m-1%

Surplus to the LTA£49.9m → £48.1m-3%

Profit before tax£37.1m → £44.8m+21%

Staff costs£31.3m → £33.5m+7%

Year-round staff511 → 523+2%

Spent on the grounds£40.5m → £62.5m+54%

Cash at year end£64.9m → £100.8m+55%

Profit and loss account p19, balance sheet p21, notes 6 and 9, pp34–36; strategic report p4.

Show the figures as a table

Measure	2024/25	2023/24
Turnover	£426.9m	£409.7m
of which debenture premium released	£42.1m	£42.1m
Cost of sales	£180.3m	£170.4m
Administrative expenses	£159.4m	£151.1m
Operating profit	£87.2m	£88.2m
Net finance income/(cost)	£5.7m	(£1.2m)
Championships surplus after facility fees	£53.5m	£55.4m
Net available surplus to the LTA	£48.1m	£49.9m
AELTC's 10% share	£5.3m	£5.5m
Profit before tax	£44.8m	£37.1m
Profit after tax	£39.7m	£36.0m
Staff costs (year-round)	£33.5m	£31.3m
Average year-round staff	523	511
Short-term Championships staff	1,999	1,895
Spent on the grounds	£62.5m	£40.5m
Cash received from debentures	£103.9m	£56.9m
Bank loan drawn at year end	nil	£45.0m
Cash at year end	£100.8m	£64.9m
Net assets	£537.1m	£497.3m

The debenture premium released is from note 20 (p. 46); the surplus figures from the strategic report (p. 4). 2023/24 also had a £50.0m term loan repaid.

Quick answers

Questions about Wimbledon

How does Wimbledon really make its money?

How much of Wimbledon's surplus goes to the LTA?

90%. The Championships 2025 made a surplus of £53.5m after facility fees. £48.1m, the 'net available surplus', goes to LTA Operations Limited and £5.3m, the 10% share set by the 2011 Championships Agreement, stays with the club's Championships company. The surplus is paid in instalments during the following year.

How do Wimbledon debentures work in the accounts?

Debenture holders pay a premium for seats at every Championships in a five-year series, plus a small interest-free nominal amount repaid at the end. The premium is held as deferred income and counted as turnover in equal slices over the five years: £42.1m in 2024/25. Holders paid £103.9m in the year for the 2026-2030 Centre Court and 2027-2031 No.1 Court series.

How many people work for Wimbledon?

An average of 523 year-round staff in 2024/25, costing £33.5m, plus 1,999 on short-term contracts in June and July. Counting contractors, around 5,500 people are employed or engaged at The Championships. The directors were paid nothing.

Who owns Wimbledon?

No one. The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Limited is a members' club limited by guarantee, with no shares and no ultimate controlling party. It owns 100% of the company that runs The Championships, the Ground Company that owns the grounds and issues debentures, and the company that holds the trademarks.

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