Wimbledon receives most funding under Covid events insurance scheme
The Wimbledon tennis tournament has received by far the largest amount of government support from a Covid-19 insurance scheme set up to help live events organisers.
Organisers of live events ranging from music festivals to business conferences and car shows found it impossible last year to find commercial insurance, as insurers balked at the high risk of coronavirus restrictions being reimposed. After months of pleas for help from the events sector, the government intervened in August 2021 to provide reinsurance, in a move the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said would allow events organisers to “plan with confidence”.
However, there are concerns the scheme has fallen short of the £800m in cover that was originally promised. The government has so far only disclosed support worth £109m for 18 entities, one of which was the Ministry of Defence in its running of the RAF Cosford air show, according to state aid disclosures.
By far the biggest disclosed beneficiary was the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Ltd (AELTC), the company that runs the Wimbledon championships and whose board members include the former British tennis stars Tim Henman and Anne Keothavong. It received £77m, more than 70% of the total disclosed. Wimbledon’s organisers had previously won plaudits for taking out commercial pandemic insurance that paid out well over £100m when the tournament was cancelled in 2020.
The second largest beneficiary of the government scheme was the British Phonographic Industry, the music industry lobby group that organises the Brit Awards. It received £9.2m.
The government said it was only obliged to publish details of awards worth more than £500,000, and that more than half the events covered were in the arts or entertainment.
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