A leftover from UK

For me, the most interesting thing about this year’s Wimbledon apart from Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, is the ticket business. It was reported in the UK newspaper, Daily Mail, that because Amelie Mauresmo literally smacked down Mara Santangelo in (slightly!) less than one hour (i.e. 57 minutes), the organizer, The All England Club, lost almost one million pound sterling. That is because, the rule says if you buy a ticket for a game and that one game is finished in less than an hour, your ticket is fully refunded. Fair enough.

And interesting. If only the result could be predicted beforehand, plenty of economic opportunity could have been exploited by Mauresmo and Santangelo and The AE Club – behind watchers’ back. How? AE could ask M and S to play slightly over one hour – 61 minutes will do. In that case, AE does not have to refund tickets. That means, it could save a million pounds. Then, it could share the saved money with Mauresmo and Santangelo.

But sport is no dirty business, you say. Who knows? (I remember back in the days where we read how enraged Don King whenever Myke Tyson knocked out his opponents in the first round. Yes, then boxing business had an answer to this. It provides a whole lot side entertainments before the main course, just in case the latter lasts only 3 minutes).